Dallas Hankamer said he picked up a golf club for the first time when he was just 5 years old.
Golf has dominated as a sport throughout Hankamer’s life — his two older brothers, Dalton and Dane Hankamer, played collegiate golf and his maternal grandfather, Ed Moehling, played in the PGA circuit. The Belton native really honed in on a golf career beginning in high school in 2017. He signed onto the Texas A&M men’s golf team in 2020.
Dallas was ranked No. 35 by Junior Golf Scoreboard coming into A&M, according to 12thMan.com.
“[With] having the confidence that I know that I could compete at this level, I couldn’t wait to get here, to be honest,” Dallas said.
Moehling, Dallas’ grandfather, played on the PGA Tour from 1963 to 1972 and played in some events in the 1980s, according to Geni.com. While Dallas said he didn’t really get to meet him, his grandfather is still his biggest role model to this day.
“I’ve heard a lot of great things about him,” Dallas said. “He gave me my first set of clubs.”
All through his childhood, Dallas said he and his brothers were active in sports. Dallas’ family lived by the golf course growing up and played together often despite their age difference, with Dalton and Dane being five and six years older than Dallas, respectively. Dalton said some of his best memories were made on the golf course as a kid.
“It’s like a happy place,” Dalton said. “Going out there in the evenings when the sun was setting and just being kids and hitting balls.”
As the holidays approach Dane, who played collegiate golf at the Air Force Academy, said the memories he is most fond of are around Christmas time. Each year, all three brothers and several cousins play in the Hankamer Cup. Depending on who’s in town for Christmas, it’s either a two-versus-two match or a three-versus-three match.
“I have some really good memories on that course, with some tight matches coming down to the wire,” Dane said. “Now Dallas has joined us a lot more often.”
The Hankamer brothers didn’t always just focus on golf, though. They all loved basketball. Dallas said that he had to make a tough decision his freshman year of high school on what sport he was going to focus on for the rest of his career: Basketball or golf. He said he evaluated what his abilities were in each sport and assessed what he could do with golf as opposed to what he could do with basketball.
“I still like to play basketball with some of the guys on the team,” Dallas said. “Sometimes we go to the rec.”
Even though all three brothers decided to pursue golf, Dane said their free time together revolves a lot around sports and being outside.
“We always love watching football and throwing the football,” Dane said. “We’ll even play tennis every now and then; a lot of sports-related stuff. We also like to gamble among each other as well, especially on football games and such.”
The sport management major, passionate about golf and family, credits a big piece of his decision to play golf to his older brothers. Dalton, who played collegiate golf at the University of San Diego and at Texas State University, said golf is what brought them so close together as brothers. He added he had no idea he and Dane influenced Dallas’ decision to play golf full-time.
“It makes me feel great,” Dalton said. “It’s kind of the footsteps that I followed from my older brother, so it’s cool that we both had that impact on him.”
Christina Hankamer — Dallas, Dalton and Dane’s mother — said she has always been Dallas’ biggest cheerleader. The neurology technologist has been in the medical field for nine years and noted that, while it’s a stressful job, she feels like she is making a difference in the world.
“Even if they’re having a bad round of golf, it’s nothing as bad as some things I see in the hospital,” Christina said. “I remind them that they’re blessed to be able to be out there doing something you love and to have your health.”
It was hard to juggle all of the different sports her boys were playing, Christina said, and it was trying to work around schedules, but she is proud of the adults they have grown into.
“I always tell them, ‘Never forget where your talents came from,’” Christina said. “Always use that to His glory.”
The fall 2022 Texas A&M men’s golf season wrapped up on a high note in late October with an eighth-place finish in Georgia. Since Dallas has been at A&M, he has played in five tournaments. He tied for third at 10-under at the Washington County Individual his freshman year and tied for first with an even and 1-under-par round at the Badger Individual this fall.
“I think we have a really good team this year, and we could do some things in the spring,” Dallas said.
Parker Hurley is a journalism junior and contributed this piece from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.