Kelli Shean was born in Cape Town to Stephen and Dianne. Kelli is deaf and even with a hearing apparatus has only 10% hearing ability. She started playing golf at the Westlake Golf Club in 2001 and had a successful amateur career before winning a golf scholarship in 2007 to the University of Arkansas, where she graduated in 2011. In 2006 she won the World Amateur Championship with teammates Ashleigh Simon and Stacy Bregman. Her first collegiate win was in 2009 at Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational in Kansas. Kelli participated in her first LPGA event in September 2009 as an amateur. The 2010 US Women's Open at Oakmont in Pennsylvania saw her placing 65th, after leading the majority of the first round. Kelli was one of the students at Ernie Els' Foundation in Fancourt. She married Chandler Rackley of Little Rock, Arkansas, in May 2011. She is currently an instructor at The First Tee in Little Rock. Chandler was her part-time caddy. They met at University and he proposed to her on Thanksgiving Day in 2010 on a golf course - the ring was in the 18th hole and up on the leader board was a sign saying "Would you marry me?" Chandler is now a chartered accountant and has a commercial pilot’s licence.
