Petersen places sixth for second straight top 10 at golf state championships

Last week, the NIAA Class 2A State boys golf championship took place at Toana Vista at West Wendover.

White Pine had three individual players qualify for state in junior Travis Petersen, senior Holden Windous and freshman Zayden McClintock.

Peterson, who was the 2024 2A East regional champion and has recorded top five finishes in his three regional starts, including placing third a couple weeks ago, finished in sixth place at 82-87. He was four shots back of the lead after round one with a chance to go after the leader.

However, in the final round, he was not able to repeat that with his 87.

“He works on it harder than most, but, you know, he’s fairly young to the game,” Bobcats coach Randy Long said of Peterson . “He took it up, maybe as an eighth grader, and to take it up that quickly, he’s kind of a natural. He’s got a really good short game. He putts really well. He fought his driver a little bit this year. But he’s getting stronger.

“He hits it a long way out there. They’re not always straight, but you see that even on the PGA Tour. So, he’s developed into a real nice golfer, and I think he’ll compete very well next year at state.”

It marks his second straight top 10 finish at the state tournament after finishing in fourth place last year in his third state appearance.

Windous and McClintock are both first-year players in the program and both qualified for the state on the same score at 102 as the fifth-best score, with ties.

Long said getting the opportunity to clinch a tee time in the state tournament for both Windous and McClintock was special, especially seeing them do it with the same score.

“That was really cool. That was real tight up there to qualify for how they do that. To get three, across the line there was really neat. I wish I had Holden for a few more years. He’s really turned into a pretty decent golfer, you know, and he’s well, he’s gained a passion for life.”

Holden finished in 30th place out of 53 golfers with a consistent 107-108 across the two rounds.

McClintock shot an opening round 108 and in 32nd place. However, in the second round, he performed nine strokes better with a 99 to finish in 27th place.

“Zayden played well, with a lot to do with the wind, but he just kept the ball in play a little bit more,” Long said. “He had chipped in, I believe, on the second to last hole. He turned away to pick up his putter and didn’t realize it went into the hole. Kind of a memorable moment for him to hear everybody cheer as he chipped that in.”

To have a freshman be on the varsity starter says a lot about the work McClintock put in.

Long said that was the benefit of having seven players compete each week on the course for players like McClintock to make the rotation.

“The easiest thing about golf is that the scorecard speaks for itself when I have to choose my team,” he said. “So, it’s up to each individual to be able to compete and earn their spot to travel. He did that as a freshman, and that’s very commendable.”

One of the biggest challenges at the state meet was a ditch along the right side of most fairways with the wind also being a factor.

“Extremely windy on the first day, and there’s a ditch that runs up the right hand side of every single hole, except for two,” Long said. “All those fairways sloped towards that ditch, so scores were a little higher than normal for some just because of that. They built that golf course right around it, and that’s just the way it is. The greens were in great shape. You just had to not get anything right.”

As the season wraps up, White Pine had three golfers who competed in the state tournament. They were one golfer away from scoring well enough to return to state as they did in 2024.

Long said there are a handful of potential players that have the chance to compete next spring.

“We’ve got some nice up and comers from eighth grade. We’ve also got a few verbal commits from some kids that play a lot during the summer, that perhaps played other sports and are considering coming over,” he said. “I don’t try to recruit or take away from anything else at White Pine High School. Golf’s like a fishing lure. It gets in you. It grabs you.”
R1 – Travis Petersen 82 T4, 4 strokes back of the lead (North Tahoe’s Nolan Smith)

Peterson, three consecutive top 5 finishes at regionals
State:
2023: 19th (87-98 185) at Redhawk
2024: 4th (80-84 164) at Ruby View (Elko)
2025: 6th (82-87 169) at The Club at Sunrise