Coach Mages comments on State Golf

Sleepy Eye United Golf Coach Bryant Mages Facebook Post:

State Tournament Recap

(Warning LONG post)

Man, what a few days its been. What an incredible season it has been. A lot of you have been asking for updates on the state tournament. Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to make sure when I did my recap that I did it right.

First off – the boys. What a fun ride this season has been. We ended our season with a 5th place state tournament finish after shooting 321-321 as a team.

Day 1 – 321

Nolan Kucera – 77

Blaine Arneson – 77

Anders Coulson – 79

Isaac Christensen – 88

Day 2 – 321

Nolan Kucera – 76

Blaine Arneson – 80

Isaac Christensen – 80

Anders Coulson – 85

Overall – 642

Nolan Kucera 153 – 16th

Blaine Arneson 157 – 27th

Anders Coulson 164 – 46th

Isaac Christensen 168 – 59th

Eli Christensen 180 – 77th

Dylan Krebs 242 – 88th

Girls – Sam Price and Kiara Murphy. It was both Sam and Kiara’s fifth state tournament appearance. Yup, you read that right. Fifth. Its been an incredible run for these two.

Sam Price 87-77 = 164 (11th)

Kiara Murphy 97-96 = 193 (44th)

My Thoughts:

I’ll start with the boys. I can’t even put into words just how proud I am of the growth this season. Last year, we made it to the state tournament for the first time since 2021 and finished 7th with scores of 344-335 (679). We also lost two seniors to graduation. Fast forward to this year, we had four returning varsity golfers, and two first-time golfers on the varsity squad. Overall, still young with three juniors, a sophomore, and two freshman. And the result was a 37-stroke improvement at the state tournament and a 5th place finish.

The boys worked their tail ends off all year long and raised the bar for this team and this golf program. At the beginning of the year if you told me we would get to the state tournament and shoot 321-321 as a team, I would have been ecstatic. The boys would have been ecstatic. But like I said, we raised the bar this year. We were hoping to shoot somewhere in the 630 range over two days (12 strokes better, and would have put us on the podium for our goal of 3rd). So a little bit higher than we would have wanted, but still a great showing. We broke a number of program records this year including:

Record 9-hole team score of 146.

Record 18-hole team score of 308.

Those of you who know a thing or two about Class A golf know that 320 is kind of the magic number that usually puts you in contention at the state tournament. This year, it took quite a bit better than that, and we knew it would. However, we also know that with a good summer of improvement and zero graduating golfers, we expect to state title contenders next year.

We pushed these guys a lot this year. Probably more than any team I’ve had in the past six years. But when the talent level is this high, its easy to do because they’re constantly trying to get better. A lot of emphasis was made on the mental part of the game this year. We talk a lot about our mindset being a choice and not letting our play dictate where our mind is at. We talk about decision making on the golf course. We made really good strides in these areas this year and will continue to do so next year. When you’re playing under the pressure of a state tournament, you need to dominate the controllables, and we were much improved in these areas in comparison to a year ago.

And on a more human level – wow, what a fun group of boys. They definitely keep us on our toes and maybe drive me a little crazy from time to time. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The van ride back from Pebble Creek today was full of laughs. They’re just an incredible group of human beings and seeing the growth they’ve had this year makes me so proud.

My Thoughts – Girls

The state tournament is always an emotionally charged time for me as a coach, especially when there are seniors involved. And this year was especially difficult. Today I had the honor of coaching two outstanding people for the last time.

Kiara Murphy started golfing in 8th grade and made the state tournament every single year of her golfing career. She improved drastically over that time and on top of that, she is one of the nicest people you will ever come across. Kiara is incredibly bright and knows the rules of golf like the back of her hand. She’s courteous and kind. And everyone on the team knew that if you ever tried reporting the wrong score in her group, you’d be corrected immediately. And that’s because she never once took any shortcuts in her career and played the game the way it should be played – with honesty and integrity. And for that I am so incredibly proud.

Kiara didn’t have the best start today. Her first nine (the back nine – she teed off of hole 10) was a struggle. I could tell she was pretty down on herself when I walked up to her on hole #16 fairway. However, what she did after that was pretty incredible. She went from having a really rough first nine to having a career-low 41 on her second nine. Seeing her putt out for the last time on hole #9 was emotional. I’m forever grateful for all she has done to raise the bar for girls golf in Sleepy Eye over the past five years.

Last but not least – Sam. Sam Price began golfing her 7th grade year which also happened to be my first year coaching. Out of all the golfers I’ve gotten to coach the past six years, Sam is the only one I’ve had from 7th grade onward.

I remember the incredibly shy seventh grader who wouldn’t say a single word for an entire practice. I also remember thinking “Wow, this kid has a ton of potential.” And what an incredible career she had. I have a staggeringly long list of accolades of Sam’s that I’ll share at our golf banquet in the near future. And the best thing about Sam is she is the most humble person you’ll ever come across.

Sam had an incredible day on the course today. She ended her golf career with a season-low of 77. This was the third best score of the second round of the state tournament in the field of 86 golfers. Actually, it was two strokes better than the Class A individual state champion Aly Bormes shot today (79).

I managed to hold back my emotions coming up the last hole today with Sam because I wanted her to finish strong. But after she hit her approach shot to the green, the memories of six seasons of golf came flooding into my head and I couldn’t hold them back anymore. I couldn’t be more proud of Sam, and what a way to finish.

The two-day state tournament step-total this year comes in at about 48,000 steps. These kids make every last one worthwhile. I have the time of my life getting to coach such incredible people.