Two sisters who got into golf in an unexpected way are set to compete in the PGA Works Collegiate Championship

Marvin Hall had an idea. It was 2009, and a doctor had advised him that his daughters, Hope and Alana, needed an activity to help their development. The girls, ages 4 and 2 at the time, were healthy but both had been born prematurely, each weighing less than a pound and a half at birth. They were so small that Marvin could fit his wedding ring on the girls’ tiny legs.

In toddlerhood, their fine motor skills were lagging behind. And that’s when golf came to mind. Marvin and his wife, Pamela, were both college athletes, although not golfers. But they knew people who played, and thought golf seemed like the perfect way for their young daughters to catch up to their peers.

In short order, Marvin got his girls set up with equipment and lessons. When they were 6 years old and eligible for U.S. Kids Golf tournaments, they started competing. By middle school, Hope and Alana had left the other sports they played behind to spend more time at the course. They give each other a hard time, insinuating that perhaps they chose golf because it’s the sport they were best at. But the two really just loved being on the golf course, together, playing.

Hope and Alana Hall took to golf at an early age. (Photo courtesy of the Hall Family)

That love will be on display next week at The Park in West Palm Beach, Fla., where the now college golfers, Hope a senior at Dartmouth , Alana a sophomore at Lehigh , will be competing as individuals in the PGA Works Collegiate Championship , held May 4-6. It’s a tournament, created in 1986 and run now by the PGA of America, to provide competitive golf opportunities for minority collegiate golfers.

The Halls were lucky to grow up at a course that was generous towards junior golfers. Osprey Point Golf Club in Boca Raton, Fla., let the juniors hang around the course all day, every day.

“The golf course gave us free rein to just be out there,” Alana said. “There would be like 10 of us out there every day in the summers from like 8 a.m. to whenever they would kick us off the golf course.”

Alana Hall recently posted a top-10 finish in the Patriot League Championship. (Photo by Peter Ewen; courtesy of Lehigh)

Their days were filled with putting contests and nine-hole matches, often with French fries on the line for the winner. They had the freedom to be creative, and each other to make it fun.

“That was actually my biggest adjustment when I got to college, practicing with people who weren't Alana, and even practicing alone,” Hope said.

Hope became the first Black female golfer at the Ivy League school in 40 years when she arrived on Dartmouth's campus in fall 2022. Currently, she’s the only Black female golfer competing in the league, with four top-15 finishes this season, including a T-14 at the Ivy League Championship.

The siblings share an Instagram account ( @thehallgirlzgolf ), showing their lives in golf. They’re hopeful young girls come across it and see that they, too, can play college golf.

“I think social media has helped people feel a little less alone,” Hope says.

“Golf is really male-centered, so it's important to have female, I guess, role models,” Alana says, before becoming modest and wondering if she should, in fact, call herself a role model. Considering Hope and Alana are majoring in Biological Engineering and Civil Engineering, respectively, as they play Division I golf, the moniker “role model” certainly feels fitting.

Twenty years ago, right around when Hope and Alana were born, the National Golf Foundation found that People of Color made up just 6 percent of all junior golfers. That’s in line with the experiences the Hall sisters had growing up playing junior golf.

“When I was younger, there were very few black golfers, there were very few underrepresented minorities in golf,” Hope recalls. “Anywhere I'd go, I would leave the state and I still wouldn't find anybody.”

But that is starting to change. In 2025, the NGF found that the number of junior golfers of color is up to 26 percent. There is more work to be done, but the game is trending in the right direction. The sisters feel that having more programming for kids from underrepresented communities, not just beginners but also kids progressing in the game, is the key to continuing to grow that number. Both Alana and Hope played in Steph Curry’s Underrated Golf Tour, for example, which offers a competitive tour for junior golfers from diverse backgrounds.

The PGA Works Collegiate Championship is another example. The tournament was created by the National Negro Association to give Historically Black Colleges and Universities a postseason championship. Forty years since its inception, the event give students from HBCUs and college golfers from diverse backgrounds not only the opportunity to play a compete, but also to network. Participants attend PGA Works Beyond the Green, where the students make connections with people in the golf industry and get a sense for what a career in golf can be like.

“I didn't get into it last year,” said Alana, who most recently had a T-9 finish in the Patriot League Championship, her best showing of the 2025-26 season, “So for me, that shows what I've been working towards, the type of work I've put in for myself. I'm also just excited to play,” Alana says.

Recently, the Hall family moved from Florida to Texas. One of their first times out at their new course, a woman came up to them saying her daughter followed them on Instagram and loved seeing herself in these two competitive women golfers of color. Alana was surprised. She hadn’t thought about the reach of their Instagram. That a young girl, in a state that she had never been to before, could be watching her and be inspired by her.

There are likely to be more moments like that for the Hall sisters in the future, as they’re going to be on TV soon. Each round of the PWCC will be broadcast live on Golf Channel from 4 to 7 p.m. ET.

“I think that visibility is always important,” Hope said. “I think it can mean a lot to someone to see us, in a sport where there's not that many black people, that many black women.”