Wellman ready to cap off strong freshman season at state

October 1, 2018 | 2:11 am

Updated October 1, 2018 | 2:15 am

Freshman Jakob Wellman won the Region 2 golf tournament last week, and is preparing to lead Owensboro Catholic in the state tournament. | Photo by Ryan Richardson

On a team full of underclassmen, freshman Jakob Wellman has emerged as the leader for Owensboro Catholic. He’s been the No. 1 golfer all year for the Aces, and he’s preparing to lead them in the state tournament later this week.

Wellman didn’t start his golfing career until he was about 13 years old, when he was burnt out on travel baseball. He decided to trade a bat for a golf club and hasn’t looked back since.

“I fell in love with golf and started working hard,” he said. “I really enjoy being out there practicing and getting better. I have a really good drive to do well.”

Wellman transferred to Owensboro Catholic at the end of seventh grade, and he started playing varsity for the Aces last season. He’s had success as a freshman, as he won the Madisonville Invitational by posting a career best 1-under-par and more recently was the medalist at the Region 2 tournament. He led his team to a second-place finish at region, qualifying them for the state tournament that begins Friday.

“Going into region, we had a couple good tournaments at hard golf courses, and that prepared us,” he said. “We felt like we were playing well, but I didn’t have a clue I was going to do so well.”

The leadership role was something he had to work on at first, but the fit came fairly naturally.

“I had to work on it a little bit,” Wellman said. “I had to step up and help everyone out and help everyone believe we could do something.”

OCHS head coach Bretnea Turner said the team looks up to Wellman, and she’s glad she has a player who can help provide guidance.

“Even as a freshman, he’s very much a leader on the course for our team,” she said. “That’s nice when you don’t have upperclassmen. Every team needs someone who can pick you up when you’re down.”

Wellman knew when he started playing for the Aces that there would be pressure to do well for a program that’s rich with success. Most recently, John Augenstein graduated from OCHS and now plays at Vanderbilt University, and he’s one of the top-ranked amateurs in the world.

“You definitely have to step up and fill the void left by some of the guys from before,” Wellman said. “There’s so much tradition and history of people playing well at Catholic.”

His desire to constantly perform well is part of the reason the team looks to him for guidance, Turner said, but it goes beyond the skills on the course.

“He’s gained the trust of his teammates because he’s consistent, and they look to him as a good golfer,” she said. “He has some authenticity because of his scoring, but he also is much more mature than a normal freshman. “

Wellman said the year didn’t start quite how he wanted, and said the team struggled with keeping scores low. It wasn’t unexpected on a youthful roster, but it was something the Aces had to work to overcome.

“It’s difficult because we don’t have much experience on the course in pressure situations,” he said. “We’ve been able to overcome that pretty well. We just had to focus on our own game and block out the outside stuff.”

Wellman said they’ll look to do the same this week as the compete in the state tournament, but they understand it’s a tall task.

He’s got his eyes set on future accomplishments — he’d like to win more tournament throughout the year, bring home the region title a couple more times and eventually make a strong run at state — but for now he wants to make the most out of this season.

Wellman is hoping he can ride the high of his performance at region just a little bit longer.

“We’re going to be really loose at state,” he said. “We’re going to try to have the best time we can. Individually, I want to do some damage. Winning region pumped me up, so if I can play good a couple more days, I can make something out of it.”

October 1, 2018 | 2:11 am

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