We have decided over the past few weeks that like all of our favorite teams in the summer we will use the break to “work on ourselves.” We have some cool and unique plans for the fall that we hope to execute and we will work on those things during the summer. But we’ll still get you a little content before fall practice starts.

Our big thing to watch in the summer is golf — especially junior golf. And, in Nebraska it is getting better than ever. Literally. So we will get to that before you go. Plus a few other things.

Putting our Mickey ears on next week. The next Newsletter will be July 2, with a new Nebraska Nines that we think you’ll enjoy.

Hinze, Thiele Score Junior Am Titles

The 58th Nebraska Junior Amateur and 25th Nebraska Girls’ Amateur Championships delivered thrilling finishes and record-breaking performances last week at Meadowlark Hills Golf Course.

Jaxson Hinze of Waco captured the Nebraska Junior Amateur Championship, going wire-to-wire to claim the title. Hinze posted a 211 (-2) total and held off a late charge from Zack Erstad of Lincoln, who birdied two of the final three holes to force a playoff.

Hinze sealed the victory with a clutch par on the second playoff hole. The Class B state runner-up became the first player from York Country Club to claim a state junior stroke play title.

In the Nebraska Girls’ Amateur Championship, Brooke Thiele of Wahoo etched her name into the record books. Her final round 75 (+4) brought her to 222 (+9) overall, setting a new 54-hole scoring record since the event expanded in 2022.

Thiele becomes the fifth Thiele sister to win a Nebraska Golf Association title, joining Haley, Hannah, Lauren, and Lindsey in a remarkable family legacy. Thiele defeated Lincoln’s Eden Larson by four shots with Minden’s KayLynn Jorgensen and Lincoln’s Isabella Elgert tied for third.

The victories advance Hinze to the US Junior at Dallas’ Trinity Forest and Thiele to the US Girls Junior at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Same Song, Different Verse

At this week’s Nebraska Junior PGA Championship it was again a 1-2 finish for Hinze and Erstad. Again in a playoff, but this time the title went to Erstad with a par on the first playoff hole after both finished on 140 (-2) at Fremont Golf Club for 36 holes.

Hinze led most of the day, before Erstad birdied the 16th hole and in the group behind Hinze made double bogey. Both players parred the last two holes to set up the playoff.

Jorgensen, a South Dakota pledge and Minden senior-to-be, fired an even-par 71 to win the girls championship at 146 (+4). She edged Elgert and Thiele by a shot with her par save on the 18th hole.

The top two players in each division qualified for the PGA National Junior Championship at Purdue’s Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex. Elgert defeated Thiele with a par on the third playoff hole to advance.

Many subscriber’s to the Newsletter know that I lost my dad almost four years ago, July 6, 2021. The below is one of my favorite book passages, from James Dodson’s forward to his book Final Rounds.

A Father’s Voice

Toward the end of the afternoon, Tom Watson sits in his office talking to a golf writer. The golf season has just ended. The golf writer is me. We have been talking for almost two hours. There is a thin skin of ice on the pond in the park across the street. Traffic is a muted sigh in the winter shadows of Kansas City. Christmas presents for his children are stacked neatly in a shopping bag at his feet. Watson's wariness of the press is famous, but he has been relaxed and generous, talking about the Ryder Cup team he will soon lead to Britain, about his life, career, children, heroes, even making self-deprecating jokes about his well-publicized putting woes. This pleases me, confirms my best hopes. Watson is forty-three, five years my senior, the best golfer of my generation, now a lion in winter. In my former life as a political journalist, it would have been deemed grossly unprofessional to admit I am my subject's fan. But golf, unlike politics, as Alister Mackenzie is supposed to have once said, is at least an honest game. I am Watson's fan because he played with such honesty and heart during his golden days, and because of how he conducts himself now that the glory has faded and his game seems almost mortal.

Sometimes during these conversations, I find myself unexpectedly wondering with pleasure how I got here. For me, a kid who tagged after his golf heroes and was lucky enough to grow up and be able to sit and talk with them, it's a dream job and a question rooted perhaps as much in philosophy as journalism. All philosophy begins in wonder, and the wonder of what Watson suddenly, intimately reveals of himself in our conversation is both thought-provoking and surprising. I ask if he can identify the worst moment of his career, and he responds by telling me about once rushing out of the locker room at the World Series of Golf, brushing off a boy seeking his autograph. The boy's father followed him and tapped him on the back.

"He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I just want to tell you, Mr. Watson, what an asshole I think you are. My son was really a fan of yours.'" Watson shakes his head. "I couldn't believe it--how badly I felt, I mean." He falls silent, pursing his lower lip. Somewhere outside the building I can hear Christmas music playing, a slurry rendition of "Jingle Bells" fading away. There are writers around who would love to challenge Tom Watson's sincerity on this, question how such a trivial moment could possibly compare, say, to his heartbreaking loss to Seve Ballesteros at the '84 British Open at St. Andrews. A wayward two-iron shot at the infamous Road Hole cost him a record-tying sixth Open title and made the fiery Spaniard the new darling of the British masses. For a second or two, Watson stares at the running tape recorder, then shakes his head again. "I still feel bad about it," he says simply.

The thing is, I believe him. Watson could not believe what he says he believes--namely, that golf represents the most honorable of games--and feel otherwise. So I flip the coin--best to part on a cheerful note--and ask him for the best moment of his golf life, certain he will either say his famous shot-making duel against Nicklaus at Turnberry in '77 or his "miracle" chip-in at Pebble Beach in '82 to win the U.S. Open. "It's funny," he says, pausing again, "the greatest thrill I had may have been the day my father invited me to join him and a couple of his regular golf buddies at his club. I was so excited, really aching to show him what I could do. I guess I was maybe eleven or twelve." Watson, the former Stanford psychology student, studies me with those eyes that always look as if he's been out walking in a linksland wind. "Even now I think about that. It was a very powerful moment. My father means so much to me. I can always hear his voice in my head, telling me to keep my head still or make a good swing. I don't know if I ever felt that way again, you know?" He smiles somewhat wistfully, revealing the boyish gaps in his teeth. Turning off the tape recorder, I admit that I know what he means because I hear my father's voice, too.

Almost every day of my life.

The Best Things We’ve Seen (So Far)

7-ON-7 FOOTBALL: The good guys over at nebpreps.com held their 7-on-7 state football championship this week with Omaha North defeating Papillion-LaVista South in the championship game 24-6. Championship Game Thread with Jacob Padilla

TREVOR’S TRIP: Westside grad Trevor Gutschewski had his US Open experience last week at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh. Via his win at last year’s US Junior, the Florida commit shot two rounds of 80 and missed the cut. But making this tournament? Elite. Still to come this summer — the US Amateur and a chance to defend his title at the US Junior.

MIDWEST GBB SHOWCASE: Last weekend, 19 Nebraska girls basketball teams were at the Midwest Girls Basketball Showcase with multiple teams having great showings in front of many Division I coaches. Here is Padilla’s full recap. It’s a good one. Make sure you click, it’s free.

OMAHA, MIDDLE AMERICA: Nothing cooler than seeing Nebraska kids like Cam Kozeal (Arkansas) and Tadan Bell (Coastal Carolina) play in the College World Series. Still alive even. So good.

ALL-AMERICAN: Lincoln High’s Dajaz Defrand, now at USC, finished seventh in the 100 meters at the NCAA National Track and Field Meet to earn All-American status. She’s really fast.