Mark Wagner
Special to ICT
After playing high-level golf for 20 of her 29 years, Gabby Barker notched her first professional win at Juliette Falls Golf Course in Dunnellon, Florida.
Who was her first call?
“My mom,” Barker says without hesitation. “And then I called my sister.”
Barker, Shoshone-Paiute, won the NXXT Women’s Championship Event on Feb. 4 with a score of one-under-par, a win by four strokes over the next competitors in a field of more than 60 women golfers.
Gabby Barker takes a swing at the AISES Golf Tournament on Feb. 21, 2026, at Papago Golf Club in Phoenix. The event, a scramble, supports Native American students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. Barker’s Team placed second.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Gabby Barker
The golf course, along with the weather, was not typical of Florida at the time of year, but she took it in stride.
“With the wind and cold, if you got out of position it punished you pretty fast, so it turned into a strategy week more than a ball-striking contest,” she said. “My Idaho background helped for sure.”
She’s already looking ahead to the NXXT Women’s Championships at Lake Jovita Golf on March 9-11 in Florida.
Family first
That Barker called her family first after her win is not a surprise. Growing up near the Duck Valley Indian Reservation close to the Idaho–Nevada line, she got encouragement from her parents starting at a young age.
She and her sister, Tyler, both picked up golf. While Tyler played collegiate golf at the University of Wyoming, she is now in the business of sales. . . and cheering for her sister.
“My dad picked golf up as a hobby. Then it turned into getting me and my sister (Tyler) out,” Barker said. “We were fortunate that we had a driving range nearby. We didn’t have the best equipment. I think our first sets were from a second-hand store. But it soon turned into a family thing.”
Her mother, Robin, made different contributions.
“My mom wasn’t a golfer but ran the junior league that I was a part of,” she said. “She eventually became president of the Caldwell Junior Golf Association.”
Golfer Gabby Barker, Shoshone-Paiute, credits support from mentors such as acclaimed golfer Notah Begay III, right, shown here in October 2025, with helping her navigate professional golf. Credit: Photo courtesy of Gabby Barker
She found a string of successes: qualifying for the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, 2012-2014; bagging two Idaho Golf Association Junior Championships; and earning Big 12 Player of the Year honors at Texas Tech University, where she also helped lead her team to two NCAA Championship appearances.
On the Epson Tour, she registered a share of third in the Circling Raven Championship in 2021, and in 2025, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at the Erin Hills Golf Course in Wisconsin.
With her win at the start of this year on the NXXT Tour, she is focused on qualifying for the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour and the U.S. Open again.
“I know what I’m capable of,” she told ICT. “I haven’t reached it yet. That feeling alone keeps me going.”
Mentors matter
Like many Native golfers, Barker has crossed paths with Hall of Fame teacher Jason Montoya, a PGA professional at Santa Ana Pueblo. The two met about 2015 while in the role of ambassadors in the N7 Program run by Nike.
Since then, Montoya has taught and mentored many standout Native golfers, including Skyler Woods, Aidan Thomas, Beans Factor and Maddison Long.
Golfer Gabby Barker, Shoshone-Paiute, teamed up with Jay Garcia, right, chairman of the Santa Ana Golf Corporation, and two other golfers for the AISES Golf Tournament on Feb. 21, 2026, at Papago Golf Club in Phoenix. Their team, which placed second, also included PGA professional Jason Montoya and Joey Sanchez, vice chairman of the Santa Ana Golf Corporation. Credit: Photo courtesy of Gabby Barker
When asked about Barker’s win, Montoya told ICT, “Gabby is the true meaning of perseverance. It is a great honor to call her a friend. … She displays amazing talent and with that she will reach her ultimate goals. I see many great things coming. She has also been a great inspiration to all Native American young athletes.”
Barker also connected with another key figure in Native American golf while studying at Texas Tech, when she was having a great season in 2015-2016 under the tutelage of Coach JoJo Robinson.
Turns out, acclaimed Navajo golfer Notah Begay lll was friendly with Coach Robinson – they were both from Albuquerque and grew up playing together.
“He was talking to JoJo,” Barker said, “and coach says, ‘Yeah, she’s really good. Up there on the leaderboard in D1 golf.’”
Begay scrolled through the rankings but couldn’t find her name.
“He was checking to see where I was ranked,” Barker said with a laugh. “He kept scrolling down. He couldn’t find me. Then he decided to scroll up. Yeah, he found me.”
Boom. Barker was ranked #1 in the country, and the networking between Begay and Robinson became a friendship and mentorship as she transitioned to professional golf.
“So many things are supposed to be there,” Barker said. “Notah knew my coach and became my mentor. I’m so fortunate that he can show me the ropes.”
The transition from the team sport of collegiate golf to the lonely, fishbowl life of professional golf is not easy.
“I didn’t know anything – how to book flights, how to get sponsors,” she said. “Professional golf is a job. Notah was trying to teach me how to do a job, the business side of it. That is where he guided me. He has benefitted me as a person and a golfer.”
Begay, a four-time winner on the PGA tour, continues to play a role in Barker’s career.
“Gabby’s recent win is a testament to her hard work and perseverance,” he told ICT after her recent win. “A player’s first professional win will always be a special memory! It sets the stage for a successful 2026.”
Another golfer rooting for Barker is Renee Powell, one of the first women of color to win on the professional tour, in 1973. She also knows how hard it is to win at this level.
“You have the top competitors from all over, not just the United States,” Powell told ICT. “So you are literally beating the best in the world. And they are all out there working hard to get better.”
What’s changed to enable her to reach the top?
“My game has always been good enough physically, but learning when not to attack has probably been the biggest difference,” Barker said. “I’m finally playing golf instead of fighting it. I used to think great golf meant perfect golf, but now I just manage mistakes better.”
Not just about sport
Barker is particularly touched by the Native connection to golf, a notoriously difficult game with a rich history. Native American culture has had many great players through history, beginning with Oscar Smith Bunn, Shinnecock, at the 1896 U.S. Open and carrying through Orville Moody, Choctaw, who won the 1969 U.S. Open and Rod Curl, Wintu, who bagged The Colonial in 1974, with a one-shot victory over Jack Nicklaus.
More recently, Native Americans have begun to play a larger role in the game by designing and building first-rate courses, beginning with Inn of the Mountain Gods, a course created by the Mescalero Apaches in 1975.
More than 70 tribes, nations and councils have developed courses and resorts, and many have begun to host championships.
“I love taking pictures,” Barker said. “And when it’s on Native land it’s so cool. When I play on the tour sometimes, we have tournaments that are Native-run, on Native-owned courses. Our cultures are being shared with people from all over the world.”
She notes that before some pro-ams or tournaments start, tribal leaders bless the course.
“Our rituals are including people from the outside world in our traditions,” she said. “I can go to Michigan, to Idaho, to Nevada. Golf has become a way to experience Native culture through a different lens that is Native-owned and supported. It’s super beautiful.”
Did her win at NXXT bring on a celebration? Not necessarily.
“I was happy, but it felt more like relief and validation than celebration,” she said. “A good dinner and then back to work the next day. Pro golf doesn’t really let you [revel] in it very long.”
Mark Wagner is a golf historian and the founding director of the Binienda Center for Civic Engagement at Worcester State University in Massachusetts. His book, “Native Links, the Surprising History of Our First People in Golf,” was published in 2024 and is available from Back Nine Pressand Amazon. He can be reached at markgwagner@charter.net.
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