It started with a simple gift from a father. Ray Fish gave both his daughters a seven-iron golf club on their seventh birthdays. It just so happened that when Ray gave Cayley and Katie their clubs, on the same day, he gave them yet another avenue to be identical in.
The Fish sisters, Cayley and Katie, are juniors on Montana State University Billings' women's golf team. They are identical twins, have identical grade point averages, have identical taste in music, and have nearly identical career scoring averages on the course. But, if you ask them, they couldn't be more different.
"I don't think we look alike," Cayley said with a laugh. "Katie has a fat face, while mine is longer. Oh yeah, and I have dimples."
Smiling, Katie agreed. "I'd have to say my face is rounder. The thing that bugs me is people notice that she is an eighth of an inch taller than me. But, I think I am tanner than her."
I couldn't help but laugh at their answers. I've been trying to find a difference between them for a year, and have yet to find one. When asked to send a photo of one to media, I play eenie-meenie and just pick one … I have yet to be corrected. I asked them to differentiate themselves in some way at the beginning of the season for pictures at the course. They said Katie always wears black cleats. So Round 1 of the first tournament, they both had on white shoes.
"Katie really blew that one," Cayley said. "Maybe she was trying to be like me again."
Cayley actually had the better start in her collegiate golf career being named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in 2011-12. As a freshman, she finished the season with an 81.9 average, with three top 10 finishes. In her 19 rounds as a freshman, Katie had an 83.7 average with one top 10 finish.
Last season, Katie led the Yellowjackets with an 83.7 average, with three top 10 finishes. Cayley also finished in the top 10 three times, but shot an 84.7 average. Their averages were seventh and ninth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Both were named Second Team All-Conference.
Katie is off to a fast start in her junior season. She finished second for the second time in her collegiate career at the Yellowjacket FallÂ
 nvitational to open the 2013-14 season. Her 152 two-round total is third all-time in program history. Her 78.9 scoring average is currently fourth in the GNAC and leads the team.
Just how close are Cayley and Katie's current collegiate career scoring averages? After 44 rounds of golf, just 0.19 separate them. Katie is at an 82.70 stroke average, while Cayley is 82.19.
The Fish sisters' talents do not end on the course. The duo was named Academic All-Conference last year with 4.00 grade point averages, the best of any women's student-athletes in the entire conference on the list.
That's nothing new to the two, they were both Academic All-State with 4.00 GPA's at Great Falls' Charles M. Russell High School. Both were in the National Honor Society as well. It wasn't until college when they received their first "B" in school. When I asked if they've ever received anything lower than a "B", I might have well of asked if they ever grew a third eye.
"Oh no, no way," Cayley said. "We'd be in so much trouble."
Making sure that I knew the whole story of the infamous "B", the sisters did not hesitate to let me in on the lowdown. "Okay, so here's what happened," Katie said. "Well, we had all of our tests and work, and there was no way I had a "B". But, there was some mistake since Cayley's name comes first on the attendance and on grade sheets and she got my "A" grade I think, and I got hers."
There was no argument from Cayley, just an innocent grin. Call it karma, but the next semester Cayley received her first "B".
"It's tough to say who is smarter," Cayley said. "I think Katie has more book smarts. Things just come a little easier for her in school, where I have to work a little more."
Katie said things are a little different on the course, "She picked the game up faster than I did. It took until our sophomore year of high school, where she wasn't beating me by a considerable amount. But, just as I caught up, she started beating me again to start college. I think I'm catching her again."
While in high school, the Fish sisters helped CMR win the state title in 2008 and 2010, with a runner-up finish sandwiched in-between. Cayley finished third at the state championships during her senior season.
"Cayley and Katie have been an absolute joy to have on our team," MSUB Head Coach
Shawn O'Brien said. "They are two of the most polite, fun, and studious ladies I have ever known. They are both so consistent, and reliable on the golf course. On the course, it has been very fun to get to know both of them. Many people say it is hard to tell them apart, and at first it was; now I just laugh because it is easy to tell them apart after spending so much time with them. We are blessed to have playing for us."
Cayley and Katie are two of the shyest and most humble student-athletes I have come across, but I had to ask the usual questions you ask twins. The answers surprised me.
"Once you get to know us, you'll see we have different personalities," Cayley said. "We both have a lot of the same interests, but our personalities are different."
"I think Cayley is more of a follower," Katie said. "I'm the one that just does my own thing." Cayley agreed with a laugh. "(Katie) will let you know if she is annoyed, but I'll just kind of go with the flow with the rest of the group."
They both say math is their favorite school subject, while english and history are their least favorite. Both say country music is easily their favorite, they like the same T.V. shows, but they're not really movie watchers. I was surprised by their next agreement.
"I'm more of a Nascar fan, but Cayley loves super-cross," Katie said.
"I love moto-cross," Cayley said. "We just ride though. Our Mom would never let us race."
Fun fact about the sisters for your next trivia night, Katie uses a No. 17 Matt Kenseth ball-marker, while Cayley goes with Kevin Harvick's No. 29. "It makes it easy to know it's our ball-markers when we're in tournaments," Cayley said. Katie reassured me that she knows Kenseth has switched to No. 18, but she still has his No. 17 marker.
The Fish sisters also let me know they never used their identical looks for any gain in school or on the course by cheating, but for how polite the Fish sisters are, they are not completely innocent in the matter.
"Well, we tried switching once at a job, but it didn't go well," Katie said. "I wanted to spend one more day with my boyfriend, and I told Cayley I'd pay her to cover my shift at work. Something happened when I called her, or she called me, and she said 'Hi Katie' when she was supposed to be me. I don't think our boss cared, but it bothered one of the guys we worked with."
"I think he just wanted to be part of the trick," Cayley said. "We did the same thing at the job, so it wasn't completely foreign to me. We basically just switched shifts. We almost pulled it off."
While it seems they couldn't be more alike, this is the first year that they have lived together in college.
"We're actually better when it's just one-on-one stuff," Cayley said. "We kind of do our own thing. We're definitely not like attached at the hip."
"We haven't killed each other yet living together," Katie said. "Our freshman year, Cayley lived in Petro, while I lived in Rimrock. I think that first year apart really helped us. We just started getting along a lot better. With the same classes and golf, we were always together. In high school we never did anything without each other."
Cayley and Katie started as biology majors, but the labs often conflicted with practice. So, the two took their passion for math and went with it as their new majors. The duo hopes to pursue careers in accounting or anything in stocks, yet another thing they have in common.
While I was talking to the sisters, Katie had on glasses, while Cayley did not. I said that it worked well to differentiate the two, but Katie let me know it was just not an updated prescription. Maybe it's not important that we tell them apart, maybe we should just enjoy the time we have with these incredibly special young women at Montana State Billings.
