I've long since come to grips with the fact that being a sports writer isn’t going to bring me fame, and certainly not fortune, as I have worked my way through a series of small-town newspapers.

But there are times when the pride of doing what I do gets rewarded by someone I have covered achieving a level of success.

Such a time came about these last three weekends in the form of a player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour.

Unless you are really into pro golf, more so women’s pro golf, it’s likely you’re not familiar with the name Ariya Jutanugarn — but I am.

The 20-year-old from Bangkok, Thailand, has been on the pro tour since 2013 and has been recognized in some circles as a great, though yet unrealized, talent.

Well, Ariya got her first LPGA win three weeks ago, and followed that up with two more tournament wins in the ensuing two weeks.

The first tour member in history to have followed up her first-ever win with two more consecutively.

I had the chance to cover Ariya when she was 16, along with her then 17-year-old sister Moriya, at the annual Harder Hall Invitational in Sebring, Florida, when I was writing for the News-Sun, in that same town.

The Harder Hall is a 61-year-old tournament for the top female amateurs, who generally come from the top collegiate golf programs around the country, but also sees players from around the world.

Semi recent winners of the invite, whose names you might recognize, include Natalie Gulbis, Brittany Lincicome, Morgan Pressel and Stacy Lewis.

Those were from the early 2000s, and preceded my time there, but I have had the good fortune to have covered and interviewed, in recent years, the likes of Lexi Thompson, who would later petition for membership in the LPGA before she turned 18, and Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s niece who played at Wake Forest and is in her second year on the tour.

And it was in January of 2012 when the Jutanugarn sisters were in the final grouping of the Harder Hall, along with then 15-year-old Charley Hull from England.

Hull, by the way, turned pro on the Ladies European Tour one year later, and joined the LPGA last year and is currently ranked 15th.

I took the opportunity to interview each of them heading into the final round, and did a follow up with Hull after she came away with the win.

After Ariya and Moriya finished second and third, I had more of a casual chat with them after the tournament and wished them well on their next outing, which was the next week at another Florida locale.

They asked, almost in unison, if I would be going to cover them at that tournament as well, to which I replied I couldn’t, as I was with the local paper and that was out of our territory.

I remembered that exchange when I watched the final round of Ariya’s latest win, at the Volvik Championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

It is a matter of pride, I guess, or to put it another way, it’s just pretty dang cool.

It was just a crossing of paths, with most of the interview having had to be translated by Moriya, but it is pretty great to see someone I once covered and chatted with now at the top of a professional sport.

A vicarious dose of glory.