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Albuquerque’s Katie Kempter says now that she’s achieved her dream of qualifying to play on the LPGA Tour, “The dream just got bigger.”

Headed home for the holidays after winning the Hawaii State Open, Kempter said in a phone interview from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor that now that she’s won her 2010 LPGA Tour card – which grants her eligibility to at least 13 of 24 Tour events – “the next goal now is to get into the Top 50 on the money list.”

“I want to set my sights high and be good enough in six years to play in the 2016 Olympics,” Kempter said.

As she stood on the first tee on Day One of the LPGA Q School in Daytona Beach, Fla., earlier this month, she sensed something was different. “I wasn’t nervous, or at least I wasn’t as nervous as I expected,” she said.

Repeated rain delays at the LPGA International didn’t faze her. Kempter credits her caddie and long-time friend and mentor, Arroyo del Oso Golf Course Head Professional Bill Harvey, with keeping her loose.

“When the Saturday event was cancelled because of rain, we drove 50 miles north to play nine holes, and I think that was the key to my playing well the next day,” Kempter said. “It was like playing with him at home and being relaxed. It really was like being home.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Kempter covered a lot of ground.

On winning in Hawaii last weekend on the second hole of sudden death: “Britney (Choy) was great on the bag. When she missed the cut for the final day, she said he’d caddie for me and I said, ‘Are you serious,’ and she said, ‘Yeah.’ We laughed and talked.” Choy, a senior on the University of New Mexico Lobo Women’s Golf Team and a Hawaii native, knew the Turtle Bay Resort course. The two stayed at Choy’s parents’ house and hung out together before the tournament, “eating, lots of eating, including poi and Poke (a Hawaiian raw fish dish) and fish with the heads on them. Her parents were surprised I liked this stuff. They said, ‘Nobody likes this stuff.’”

On the final day at the rain-delayed Q School, after Harvey had to leave because of commitments back in New Mexico, and their decision to have her father, Chris Kempter, loop for her: “I said, ‘Dad, just keep talking to me, about anything.’ It keeps my mind off how I’m playing and forces me to step up and make the shot. Bill had told my dad to keep talking to me, and he did, but at one point walking off a green, I said, ‘Dad, say something, talk to me,’ and he said, ‘I don’t know what to say,’ and I said, ‘Say anything!’ As long as I have someone on the bag who knows me and my game, and can talk about anything, golf talk, anything, I stay loose.’

On Dad’s performance on the bag: “I was worried he’d be really nervous and he did drop the towel a few times, but that was it. He did great. Bill said he didn’t want to leave me there alone. I said, ‘I’m OK with you going.’ He said, ‘I’m not OK leaving.’ I said, ‘I’m worried about my dad being nervous,’ and Bill said, ‘Don’t worry about your dad, worry about yourself. Just go out there and play golf.’ He wrote a note and left it in my bag and I found it Monday. He wrote, ‘Everything happens for a reason, and Dad carrying for you on the final day is a good thing because he’ll be the first to give you a big hug on the 18th green.’ It choked me up. Dad did great and when we holed out for birdie on 18, I could see he had tears in his eyes.”

On that final round: “The whole day, it was all about just keep playing golf. The atmosphere in our group was that we had to go low, because lots of people were likely to go low because it was ‘lift clean and place’ in the fairways because they were so wet. So we were like 7 under as a group and we just focused on going lower because we didn’t have any idea of where we stood and were worried we weren’t low enough.

On the 18th green they had a leaderboard and I didn’t look at it until I holed out for birdie and saw I was tied for first, but then they said Amanda (Blumenhurst) had just birdied 17, which put her in first place, and I just knew there was no way she was going to bogey 18.”

On equipment: “I love my Callaway irons and my Titleist driver and putter, but I have to get new irons because of the groove rule, and the question is whether I will have to play all 14 clubs from one manufacturer or whether they’ll let me keep my driver and putter.”

On her first LPGA event: the J Golf Classic, March 25 at La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif. It’s the third event of the year. The LPGA Tour’s first two events are overseas.

On immediate plans for 2010, she told LPGA.com: “I’m going to spend the New Year with my awesome roommates in Denver. I’m sure we will toast ‘The Card.’ But we plan on making dinner and just having a good time.”

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