Daviess County’s Grant Broughton and Owensboro Catholic’s Jakob Wellman both competed on day two of the KHSAA State Golf Championships, leaving their marks on the programs for years to come.
Broughton found himself in contention for a state title after day one, but closed out the tournament with an overall score of 148.
“I was a lot more happy with my round yesterday than today,” Broughton said. “[I was] hitting the drive a little better today, but just wasn’t making any putts or making any good chips… But I was pretty happy with how I finished I guess overall. Based on how I’ve been playing recently I would’ve taken four over any day. Just happy I was able to hold it together and finish top-ten.”
Despite not having a strong round two, this put the freshman Panther in a tie for ninth place and gave him his first top-ten state finish of his career.
“It means a lot,” Broughton said. “My goal after yesterday was to win, but my original goal was top-ten. So I did get my goal and I guess next year the goal is to win.”
Head Coach Lars King was thrilled with Broughton’s play, saying that the composure and skill he displayed at such a young age is incredible.
“Just for the fact that he’s a freshman in high school and to have nerves like he did through the two days on a golf course like this to hold it together was really impressive to watch…” King said. “You know what they say about gamers, people that are better when the time drops or the rope drops and that was him this week. From the first hole he just found something and was able to get it around. It just speaks volumes for how good of a golfer he really is.”
Keeping calm is one of the biggest things Broughton learned at state this year and hopes to use that to grow in future appearances.
“No matter where you’re at, just keep grinding it out and you can probably finish pretty well,” Broughton said. “The course plays a lot tougher the second day. You don’t really know how anyone is going to do. You don’t know if anybody is going to do worse, you don’t know if anyone is going to do better.”
While Broughton’s season might have to come to a close, his prolific career is just getting started with the Daviess County golf program.
“He’ll be the face of it for the next three years, that’s for sure,” King said. “There’s not a whole lot else we’ve got going on as far as that level of golfer goes and we’ve only had a couple ever… It’s one of those things where he’s got the ability and the possibility of great things like state champion, Mr. Golf, those types of things. If he continues to get better the sky’s the limit.”
Meanwhile, Wellman wrapped up the weekend with an overall score of 157 to put him in the middle of the pack amongst the best the Commonwealth has to offer.
Wellman wasn’t thrilled with his play, but was happy for the opportunity to play both days and compete with such talented golfers.
“The play wasn’t as good as I hoped it would’ve been, but I was glad to make the cut,” Wellman said. “To be able to play the second day of state is always a plus. But I mean the course is hard. I mean there was one kid under par all weekend and I think a lot of good players in the field finished around where I am and they probably didn’t expect to either. So, I’m not going to let it weigh too heavily on me.”
With Wellman understanding that his high school golfing days were coming to an end, he just focused on taking every single second in and looking back on a major part of his life.
“I just tried to take everything in and kind of savor the moment,” Wellman said. “I’ve gone there every year since eighth grade and I was always walking out that place mad and thinking I could’ve shot a couple shots lower, but it wasn’t like that this time. I just wanted to take my time, talk to people along the way [including] a lot of my friends that I’ve played with since seventh or eighth grade and just kind of enjoy the moment just because I knew it would be the last tournament of the year and my high school career.”
In taking time to think about all the memories he has golfing at Owensboro Catholic, Wellman said it will always be the time he spent with his teammates that made each year so memorable.
“It’s always the little stuff,” Wellman said. “I remember freshman year going to state as a team and we finished second and my eighth grade year we won. So the team dinners after that and all that kind of stuff… Just the comradery between teammates and all that kind of stuff. Because golf is an individual sport and we don’t really get to have that often. So when that does occur, it’s something that I’ll definitely cherish and I have throughout the whole time I’ve played high school golf.”
Head Coach Bretnea Thomas said that she saw a hunger for greatness in Wellman as an eighth grader and that he has put in the work to match, while setting a foundation for the program over the course of his career.
“Jakob has inspired a group of young golfers on our team to be better in school, in practice, and in competition,” Thomas said. “He set the bar high for what competitive golf looks like, as several seniors before him have done. As a coach, you just cannot ask for more. I’m excited to see where this sport takes him in his future academics and maybe beyond that time, but for now, I really relish in the memories he has given to our team over the last five years.”
Leaving the Aces program in great shape, Wellman now moves on to the next chapter in his athletic career, as he looks to continue to grow as a golfer not too far from home at Murray State University.
“I’ll be looking forward to going to Murray next year and kind of getting my feet wet in the college golf experience,” Wellman said. “I just think it’s an exciting chapter after high school and I will definitely use a lot of the things I learned playing at Owensboro Catholic at Murray State and beyond that.”
