Sam Udovich doesn’t always look at the leaderboard when he’s playing golf, even when he has the sense that he’s in contention to win a tournament.
But on Wednesday, in his last high school tournament, he felt like he had to.
Not only was Udovich aiming for a second state individual championship, leading after a first-day, bogey-free round of 66 at Bunker Hills, the Cretin-Derham Hall senior was aiming to be part of a winning team.
“Typically, I don’t look at (the board),” Udovich said. “But for today, I had to know in terms of individual and team. I had to know how aggressive I had to be.”
Still, when he noticed that eventual runner-up Dylan Kringen of Orono had pulled from seven strokes back to within three, Udovich didn’t feel he had to change anything. It was that kind of tournament for the Texas Christian commit from Inver Grove Heights.
After six birdies and no bogeys on Tuesday, Udovich went two birdies, two eagles and two bogeys despite playing six holes in what he described as a “monsoon” in Anoka County.
“I was super confident the last two rounds. I felt super steady, and my mindset was in a great spot,” he said. “I never made any mistakes except, obviously, the monsoon, which everybody had to play in. … I just stayed in my own mindset, kept my head down and didn’t really change anything.”
It was his second state individual title after winning a Class 2A title as a freshman at St. Croix Lutheran before becoming a Raider. Udovich shot a 68 on Wednesday, tied with Kringen, to win the individual title by four strokes.
Just as important, Cretin-Derham Hall won the boys team title, as well, with teammate Joe Honsa finishing tied for third with Chanhassan’s Lucas Arntsen with a 141.
Raiders junior Michael Markley was tied for 27th at 150, senior Cameron Cassidy was tied for 37th at 153, sophomore Jake Palen was tied for 58th at 157 and senior Garrett Johnson finished with a 176 for 88th.
“It’s obviously super cool to win it with my teammates,” Udovich said. “I’ve been playing for Cretin-Derham Hall for three years. Last year, we didn’t even make it to state two years ago. Last year, we had the best team we could have and came up short at state, just played really bad. I was really looking forward to pulling through today.”
The Raiders, with a score of 578, finished ahead of Chanhassen (582) and Rosemount (598).
Named Minnesota’s Mr. Golf as the state’s top high school player this week, Udovich had to duck out of the celebration early because he and his father, Mike, were scheduled to fly to Fort Worth, Texas, for TCU orientation on Thursday morning.
“I had to leave early when me and the boys were celebrating,” he said. “But we were super excited to win as a team.”
Jacob Wilson of Mahtomedi and Rosemount’s Joey MacKinac were tied with three others in 10th place at 147. Stillwater junior Ryan Stanek was tied for 15th at 148.
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