By 
Aberdeen’s Olivia Braun won the girls ages 16 to 18 championship at the West Coast Notah Begay Invitational Golf Tournament, which was Saturday, Jan. 17 and Sunday, Jan. 18 in Palm Springs, Calif.
Braun picked up a four-stroke victory in the event at Indian Canyon Golf Resort.
The Aberdeen Central senior-to-be shot two rounds of four-under-par 68 for a two-day total of 136.
Making the feat more impressive is that she opened her first round with a double bogey.
Aberdeen’s Olivia Braun hits a tee shot during the West Coast Notah Begay Tournament Sunday, Jan. 18 in Palm Springs, Calif. Braun carded a two-day total 136 to win the tournament. Courtesy photo.
“Holy cow, no way after my first hole would I have guessed I’d shoot eight under and would have won this,” Braun said. “Doubles happen sometimes, and it was funny because I was OK with it. There was just so much golf left, and wouldn’t you know, I birdied the next two holes, and now I was back at even par.”
She said that early in the round on Saturday, Jan. 17, it was sometimes difficult to focus on only golf given the surroundings.
“It was a beautiful course with mountains and canyons all around you, palm trees, just a really lush course. Plus, it was the first time I played outside since August, so I was just thinking how lucky I was to be playing in sunny, warm conditions and not really thinking about the actual tournament,” Braun said.
The key to navigating the course was shot discipline, she said.
“The course had a lot of sand off the tee, and there were fairway bunkers and green bunkers, so you had to stay focused on ball placement, especially off the tee,” Braun said.
Back-to-back birdies ice victory
She iced the victory with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 on the second day to hold off Addison Kloch of Augoura Hills, Calif.
“She is a really good player, and I think on 15 she was only one shot behind me,” Braun said. “I just stayed in the moment and made sure I hit the shot I wanted to hit. Obviously going birdie-birdie to finish was huge, especially because this was one of the biggest tournaments I’ve ever played and had the best competition I’ve seen.
“The biggest difference (between) here and with high school golf is if you hit a bad couple shots in a field like this, you can drop 10, maybe 12 spots. In high school, you can afford a bad hole or two and still be OK. This type of course really makes you have to think a lot more about what shot to hit and where to try and put it,” she said.
Braun will play college golf at SDSU
Braun qualified for the event by finishing as runner-up at a regional tourney in Minnesota last summer. By winning the West Coast Notah Begay Invitational, she qualified for the national tournament in November, an event she won’t be able to compete in because she’ll be playing golf at South Dakota State University.
Not lost on Braun while in Palm Springs was that a golfer from South Dakota — not California, Arizona or Nevada — topped the standings. Golfers from those states can play outside for most of the year.
“To be honest, yeah, it made me chuckle a bit, seeing Aberdeen, S.D. up there at the top,” she said. “A lot of people in the golf community underestimate golf in the Midwest, so to get the win at an event like this, I mean of course you feel a lot of pride about that.”
Braun has now played rounds of golf at Palm Springs, Pebble Beach and Augusta National and is set to play another event in February at Toka Sticks Golf Course in Mesa, Ariz.
Augusta in Georgia is where the Masters is played every spring.
“My mom and I were talking about it, just how in my short lifespan all of the opportunities golf has given me and the places I’ve been able to play; it really is insane,” Braun said. “I’ve been so lucky to have had these opportunities that most times I can’t soak it all in.”
