Douglas High golfer Bethany Wurster knew heading into her sophomore campaign, already once crowned as a regional champion, that she had the skills to succeed at the high school level.
But as with any champion, she also knew there was a lot of room for improvement and she'd have to capitalize on that if she wanted to defend her title.
She said her season became centered around the mental aspect of the game, peppering her speech with words like "focus" and "concentration."
Ask her about a tournament that was played over a month ago, however, and it becomes quickly apparent that those are hardly just buzz words.
She talks in detail, listing off the top of her head what clubs she used in what situation she was facing. She knows her exact score on every hole, why she got that score and what she could have done to improve it.
Her mother, sitting next to her during an interview, warns that Bethany could do this for every hole of every tournament she played over this last season.
"After regionals last year, I was used to shooting in the 70s and then state hit and I was in the 80s," said Wurster, who ended up tied for 10th at state as a freshman. "I went into the summer tournaments trying to really concentrate on each shot, each hole. When the high school season hit, I was prepared to shift totally into a concentration game."
And it paid off.
She won all but two tournaments (a windy league tournament in the second week of the season and the state championships at Hidden Valley) and defended her regional title with a two-day total of 148.
Along the way, she dropped under par in the three tournaments leading up to regionals and tied the state record in relation to par (6-under) with a career-best 66 at Genoa Lakes despite a double-bogey after plugging the ball into the water.
"Coming into regionals I was doing well, but I just tried to forget the averages, mine and my opponents', and concentrate on the regional tournament," Wurster said.
Wurster posted a 75 in the cold at Elko's Ruby Valley course on the first day of regionals and pushed ahead with a 73 on the second day to clinch.
"I don't like that cold, so I thought it wasn't going to go well," Wurster said. "I was battling with (Manogue's) Alex Phillips hole by hole. She missed a putt and something turned in my head. I just really focused on getting the win from that point on."
A week later, Wurster tied for third at state. Now, her offseason work begins.
"Golf is year-round," she said. "I'm going to be going to a couple out-of-state tournaments in November. Just trying to get out on the course as much as I can. Tournaments start back up in June here and after that my big goal is to win state."
"Golf is just something I've been doing so long now, it's not even like a scheduled thing," Wurster said. "It's just what I do. There's nothing else I do during the year, so there aren't any other activities that take away from it.
"I'm kind of good at it, so I'll just stick with it as long as I can."
Wurster first picked up the clubs five years ago when she was trying to figure out something to get involved in. She was 10.
"I was really young, just trying to get into a sport," she said. "My dad was trying to teach me golf and he kept saying I had a natural swing. Being so young, I didn't really know what that meant."
She got signed up in a couple of Northern Nevada Junior Golf Assocation tournaments and was surprised when she came away with a handful of wins.
"I just wanted to see where I stood," Wurster said. "It went pretty well early on."
Wurster was also playing softball at the time, even making a post-season all-star team, but felt ultimately that she had to choose one or the other.
"I was kind of stuck between the two," she said. "They both kind of go all year and they both have a pretty heavy summer schedule. I had to choose one. I started playing more golf, and I got some new clubs which kind of helped me make a choice."
Heading into her freshman season, Wurster got one extra boost. After a solid season on the NNJGA circuit, she qualified for the Nevada State Junior Amateur Cup and posted an at-the-time career-best 83 on the first day in the girls' 13-14 division.
She came back with an 81 the next day to claim the state title. It was her first tournament win of the season.
Less than a month later, high school golf started up.
"I thought maybe I had a chance to be in the mix for some seconds and thirds during the year," she said. "I didn't think it would go as well as it did."
Wurster posted an 80 to take individual medalist honors at the first Sierra League tournament of the year and instantly wanted more.
"I won that first tournament and I started becoming more determined to win again," she said. "I started training more and harder because I knew I had a shot."
With the extra work, her scores plummeted, dropping into the 70s over the next two tournaments, taking a third place with an 83 and the vaulting back to the top of the standings with a 75 and a two-day 147 at regionals.
In all, she won five of seven tournaments as a freshman and pushed her career total to 11 of 15 this year.
Her scores became the cornerstone of a Douglas team that won 13 consecutive tournaments in Northern Nevada, two team regional titles and two team league titles.
"The team is a lot of fun," she said. "We laugh and joke around a lot. It is relaxed and there isn't a lot of pressure."
Douglas coach Steve Gustafson has already received some calls from college coaches, but he has had to inform them Wurster is only a sophomore.
She received a recruiting questionnaire from UCLA after her freshman year, along with an invite to their summer camp.
"That's really been the only contact I've had," she said. "For now, I'm spending more time researching colleges for myself. No one can contact me directly until I am a junior. I want to play at the next level, so we'll see what happens."
Less than a week out of her sophomore season and Wurster has already selected her buzz word for her junior year.
"Consistency," she said. "I need to work on being more consistent in my game, try not to get as frustrated when I play."
