Sioux Falls former high school golf champ goes for U.S. Open

By Mick Garry, for Pigeon605

Assessing Jack Lundin’s golf skills in terms of his career accomplishments is always going to sound a little silly because he just completed his sophomore year of college. There’s so much unfinished business.

Nevertheless, Lundin, a Roosevelt High School graduate now golfing at Missouri, is on a path that could lead to quite a legacy.

The two-time South Dakota state high school golf champion will be going to Ohio for the next step in attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open, which takes place June 16-19 at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

He was successful in his first round of qualifying, carding a 3-under 69 at Blue Top Ridge Golf Club in Riverside, Iowa, on May 9 to move on to the next round.

He was one of a total of 9,265 professional and amateur golfers competing at 109 sites in 44 U.S. states and Canada for the opportunity to advance to one of 11 sectional qualifying sites — 10 in the U.S. and one in Japan.

A year ago, Lundin also qualified for sectional qualifying. Though he didn’t advance beyond that, the experience left an impression that he’d like to build on this year.

One of his first-round playing partners last year was Rory Sabbatini, a silver medal winner at the Tokyo Olympics who has won six times on the PGA Tour.

“I got a chance to see the level of discipline you need to get to the next level,” said Lundin, who won the state high school tournament as an eighth grader and again as a senior.

“These guys are disciplined about how they play the game and how they practice and get ready for tournaments – it’s so much more than what I’d been doing. Now, I feel like I’m incorporating a lot of that, and I’m starting to see results.”

With a full slate of amateur tournaments scheduled around the country this summer – along with several coming up in South Dakota – Lundin has made the transition from a kid who is good at golf to a young man who is intending to establish a career in the sport.

It is much more than a natural progression to transition from promising prodigy to the guy who is willing to grind out tough pars on difficult courses against top competition.

The reality is that if you don’t keep improving, you start falling behind. Golf is never grim, though, the way Lundin looks at it. There is always fun out there on the course.

“In college, while you’re trying to manage golf and school at the same time, it definitely gets busy,” he said. “But I’m creating some great memories. Right now, I’m on a golf team at Missouri that has guys from all over the world. Those are going to be great memories regardless of what comes next because I’ve met so many new people and made so many good friends because of golf.”

That tendency for friendship on the golf course began with his grandfather Richard Lundin, a 1950 graduate of Augustana College who just turned 95.

Lundin estimates he was 3 years old when he began going to Prairie Green Golf Course with his grandfather.

“He’d go out there every day with his buddies, and I’d go with him riding around in the cart,” Lundin said. “I’d get out and hit golf balls while they were playing. We’d play nine holes, and we’d get some popcorn when we were done. Then, I’d hang out until my mom or dad came by after work to pick me up.”

In addition to being the greatest child care arrangement ever invented, it was the perfect way for a youngster to be introduced to a sometimes discouraging game. Just keep hitting the ball.

“I really didn’t know what the game of golf was,” he said. “It was just ‘Well, let’s go have some fun with Grandpa.’ And then I’d go practice with my dad, too, after he got off work. I didn’t know golf; I just knew hitting the golf ball. I’ve always enjoyed that process. The game can be stressful at times, but I’ve always enjoyed hitting the golf ball.”

When he comes back to town now for the summer, he’ll work with longtime South Dakota teaching pro Danny Sinksen, the director of player development for Sioux Falls city courses. Sinksen remembers very clearly being introduced to a 10-year-old with a remarkably advanced ability to hit the ball.

“He was well past his years,” Sinksen remembers. “He had a lot of things figured out already. I’d give him a couple things to work on, and he picked up on it right away. It was incredible, actually. He was shooting par from the short tees at Kuehn as a 10-year-old. It was pretty awesome stuff.”

It has been particularly rewarding for Sinksen to see Lundin’s view of the sport mature. That maturation includes yardage – Lundin regularly cranks out 350-yard drives according to his mentor – but it goes well beyond being able to hit bombs off the tee.

“His work ethic is as high as anyone’s I’ve ever seen in the game,” Sinksen said. “He puts in the work that other people aren’t willing to do. That can’t be taught. He has a great support system around him too. He seems to really enjoy working at it.”

There is always a plan for what is up ahead. It might be a five-month plan or a five-year plan. Or even a five-hole plan after a bogey on the 13th. The main thing is to advance in the sport technically while also advancing in capacity to handle competitive situations.

“My dad and I talk about the mental game quite a bit,” Lundin said. “I took a psychology class my senior year of high school where we learned about the brain and how it works. There was one section that dealt with learning how to control your heart beat and slowing down your breathing. It has helped. My college coaches are both psychology majors too. They understand the mental part of the game. They’ve taught me a lot about how to stay in the moment on each and every shot.”

Lundin became the youngest winner ever of the SDGA Amateur last year and also won the Sanford Futures Tour event in South Dakota – a tournament that attracts top college players in the region – by a preposterous 14 strokes.

There are always going to be days where things don’t go nearly that well, however. Handling those rounds and making the best of them will go a long way toward determining where the game takes him. Or, more accurately, where he takes the game.

“Lessons with Jack now are a whole different story,” Sinksen said. “He’s usually just telling me what he’s doing, and I’m saying ‘Yeah, that’s great.’ He’s really intuitive with the game. For me as an instructor, it’s great because he’s coming up with ideas, and I’m thinking: ‘That makes perfect sense. That’s what I’m going to start telling all my students.’ In my lessons with him, he’s teaching me as well.”