Mount Vernon’s Brennan Austin relives trip to regional

By Dennis Marshall

One hole left Brennan Austin thinking about what might have been.

The rest of the round showed why he had earned the trip.

Austin’s Mount Vernon golf career ended Thursday, June 11, at the IHSAA Washington Regional, where the senior shot 76, tied for 26th overall and did not advance to the state finals in a field that required under-par golf from individual qualifiers.

Austin posted matching 38s on each side, became the Wildcats’ first regional qualifier since 2013 and turned in what coach Doug Blair said was the program’s best individual regional score since at least 2005.

Most of Austin’s work at Country Oaks was cleaner than the one number he carried out of the round.

“I hit a lot of fairways, which led up to some greens and a couple of birdies,” he said. “I hit some good iron shots into the green, but I was really happy with some of the comeback putts I made to save par. That helped my game a lot.”

The damage came on the par-5 12th, where Austin made 8 and believed his best chance to advance slipped away.

He had already made birdie at No. 10. The more important answer came one hole after the 8, when Austin birdied No. 13 and kept one bad number from following him through the rest of the card.

That response matched the biggest change Austin saw in himself this season.

“Last year, when I had a bad hole, I shut down mentally,” Austin said. “This year, I tried my best to forget about it and bounce back. You just got to think of the good, not the bad.”

Blair said Austin played focused and loose for most of the day, and the birdie after the 12th was more than another mark on the card. It was a response that showed how far Austin had come.

“I felt like the day went really well,” Blair said. “Brennan only had one little hiccup. But then recovered on the next hole with a birdie. That shows a lot of growth out of him.”

That version of Austin had been building late in the season. His putting improved over the final two weeks, and his work from tee to green gave him enough clean looks to score when the postseason arrived.

“Consistency,” Blair said. “He’s driving the ball consistently by hitting fairways and greens. A lot of kids have a hard time hitting greens in regulation. He hits the majority of those, and anytime you’re around the greens, you’re going to score well.”

Blair also credited Suzanne Noblett, who has worked with Austin as a swing coach in recent years, for helping bring more polish to that part of his game.

“She fine-tunes him and talks about course management,” Blair said. “That really helps out.”

Austin’s timing was right, too. He shot a career-best 71 at sectional to get through, then carried enough of that form into Country Oaks for Blair to see a player who had found his best golf before his final high school round.

“He kind of put everything together at the right time,” Blair said. “Mentally, he just seemed more locked-in and focused.”

But golf was not always the plan. Austin said he was still a baseball player when he first picked up a club as a freshman. He was struggling at the plate, and his dad saw something different in the way he swung.

“When I was playing baseball, I only hit low pitches,” Austin said. “My dad said that I didn’t have a baseball swing, that I had a golf swing.”

Austin laughed about it now because he did not exactly take the advice right away.

“At the time I wasn’t really listening to him,” he said.

He eventually found his way to the game anyway. Austin said he shot 50 the first time he played nine holes with his dad, but somewhere between that first score and his final high school tournament, golf became more than the sport he was trying.

It became the one he wanted to keep chasing.

Austin said he is looking around at colleges, reaching out to programs and checking whether there are open roster spots. Blair said playing in college is not out of the question, especially after the way Austin’s game came together late in the season.

“I’m very thankful for all the support and just glad to represent Mount Vernon,” Austin said. “I just want to see what it is like at the college level.”

Whether that college opportunity comes together or not, Austin is not leaving the game behind. That was one of the reasons the regional did not feel like a complete ending.

Blair hopes Austin’s run shows younger players what is possible when they start testing themselves outside the high school season. Freshman Chase Byerly made the trip to Country Oaks and followed Austin during the regional, something Blair believed could matter for the next group coming through the program.

“You’ve got to put time in,” Blair said. “I’m very happy because right now we have five or six kids in our program who are playing Evansville Junior Golf. It’s about putting the time in and putting yourself in those competitive situations that give you a measuring stick of where you are.”

Austin had the same message for the players behind him.

“Keep putting in the work,” Austin said. “It’s always worth it.”

For Austin, the work is not finished. He may be done wearing a Mount Vernon golf shirt, but the game that started with a round alongside his dad is still part of what comes next.

“It’s a lifetime sport,” Austin said. “I’ll forever get to play it, and it keeps me happy most of the time.”