Tennis Staff
Tommy Dixon
Stephen Walker
Kirstie Marx
Tommy Dixon, our General Manager and Tennis Director has been associated with Kildaire since 1981. Tommy is a 1976 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill where he won six Atlantic Coast individual titles, four consecutive team championships, and played on four teams ranked in the top fifteen nationally. He has been a teaching professional since 1977 and works with players of all levels and abilities. IN January 2007, Tommy was inducted into the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame at Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Kirstie Marx
Stephen Walker
Kirstie Marx
Kirstie Marx, Director of Junior Tennis, has been a PTR tennis professional for over 25 years and has been a tennis pro at Kildaire Farms since 2005. In 2014, she received the Educational Merit Award from the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Kirstie has won numerous awards from the USTA NC and was awarded the 2009 Volunteer Service Award from USTA Southern. Kirstie is passionate about teaching tennis to all levels and offers private, group and homeschool clinics. She was the Director of Special Olympics Tennis for over 11 years and is a founding member of Abilities Tennis, a not-for-profit tennis organization that promotes tennis for people with special needs. Through her years of working with people with special needs, Kirstie wrote the PEAT school curriculum which is used throughout Wake County and other school systems. Kirstie has been married to her husband Rich for 24 years, and they have two daughters and a son-in-law. She attends Colonial Baptist Church. In her spare time, she loves to play tennis, read, travel and she is a published children’s book author.
Stephen Walker
Stephen Walker
Stephen Walker
Stephen Walker, USPTA Certified Tennis and Pickleball Instructor, has been a certified tennis instructor since 1988. He was the Apex High School coach for both girls and boys teams in the late 1990s and he was the director of tennis programs for adults and youth for Apex Parks and Rec for three decades. He was also the tennis instructor for SAS Institute for two decades. In 2023, he returned to KildaireFarms as a tennis instructor after being a club member since 1985. Since rejoining the club, he has become a Certified pickleball instructor. His focus is on fun and player development.