NMMI Sports Press
ALBUQUERQUE — A Colt golfer who had concentrated more on other sports for the last five years returned to the links this year, and finished with both district and state individual titles.
After a rough start to the somewhat abbreviated season, junior Jackson Hicks pulled everything together down the stretch to win each of his last four tournaments, including the District 4-3A and state tourneys.
“I took a long break to focus on baseball, and I regret not using those last five years to play, but I came out this year with low expectations and kind of did my thing,” Hicks said. “I wasn’t too confident. That was one thing I worked on this year, was my mental game, and I sorta figured it out toward the end and I won four in a row and it was a breeze.”
“To have four wins in one year against some top-level competition in a couple of those tournaments, he did very, very well,” said coach Randy Doerhoefer.
Because the coach wanted Hicks to get as much playing time as possible this season — he missed the entire 2020 season because of Covid shut downs — he went to the maximum number of meets allowed by the NMAA.
“I tried to take him to every tournament I could because I wanted to make up for losing his whole sophomore year with no golf,” Doerhoefer said
The goal, the coach said, was to prepare for district and state. But the strategy didn’t begin well.
“This year came, I started off really rough,” Hicks said. “I didn’t play well in the first four tournaments.”
He finished in the top 5 or 10, individuals “but not as good as I wanted to be. Then I realized what I needed to do and I did it the last four tournaments.”
He won the Clovis Christian Invite, the Goddard Invite at Spring River, then the District 4-3A/1A meet on his home course, winning by four shots over players from Clovis Christian (which won the team title at state), Dexter, Jal, Tatum and Tucumcari.
That earned him a trip to state.
The single day, one-round tournament was at Los Altos Golf Club in Albuquerque, which Hicks said was a good place to play.
“The course was really nice,” he said. “I can’t complain at all. The weather was a little windy, but not bad at all.”
The shotgun start for the 40 golfers competing began at 8 a.m., and from almost the start, Hicks knew how he was doing against his competition.
“I have a bad tendency to look at the leaderboard. I really wish I didn’t,” he laughed.
He knew his biggest competitor was senior J.J. Avery from Socorro, who was not in his foursome, but close enough that Hicks could keep an eye on him. And as the meet wore on, the Colt knew he had a chance to win.
“I was two shots up going into No. 15, and nerves kind of got the best of me,” he said. “I bogeyed 16. And the other guy who was behind me birdied, so we were tied, going into 17. I knew I needed to buckle down and do something great. He kind of choked and bogeyed the last hole, but I had no idea. I didn’t check the leaderboard for the last two holes. My coach just kind of told me what I needed to do, and I ended up parring two back-to-back holes and winning it.”
“He did well,” Doerhoefer said. “He controlled himself. Managed himself and kind of outlasted the field.”
Hicks finished the day with a 3-over-par 75, edging Avery by one.
“There were a lot of good players today,” Hick said. “No one today played really well. Even I didn’t play that well. I just played better than everybody else.”
And Hicks hopes to continue to play better than everyone else.
He’s staying in Albuquerque to compete in the Albuquerque Qualifier for the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Tour, and a top three finish in that will advance him to the regional qualifier in Texas. (He’s already qualified for a regional in another junior tourney.)
And next year, he’ll be back to NMMI where’s he’s certain he can repeat this year’s feat.
Oh, yeah. I think next year will be even easier than this year,” he said confidently. “I think next year there’s no reason I shouldn’t win again.”
Doerhoefer agrees.
“He has every chance to do that,” the coach said. “He’s definitely talented enough. And he’ll mature and grow some more, and I think he’s headed in a really great direction.”
And while Hicks enjoyed getting the one-on-one attention from being the only member of the Colt team, both he and his coach are looking for a full house next year.
“I like getting more coaching and more focus on just me,” Hicks said. “But I would love to have a team to play with.”
"I can’t wait until he comes back next year and hopefully we’ll have a full team for him to play on as well,” Doerhoefer said.
Complete results for the A-3A Boys State Golf Tournament are here: https://www.nmact.org/file/3A_Boys-Girls_Results.pdf