By Brett Christopherson, Appleton Post-Crescent
Today, it’s Butte des Morts Country Club and Mid Vallee Golf Course.
Could it be Pinehurst and Pebble Beach tomorrow?
Welcome to the world of Ryan Prickette, the Xavier sophomore who swings a sweet Callaway and envisions himself one day knocking Titleists with Phil, Retief, Vijay, Ernie and — oh, yeah — a guy named Tiger.
“It’s kind of weird because I consider myself one of the few kids who has the dream to go all the way with it,” Prickette said. “I feel God has given me the talent to go as far as I want. In my mind, that could be professionally.
“But as far as the next couple of years, I’m going to try to play to my potential and hopefully get a Division I scholarship.”
Potential this season is a scoring average of under par.
The 16-year-old is carding an average score of 35.78 per nine holes through 12 meets. That includes a one-over 36 at Appleton’s Butte des Morts Country Club, the Hawks’ home course.
He fired a two-under 33 on Butte des Morts’ back nine earlier this season and claimed medalist honors by carding a one-under 69 during the recent Appleton City Tournament at Menasha’s North Shore Golf Club, where he also recorded a hole-in-one on the 154-yard 14th hole.
A couple of weeks ago, he buried a pair of 20-plus foot birdie putts to finish with a four-under 32 at Clintonville Riverside Golf Club.
“Actually, he hasn’t expressed that to me,” Xavier golf coach Steve Howe said of Prickette’s desire to play professional golf. “Right now, his top priority is getting a good education. That’s very important to he and his family, and he sees golf as a means to get that.”
Education is indeed a top priority as evidenced by Prickette’s straight-A showing in the classroom, which is why he has told Howe he wouldn’t mind some day toting the bag as a member of the Northwestern, Notre Dame or Stanford men’s golf teams.
That being said, Howe noted that he and his wife, Carolyn Barnett-Howe of Menasha-based Swing Solutions, are just beginning the process of putting together some video resumes of Prickette’s golf game and will eventually send them off to his schools of interest.
The resume will also show a player who, a season ago, won the Valley 8 Conference title, earned league player of the year honors and placed 16th in the WIAA Division 2 state meet with a two-day total of 159.
“To be honest, he hits the ball so solid and so far,” Howe said. “He’s always looking at the positive and thinking, ‘What could I do better?’ I say, ‘Ryan, don’t be disappointed to shoot low numbers.’ ”
But for the time being, Prickette’s focus is on doing just that and steering the Hawks to their third consecutive Valley 8 team title.
He spent the winter months working on his swing, shoring up his iron play and taking part in golf-related exercises up to five times a week.
He’s now spending his spring firing low rounds and inching closer to at least giving himself a shot at attacking that dream gig of playing golf for a living.
“As far as I can tell, pro golf is all mental,” said Prickette, who can consistently drive the ball between 290 and 295 yards off the tee. “There are so many distractions, and so much pressure, and you’re under the microscope all the time.
“First of all, you have to get to that playing level. And once I’m there, if I get there, it’s just a matter of being confident and trusting myself. But I really don’t like to talk about the pro level because I have so much work to do to get there.”
