Deby Shelton can fondly remember the time her son, Robby Shelton, picked up his first set of golf clubs. She knew that it was one of the biggest moments of his life, even though he was only 4 years old at the time.
“His dad bought him a set of clubs when he was four-years old, on his birthday,” Deby Shelton said. “He just got Robby into it, letting him look at this tape that came with the set of clubs. The tape was called T-Rex Titleist. He watched it and then he started hitting [the] ball. We put him in a clinic three months before he turned five. The pro there said, ‘Would you like to put him in a tournament?’ and we were just like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ So we went ahead and called the lady they told us to call and we took him to Fair Hope, Alabama, and he was in his first Jimmy Green. He was like 10 under. And like I said, he was almost five.”
Shelton grew up in the small town of Wilmer, Alabama, right outside of Mobile. From the first time he swung a club, everyone could see that golf was his sport. He dabbled with baseball during his adolescence but at the age of 10, Robby Shelton decided golf was where he belonged.
Now, nine years later, Shelton is part of the starting lineup for the Alabama men’s golf team. He also was part of the 2014 National Championship team, helping seal the deal by hitting six birdies and three straight in the last seven holes.
Even though he’s a sophomore, he has experienced success. Shelton was the No. 1 ranked junior golfer in 2012. He won the 2012 Junior PGA Championship. He was named the 2014 Phil Mickelson Award winner. The award recognizes Division I men’s golf’s best freshman, but it doesn’t faze him. Shelton said it has been the experience that has helped him grow as a player.
“I’ve matured a lot and I can play my game on the course a lot better than I could when I came in as a freshman,” he said. “My golf game is fine, it’s just all mental.”
Shelton averages 70.33 during the course of a tournament, usually coming in 4-under-par. He’s the second-most experienced player on the team this season, right behind junior Tom Lovelady. Coach Jay Seawell said Shelton has been working on his leadership this season.
“He’s still a young man, he just turned 19-years old,” Seawell said. “He’s a leader so he’s having to work on leadership. He’s no longer just a guy, a little freshman that gets to play at the back end of a great team. He’s now our best player and there’s responsibility that comes with that.”
The sophomore may have stepped up as a leader this season, but he learned a lot from his teammates last season who were with him during the NCAA championship. Looking up to star-athletes like Cory Whitsett, Bobby Wyatt and Trey Mullinax helped the then freshman adjust to playing for a Division I team.
“The main thing [I learned] is how hard they worked,” Shelton said. “They are great guys and they just trained me great. And I just fit right in with them. I saw how hard they worked on and off the course was really real. I saw that they did that so I wanted to do the same, just to be on the team with them.”
Seawell said Shelton has taken the skills he learned from last season and has used them to help this team. Although he has more experience than most of his team, he’s still one of the younger players. Despite the lack of experience for most of the starting lineup, there are no doubts from Robby Shelton.
“It’s a young team with a lot of work to do for sure,” Shelton said. “But we’ll be fine. I can tell we’ll be really good in the spring and next year.”
Shelton and the Crimson Tide will compete at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate in Birmingham starting Monday.
