Luke Nelson’s golf journey started at Village Greens, the 18-hole course in eastern Kalispell, which makes perfect sense for the high school senior with a medalist honor to his credit.  

That it started in the summer of 2022 — that he hadn’t picked up the sticks, as they say, until the summer before his freshman year at Glacier High — doesn’t compute as well. 

Yet it’s very much the case. After his family moved back from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Nelson landed a job at Village Greens. And if there is one fringe benefit to working at a golf course. ... 

“I basically picked it as my sport,” Nelson said this week. “It was right after Covid, basically, and it was kind of popular at the time. So I tried it. I fell in love with it and really grinded at it.” 

On Sept. 4 Nelson, playing in the final group because of his first-day 68, was 1-under on the day heading to 18 at the Helena Invitational at Bill Roberts Golf Course. Glacier teammate Torren Murray, meanwhile, had made up a four-stroke deficit to be sitting 5-under for the tournament — tied with Nelson. 

Then, golf happened: Nelson hit his tee shot in the water; Murray’s went out of bounds. 

Nelson’s bogey was enough to win medalist honors by one stroke. 

“Kind of anticlimactic,” Nelson, who paired with Murray at the Montana State Four Ball Championships over the weekend (they took seventh), said. “But for the most part I played pretty good golf for two days.” 

Murray, for the record, is Glacier’s No. 1 golfer. The junior leads in stroke average (70.13), is a member of back-to-back state championship teams and just took medalist honors at the Butte Invitational this past Friday. 

Nelson, though — who would have thought? 

“Isn’t that crazy,” said Glacier coach Jim Ness. “And honestly — he showed me a video of his golf swing when he was a freshman. And it was not good. 

“His improvement, especially over the last year, has been tremendous.” 

Two months before Nelson landed that job at Village Greens, the course hired another Glacier freshman-to-be: Sam Syverson. 

“We started working together, and hit it off,” Syverson said. “Then we started golfing together. He’s the guy that kind of got me going with golf from Day 1. And we got really competitive.” 

Syverson, like Nelson, was just entering the sport. His dad, a small-college golfer, had suggested finding a golf course job; from there things fell into place. Well, after the obligatory triple-digit first 18s. 

Somewhere after that — last season Nelson made a few varsity tournaments, toggling back and forth with the graduated Wes Weber — there was some separation. 

“Luke’s worked a lot harder than I have,” Syverson said. “He got really competitive about it and really started working on getting good about a year before I did. It’s his whole life now; it’s pretty much all he wants to do. It’s pretty awesome.” 

Syverson spent three seasons playing sub-varsity golf and then, in his words, “I kind of knew I was going to be important for our team scoring well. I stepped up, trying to do the best I could.” 

His handicap in March was 12; now it’s 2.5. He’s fourth on the team in scoring average at 77.13, behind Murray, Nelson (72.88) and Jonah Wynne (76.5). 

Nelson still owns the career series. 

“I’ll be three or four shots ahead, and something lights up in him,” Syverson said. “He gets this look in his eyes. He’s got that competitive edge in him.” 

When he started, Nelson said, he purchased an Amazon set of clubs for $300. Three woods, a set of irons, no wedges. He’s since upgraded everything except his putter, an Odyssey Two Ball. 

“My baby,” Nelson said. “I’ve had three grips put on it. 

“My short game definitely kind of saves me. I don’t hit it super far. If I can hit a couple greens here and there, I can usually make a couple of putts.” 

The Western AA Divisional begins Thursday and ends Friday at Glacier’s “home course,” Northern Pines. Putts will need to be made to hold off the likes of Missoula Sentinel and Helena Capital, but the Wolfpack are a favorite — girls team included. State will the following week in Butte. 

A pair of seniors, relative newcomers to the sport, will be key to the boys. Of Syverson, Nelson said, “Sam and I play quite a bit.”  

Example: On March 8 the two, having just purchased $170 junior passes at Polson Bay Golf Course, teed off alongside Flathead Lake.  

“It was snowing throughout the round,” Syverson said. “It was just me and Luke; we pretty much had the place to ourselves — super dedicated. It was a blast. We figured we’d play Polson Bay every weekend until the Kalispell courses opened.” 

Northern Pines opened March 14. 

“We did not get our money’s worth out of those passes,” Syverson said. “Bad financial decision.” 

That decision four summers ago, though: Dead, solid perfect. 

    Glacier's Sam Syverson watches his drive on the third tee of the Crosstown Cup at Village Greens Golf Course on Thursday, Aug. 21. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider