Battle Mountain golfer wins Eagle Valley Invitational by 6 strokes

Even when Makena Thayer doesn’t put together a perfect round, she usually finds a way to top the leaderboard.

“Yeah, I don’t know, it was pretty bad,” the Battle Mountain junior said after shooting a 77 to win the Eagle Valley Invitational at Eagle Ranch on Wednesday. The six-stroke victory was Thayer’s sixth win of the season. After bogeying three of the her last four holes, however, she left with a slightly sour taste in her mouth.

“I had five three-putts,” she explained before shrugging off the round with a smile and demonstrating her trademark happy-go-lucky mindset: “But, whatever.”

“I’ve never seen anyone like Makena,” said Aspen’s Lenna Persson, who carded an 83 to finish second in the 41-person field. “She’s just so calm and trusts herself that every shot, she just swings like it like she normally goes. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and she just plays the next shot.”

While Thayer has been almost unstoppable all year — in addition to Wednesday’s win, she was victorious in her first four meets, placed third at Aspen on April 15 and won the Glenwood Springs RVR the next day — the two-time all-state golfer was ‘just’ 15th at The Showcase Invitational at Cherry Creek Golf Country Club on Monday.

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“That tournament is harder than states I think,” said Thayer, who also had five three putts there. “I just need to do better on my putting. If it’s five strokes off that are easier to fix, that’s already a 72 if I can just putt better.”

Persson, who has been going back and forth with Thayer all year, placed seventh at Cherry Creek.

“I was pretty happy with it. I was making putts, which definitely helped,” Persson said. “It was my best showing this year.”

On Wednesday, the Skier eagled the opening par 4 14th. On the 18th hole, however, she shot a nine.

“I managed to calm myself down a little bit,” she said regarding a seven-hole mid-round stretch where she made six pars and a birdie. As reasonable weather gave way to a deceivingly cold wind, Persson and Thayer both struggled to stay even.

“It was just really inconsistent, lots of emotions and kind of upsetting,” said Persson, who was four over on the last three holes. Thayer made eight pars and birdied the par 5 at No. 2. She closed with a double on 12th hole and a bogey on 13 as well. But whether she was smashing a drive right up the gut or watching a putt lip out, Thayer’s demeanor stayed constant.

“It seems like she doesn’t even care, but she obviously does because she does so well,” said Persson, who has been competing against Thayer since her junior club days.

“We go back and forth (and) you’re always looking to beat your opponents,” the future South Dakota State University golfer continued. “I don’t treat it as much of a rivalry just because we’re in different divisions, so I consider it more as she’s challenging me, pushing me.”

Thayer agreed.

“I don’t think we really care about beating each other,” she added. “I just think we want to shoot a good score.”

Behind Thayer, Caleigh Kackman and Abby Harrison shot a 98 and 127, respectively, for Battle Mountain. Julia Borejszo led Eagle Valley with an 89 to place fifth as Devils senior Ingrid Soltvedt shot 107 to come in 15th.

“Julia’s come a long way,” said Eagle Valley coach Zachary Haglin. “She worked hard over the off-season.”

A standout wrestler, Borejszo is one of the hardest-working athletes Haglin — who also coaches boys basketball — has been around.

“She’s focused, super serious, comes to practice to get better,” he said. The main area of improvement this year has been course management.

“She already strikes the ball really well,” Haglin continued. “It’s just working on accounting for the wind, going left to right — making sure we account for everything before she hits a shot.” 

The 3A Region 4 tournament is May 13 at Gypsum Creek. Haglin said his goal is to send an athlete or two to state, held May 19-20 in Greeley.

“Regionals is tough to play,” he said. “So having seen it (here) hopefully gives us a little bit of an advantage.”