Trey Rudolph has been around the game of golf his entire life.

The Missouri Military Academy cadet became the school’s first golf signing when he made it official in a ceremony on Friday at Barnard Hall in Mexico that he is going to play at Kansas Wesleyan. Rudolph played all four years of his high school career.

However, Rudolph’s history with golf goes back much further than that. He said he has been playing since was two or three years old and has spent much time at golf courses with his professional golfing father, Jason. Other than a break from the game in middle school to play football and an injury during sophomore year, Rudolph has stayed with it.

“On Presidents Day weekend my freshman year, I went home for open weekend and I ended up getting the golf clubs out of the garage of his old set when he went on tour,” Rudolph said. “I brought those to the first practice.”

Rudolph humorously recalls borrowing his father’s clubs again during spring break that same year only, this time, he misunderstood his father’s words. He borrowed them “to take back with you” instead of to “go hit with.”

In November, Rudolph said he received an email from one of the Kansas Wesleyan coaches showing interest in his skills. Rudolph visited the campus and thought that was a good fit for him, especially since the school had a good criminal justice program, and “committed on the spot.”

His upcoming senior season is set to be Rudolph’s true healthy season since freshman year, MMA head coach Anthony Yannielli said, so he believes Rudolph has what it takes to be better and do well in college. Yannielli added it’s special whenever he has cadets that are with him for four years since it is a military boarding school and Rudolph and Cooper Johnston will be his first four-year players.

“He has always been in the middle when it comes to varsity and JV,” MMA head coach Anthony Yannielli said. “Now, I think he finally has the tools to become part of the upper echelon of the team.”

Yannielli said Rudolph’s father did “a majority of the work” with his game but has helped Rudolph grow into a much better player. The area of improvement that comes to mind immediately for both Yannielli and Rudolph is chipping.

“He needed to work on not going back and forth from the green,” Yannielli said. “His main focus was the 100 yards and in, where your most important aspect of your golf game is. That’s where people lose those strokes that ultimately you need to not mess up so you can start winning and medaling.”

When he was injured, Rudolph said he would sit on the putting green and practice his chipping there while everybody else was playing at tournaments. He said much of his mental game improved too while riding with Yannielli and seeing the game and situations from a different perspective.

Rudolph greatly values the perspective of his father and his professional golfing background. He said his father played on tours in California and worked at Torrey Pines Golf Course since he was born in San Diego. Fast forward to 2018, Rudolph said he and his father went to the PGA championship and he was able to meet Tiger Woods through his father’s connections. To this day, his retired army father, who lives in Kansas City, still is in the golfing world fitting clubs for Cobra Puma golf.

“He can help me out a lot,” Rudolph said. “Say I have a putter that’s not working too well for me one week and I know I’ve been hitting another putter better in previous weeks and previous months. He’s like, ‘Let’s go back to the garage’ and we switch out whatever club I have.”

Rudolph said his mother, Tami, says she doesn’t “have a garage anymore, I have a golf store.” During Presidents Day weekend, Rudolph said he brought a cadet with him to his house, and his fellow cadet was “dumbfounded” when the garage was opened.

The plan for spring break for the Rudolph’s will be going to the course “almost every day” so Rudolph can be coached by his father and ask him questions. As for further in the future, Rudolph would like to reach new heights and wants to absorb as much as he can from his father.

“I'm constantly asking him questions and am constantly on the phone with him figuring out mental accountability and perseverance with hitting a bad shot and then going on to the next one,” Rudolph said.