If there's one word that can be consistently heard about women's golfer Katie Futcher, it's consistency.

"[Futcher] had a consistent tournament," said Penn State women's golf coach Denise St. Pierre.

The coach said this after the very first match this spring, and seemingly every one since. In fact, Futcher's game can be described by the word consistency. She has consistently posted strong scores, consistently helped her teammates out, and has consistently gotten better.

St. Pierre said that Futcher is rewriting most of the women's golf records at Penn State. So it might come as a surprise that golf wasn't her first love.

Futcher is a senior majoring in nutrition in her last season with Penn State. However, when she was younger, swimming and basketball took the front seat in her athletic endeavors, but after tearing both rotator cuffs her swimming career was put on hold indefinitely.

That was when golf entered the picture, and she credits her father for her interest in the game. It was a way for them to spend more time together, which was something that just added to the lure of the game for Futcher.

Futcher, who is from The Woodlands, Texas, took the game of golf by storm while in high school, where she played at The Woodlands High School. Among her list of high school achievements is a Texas state high school championship and multiple other junior honors.

With her high school career coming to a close, Futcher began looking toward college. She wanted to balance her athletic routine with her academic studies. Like most young people, she knew she wanted to get away from her home, and away from the south, in general.

She couldn't get much farther from the Texan seasons of hot and hotter than the Pennsylvanian "spring," which could include temperatures in the 70s on Monday and snow on Friday. However, she was already aware of this weather quirk because of her many visits to her grandparents' home in the area. For her, the weather is a plus.

After looking into Penn State some more she found that it offered a strong educational foundation for her nutrition studies, which just strengthened the school's appeal.

"The one thing that really got me was the education," Futcher said.

The Lone Star State's loss turned out to be the Keystone State's gain.

Futcher has played in every tournament since her freshman year, continually playing strongly for the Lions. During all three of her previous years, she has had the team-best shot average, and it has only gotten better. When she was a freshman she averaged a 78, 76 when she was a sophomore, and then 74 during her junior year. She credits a multitude of reasons for her improvement, including better practicing habits and a change in mentality.

"A lot of it has been attributed to a change in the way I think," Futcher said. "I had a revelation, actually, when Mike Carter died."

Michael Carter, a former member of the Penn State men's golf team, died in an automobile accident on Feb. 13, 2002.

"I started thinking that golf should be fun," she said. "So, I just started going out and playing one round at a time, one shot at a time."

She also gave credit to the sports psychologists on the campus, including David Yukelson, as well as St. Pierre.

"She helped me out a great deal. Denise does a really good job of helping you feel the shot, helping you visualize the shot," she said. "I think I get so mechanical on the course, and Denise really helped me become not mechanical, and just focus on the feel, which is so important in golf."

Futcher's impact also reaches out to the younger players. Freshman Betsy Houseman recalls Futcher's determination and love of the game.

"She has this wealth of knowledge for someone her age," Houseman said. "She would say, 'Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.' "

Meanwhile, sophomore Lauren Lundy said she loves to play with Futcher because of her discipline and focused play.

"She really has places she wants to go," Lundy said. "And she won't let anything stop her."

So what does the future hold for Futcher now during her last semester of eligibility? After an internship, she is hoping to qualify for the professional women's golf tour.

"I definitely want to try to play after school on tour," Futcher said. "It just depends on how I feel my progress is going after the internship, how much I feel I need to improve, and then I'm definitely going to go out and try."

If her Penn State career is any indication of how well she can play, then not much improvement is going to be needed, if she remains consistent.