In the Bay Area, east of San Francisco, the U.S. experiences 27 microclimates. East of Oakland the sun shines brighter. To get there, Clay Center native Becky Hammel takes the Caldecott Tunnel; she calls it the “cold to hot” tunnel, experiencing at least a 20-degree difference over two miles, from the Bay to heat that’s further inland. Topography, ocean currents, and valleys further add to the extreme difference in temperatures. 

In a given day she’ll travel between jobs – golf pro, yoga instructor, golf coach – towns, and multiple layers of weather.

However, big, quick changes are nothing new for Hammel. She’s given birth in three countries, including England and Switzerland; after her junior year of college, she dropped out to move to Europe; and she’s taken up multiple full-contact sports in adulthood. At 45, she earned her LPGA professional status and has launched a career from a lifelong hobby of golf. 

She grew up golfing, saying it was a family pastime and her best bet for spending time with her sister. Then there was the time, at 17, she bet her dad a later curfew if she beat him, and won. 

“Those are the moments,” she said. However, it was a complicated path that got her to where she is today. Starting with a lackluster feeling toward the game. 

“I don’t really like this game I just happen to be decent-plus at it,” she said. Instead, she saw it as a means to an end. 

“Other sports had so much more competition. Plus the true motivation for me: there were 300 guys at this tournament and 30 girls. That was a major carrot to get me going,” she said. “I wanted to explore and I leveraged the game to give me what I wanted, which was to travel. Statistically it was going to give me the most advantage as a female athlete.” 

After graduating, she earned a scholarship to Samford in Birmingham, AL, a private, top-ranked University. Though she played “decent-plus,” it wasn’t up to the standard she had set for herself.

“I had a difficult time separating myself from the game; I thought I am a good person if I perform well, but I didn’t perform to my potential. I was pretty flat and just going through the motions.” 

That’s when she quit golf. This led Hammel to quit the game – and school – after her junior year. (Though she later returned and finished with a biology degree.) 

Then after 17 years of being a stay-at-home-mom, Hammel was amidst a tumultuous divorce and in need of a job. Hammel said she felt defeated and though she was qualified, to employers, she was uncertified. 

Then a visit from her Dad turned it all around with a trip to a golf shop.

“I’m just dragging the clubs behind me; I’m like Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown – I’m dirty, I’m low and I’m just dragging my stupid clubs behind me. I’m angry at the world.” 

That’s when he encouraged her to apply for a job at the golf store. As a part time gig, it got her feet wet and provided confidence along the way. 

“I was kind of begrudging about it, but I start growing a muscle to work outside the house, and it got me back in golf talk.”   

Next, she calls a private girls’ high school about their soon-to-be-launched golf program. Though her heart was set on varsity, Hammel was chosen to front the JV team, which would consist of eight girls, all with varying levels of experience. 

“My ego is huge; that’s why I play golf and jujutsu because it needs to be smashed,” she said. “I’m working on it. But it ended up being for the best because I had no idea what I was doing.” 

Hammel started the program from scratch, saying this was a best-case scenario to do it her way. And in the fall of 2025, the Carondelet Cougars JV golf team went undefeated. 

“I learned that I’m a great coach; I love shepherding those girls. Something awakened in me that I didn’t know I had, being a golf coach.” 

She continued to work in the industry and make new connections through her golf gigs, she said. That meant meeting with parents, learning new drills, and even introducing her nephew to a college coach in the area. After graduating, he’ll be attending a nearby school on a golf scholarship. 

Hammel said an important next step was creating more legitimacy for herself, which meant credentials and “letters after her name.” She’d done the same with yoga, and planned to become a golf pro with the LPGA. She logged classes that taught her how to coach the game and become a more gifted teacher. Today, she said she finds more joy in helping others learn golf than she ever did playing it herself. 

Now with card in hand, she coaches at Elevate Golf Academy and First Tee of contra Costa; Coach Becky provides lessons to both youth and adult players in Oakland – just across the cold-to-hot bridge.

“Golf has opened so many doors for me but it never opened my heart until I started coaching. After 40 years of fighting this game, my love is now genuine. I end up having the best time of my life and I think that’s where God expedited my healing process,” she said. “This is where I belong.”

Pictures: top, Becky Hammel’s headshot from the Carondelet Cougars JV girls’ golf team. Below: she poses with her Dad, Rick Hammel, and sister, Sally Krystyn, as the trio golf.