MITCHELL — If you were to visit Wild Oak Golf Course on the east side of Mitchell, there’s a good chance you’ll find Anna Eliason working on her game either on the range or practice green.
From the moment she played her first competitive varsity round as a seventh grader for Mitchell High School, Eliason has displayed a sharp focus for all aspects of golf, a trait that comes second nature to her.
“When I get focused on something, it’s just the only thing I can think about,” Eliason said. “It’s something I want to do and I think that helps with working hard for golf and trying to get better.”
Her determination to improve in one of the most difficult sports to play has begun to produce results on the course.
Eliason was second on the Kernels golf team in scoring this past season as a sophomore, averaging a 79.33 in nine competitive tournaments. Her season-best round was a 75 at the Warrior Invitational on May 5 before playing into the final group of the Class AA state tournament on June 2, ultimately finishing in a tie for seventh place.
Competing in the Sanford International Series this summer, Eliason has posted a pair of top-10 finishes and sits in 15th in the season points standings. The top-15 girls golfers in the standings will qualify for the series championship event on July 28 at the Country Club of Sioux Falls.
Additionally, Eliason advanced out of local qualifying for the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Championship on June 25, coming in second place in the girls 16-18 age division following an 84 at Elkhorn Ridge Golf Club. Earning a spot in the Minnesota regional qualifier, which will take place on Aug. 11-12 at The Meadows at Mystic Lake, carries added significance.
“It felt pretty good knowing that I still had shots to spare after it was close,” Eliason said. “I was just excited to qualify for something that was out of the state and a bigger deal than the high school stuff.”
“The Notah Begay tournament has gotten to be a pretty big tournament nationally,” MHS head coach and her father Brian Eliason said. “It was a fun thing to be a part of and she played pretty well the first day. She had a couple of bigger numbers and she came back right away with better scores.”
Blake Durham / Mitchell Republic
Since picking up a golf club for the first time in a camp at age 5 with older sister Ava, Anna Eliason’s quest for improvement has never stopped.
The biggest improvement has come from within, as Eliason struggled during her first few years on the varsity roster on the mental aspect of the game, with a round coming undone through an errant drive or a bad chip. However, with gained experience came growing confidence and knowledge to not let a bad hole affect the rest of the day.
“At the beginning of a round, I didn’t shoot a very good front-nine score. Then on the back, I shot 2-under,” Eliason said. “I knew I could come back from that versus two years ago, where I probably would have just gotten more upset and it would’ve made my round worse than it could’ve been.”
“You can’t play golf when you’re frustrated or mad,” added Brian Eliason. “If you have a bad hole, get mad and get over it. … Anna’s done a good job after a bad hole or a bad score. She forgets about it quickly, which is really important.”
The added confidence comes from the mentality from the high school season, where much of the focus was not to compound mistakes and play smart golf, alluding to coach Brian Eliason spending most of the time working with the girls on the mental side of the sport.
It also helped Anna Eliason at the state tournament back in June, playing a much calmer opening round than both days of the state tournament in 2024, where nerves played a part in shooting high scores. Firing a 77 on Day 1 to put her in a tie for second place, it showed progress in handling pressure spots.
“I was shooting well in the season, so I knew I could shoot a low number,” Eliason said. “Kind of getting over the pressure has been a big change for me and getting the confidence to be able to shoot the scores that I know I can post.”
Having transitioned to the summer season, Eliason has begun to make adjustments to her swing path to help utilize an increase in distance across her current golf bag, averaging at about 10 yards for each club. Changing her shot shape to feature more of a left-to-right ball flight and adding spin to the ball brings the hope of being able to hold more greens as she plays longer courses than in the high school season.
“It’s a pretty big change,” Brian Eliason said. “If that ball lands on the green and doesn’t stop, she’s got a really hard chip from the back of the green. With a new shot shape, hopefully that’ll put more spin on the ball and get it to stop on the green. It’s just one of those things you have to work through.”
Blake Durham / Mitchell Republic
Anna Eliason will be back with the Mitchell High School golf team next spring as a junior on a roster that’ll bring back four of the six main golfers from this season’s Class AA state runner-up squad.
Beyond next season, she’s already begun to look into possibly continuing her career into the collegiate ranks this summer. Until then, it’s off to the next junior golf tournament, with the South Dakota Golf Association’s Sanford International Series making a stop at Lakeview Golf Course on Monday, July 7.
From the first swings as a little kid through casual rounds at Wild Oak and traveling to play with her father, Eliason cherishes those moments as much as a high finish in a tournament and qualifying for an out-of-state tournament, while Brian Eliason credits both his daughters for pulling him back into the game of golf.
“He takes me to most of my tournaments and is really focused on trying to make me better,” she said. “He never puts pressure on me to practice and he lets me enjoy the sport for myself. It gives me the confidence to be able to go out and play well.”
“When they started getting a lot more interested, I started wanting to play more,” Brian Eliason added. “When they both were in middle school, we started playing quite a bit more and they really liked the game, especially Anna, who could golf 24 hours a day.”
Overall, knowing the sport and how much time it takes to focus on the game, Anna Eliason wants to continue seeing the results from the strides she made over the season so far through hard work and determination whether on the range or on the first tee.
“I can keep getting better if I keep working at it,” Eliason said, “And I just want to play the best I can. I want to keep practicing every day and trying to achieve my goal of playing college golf.”
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