Submitted Photo Pictured after winning the Mandan Invite on Tuesday are Minot High golfers Parker Argent, Easton Bradley, Kasen Rostad, Brock Jones, Tyler Bast and Bennett Bartsch.

Despite having three state medalists since 2003, it’s been two decades since the Minot High boys’ golf team won its only team state championship that year.

That drought could end this season if this year’s squad continues posting low scores and collecting tournament wins. After a season-opening second place finish at the Watford City Invite, the Magi have won three straight tournaments, paced by sophomore Kasen Rostad, who has posted back-to-back 68s to win medalist honors at the Dickinson and Mandan Invites.

“His putting has been phenomenal,” said head coach Shane Hannegrefs. “He’s got a wonderful short game. He’s hitting greens, and he’s keeping himself below the hole like he has to.”

“I think we’re at that point we’re expecting to shoot low,” said Rostad. “It’s just consistency, and having a good mindset helps a lot. You always have to be confident and trust yourself.”

Rostad added, “It’s good that we won the last couple of tournaments, but we have to keep rolling. We’re not where we want to be.”

While having someone who is capable of breaking par consistently certainly helps, the team wouldn’t be enjoying the success it is this year without other golfers consistently breaking 80 as well. Thankfully, Minot has depth up and down the varsity roster. Along with Rostad, senior Brock Jones and sophomore Tyler Bast have already qualified for the state tournament with their top ten finishes at the Mandan Invite on Tuesday, an event that served as a state qualifier.

With Jones the only senior, and no juniors on the team, Hannegrefs sees a bright future and acknowledges the team may be reaching its goals even earlier than he thought possible. “We’ve had success over the course of my ten years as head coach. I guess we’re a bit ahead of schedule. It’s very exciting because being as young as we are and having different kids contribute shows that we have a deeper team than maybe we even look on the roster right now.”

With the team universally both wanting to and expecting to compete for a state championship, the team scores they are posting are nearly as important as the tournament wins and reaching 300 in each of the last two tournaments has them almost where they want to be.

“If we can get under that 300 score, that’s kind of the magic number here in North Dakota,” said Hannegrefs. “Especially in Class A golf, if you can get to 300 or better you can be competitive at the state level. We know there are some good teams out there. There’s nothing we can do about how well they play. We can just control ourselves.”

“If we play to the best that we can at the right time, we can win.”

One place the team is in nearly universal agreement on is where there is room for improvement: the putting green.

“I have not been doing well at putting, so I need to drain more,” said sophomore Bennett Bartsch. “And maybe hit shots closer. Overall, just be smarter.”

Bast added, “Putting for me is pretty bad right now. I’d say that’s where most of my strokes come from. Around the greens we lose a lot of strokes. Whether it be three putts or duffing chips. Kasen had a triple [bogey] out of a bunker and still shot a 68, so I mean we have the abilities to make birdies.”

“We haven’t been putting very well, so we’ve got to be better on the greens,” said Hannegrefs. “We need to do a little bit better job teaching green reading, and we have a few too many three putts.”

According to Hannegrefs, some of that can be fixed by hitting better approach shots, which has been a focus at practice.

Despite needing to eliminate the occasional three-putt, the tournament wins have fueled the young roster’s confidence, and that confidence has become infectious with the teammates feeding off of each other.

As Bast explained, “Seeing other people succeed, you build your own confidence up. You see your teammate on the next hole and you’re like, ‘What did you get on that hole?’ They say, ‘I got a birdie, and then you’re like ‘Alright, I can get aggressive on this shot, or I can get aggressive with this putt.'”

Some of that comes from the example set by Jones, the lone senior on the squad.

“Brock is unique. He’s been in our program for such a long time, and by now, he has seen really good leaders come through it. The main thing is he brings the group together in all different aspects,” said Hannegrefs. “He knows what his goal is as well. He wants to be competitive. It’s also kind of being the big brother to little brothers.”

One of the youngest members of the team, seventh grader Parker Argent continues a family legacy in the Minot golf program. His older brother Gavin won medalist honors at the state tournament in 2021.

“It is something to look up to,” said Argent. “I didn’t think I was going to make the team, but I guess I did.” While it was a fun memory watching his brother win state, the younger Argent acknowledges he didn’t watch a lot of it because he was “a young kid” at the time.

Argent and other Magi have gained valuable experience on the Dakota Junior Golf Association Tour during the summer. “It was nice because I could feel the competitiveness and get to play a lot of the courses that you’re put on in high school,” said Argent.

“I think these kids really love the game of golf,” said Hannegrefs. “For many of them, this is where they want to be. They are not fair-weather kids. They like to play in challenging conditions. They know up here we’re going to have to play in conditions where you have to grind sometimes, and I think they learned to embrace it.”

“We just got to be prepared to play our best golf. It really just comes down to that.”

The golfers will be busy over the next week with four tournaments in five days. They will travel to Jamestown on Friday and head to Bismark for the Legacy Invite on Saturday before hosting the Minot Invite at Souris Valley Golf Course on Monday. The Magi will then travel to the Links of North Dakota to compete in the Williston Invite on Tuesday, May 23 to close out the regular season.