The Times 2022 Boys Golfer of the Year: Ottawa’s Drake Kaufman repeats as area’s top linskman

It’s been a heck of a successful last two seasons on the golf course for the Ottawa Pirates and ace Drake Kaufman.

And all signs point to another heck of a season to come.

For the second consecutive year, Ottawa’s Drake Kaufman is The Times Boys Golfer of the Year after another campaign of quite simply being the best prep linksman leading the best golf team in the area.

“This year we were kind of bouncing off last season, and we had super high expectations,” said Kaufman, a junior. “It was almost a completely different season [than the year before]. Instead of coming into a tournament thinking, ‘We just want to play well and have everyone shoot good scores,’ we were coming to the tournament wanting to win.”

The Pirates did plenty of that, as did Kaufman.

Kaufman carried a 37.6 nine-hole average through the fall and was a six-time medalist in regular-season meets. He also added four individual tournament championships – at the Belvidere Ryder Cup, the La Salle-Peru Cavalier Invitational, the Interstate 8 Conference Tournament and the Class 2A Mendota Regional, the last of which he won with an 18-hole round of 76, two strokes ahead of teammate Jonathan Cooper.

“He’s a pretty calm and collected kid in general,” Ottawa coach Keith Budzowski said of Kaufman. “He and Jonathan, they were two guys I could hang around the other guys [on the team during meets] and just check in on them every once in a while. You knew they were going to be solid all year. They were going to get you a good score.”

Kaufman also added three other top-three tournament finishes navigating a ramped-up Pirates schedule, including a runner-up at the Streator Bulldog Invitational and third-place showings at invites hosted by ACC and Marmion Academy.

After the aforementioned regional championship – for Kaufman and the Pirates – Ottawa had hopes of making a return trip to the IHSA Class 2A State Finals as a team. That was not to be, as the Pirates finished just outside the top three in a tough sectional field, but both Kaufman and sophomore teammate Seth Cooper salvaged individual berths to the final weekend of the season, surviving a seven-man playoff for the final spots.

“We wanted to get down there as a team,” Kaufman said. “That was kind of our main goal going into the sectionals and at the start of the year, but it was good. I’m glad Seth and I could make it individually. Just to make it into the playoff and both of us to get out of the playoff and make it down to state being in the top 10, at least we got something out of [the sectional].

“We didn’t get it as a team, but individually it was still nice to go down there.”

It was a close call. To this day, Kaufman says he isn’t sure if he had to sink his final putt to ensure a state spot, but he remembers exactly how he felt standing over the ball, striking it and watching it roll in.

“I was pretty nervous over the putt,” he said. “There were seven kids in the playoff. I mean, it was so hard to keep track of everybody’s scores. I knew where Seth was standing at and where one other kid was, but other than that, it’s hard to focus on everyone’s score and yourself.

“I was just kind of thinking, ‘Don’t even think about the scores. Just try to make it’, and I made it.”

It secured Kaufman’s second trip to state in his three years, this time placing tied for 30th with a two-day 156. There was no state tournament his freshman year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, although his fifth-place finish at sectionals would have gotten them there had it been held.

Looking ahead to next school year, Kaufman plans to continue to work on his golf game after the current basketball season concludes. With the majority of this year’s team back, the forecast is sunny for another great Pirates season ... especially with the steady Kaufman leading the way.

“Like everybody says, golf is 95% mental. He’s got that part nailed down,” Budzowski said. “And the 5% physical, he’s got that too.”