Forget those three regular-season tournament victories or second-straight state championship appearance. Makena Thayer’s real breakthrough happened last summer.
One sunny day, the Battle Mountain sophom*ore shot a 75 to defeat Vail Country Club owner Kenny Thayer —better known as ‘Dad’ — by three strokes.
“She beat me,” the golfing patriarch said with paradoxically proud disgust. In their regular duals over the years, Kenny Thayer has gotten used to exploiting his daughter’s crunch-time nerves.
“I used to be able to get in her head on the final three holes and I would win,” he said. “Now, she’s making a birdie on the last hole to win the whole thing.”
Makena Thayer didn’t make a big deal about beating her dad. Then again, the even-keel sophom*ore doesn’t get worked up about anything.
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“Her demeanor to me is the biggest thing I see,” said Kenny Thayer, who compared his daughter’s lackadaisical approach to professional Dustin Johnson.
“You don’t know if he made a birdie, an eagle or a triple,” he continued. “She shakes it off well (and) doesn’t put too much pressure on herself. She’ll make two or three bogeys in a row, but she’s like, ‘I’m still doing pretty good.’ And then she’ll go string off eight pars and a birdie.”
That pretty much summed up Makena Thayer’s 2024 state tournament, held last week in Colorado Springs. After accurate putting paved the way for a 79 on day 1, Thayer opened the second round last Tuesday with a bogey, triple bogey and bogey.
“A lot of people would’ve just melted down,” Kenny Thayer said. “And she just calmed her nerves.”
Battle Mountain coach Chris Hoevel said the challenging Country Club of Colorado course “forced players to make intelligent decisions regarding their golf game.”
“This was not a course where you could simply pick up a driver and bomb the ball,” he stated. “Not to mention the wind from the lake made the back nine holes play completely differently from day 1 to day 2. Makena really succeeded in conquering this challenge.”
Thayer followed up the rough day 2 start with six-straight pars. She finished with a 39 on the back nine for a two-day total of 159, good for fourth place overall — the best finish in Husky history, Hoevel said. Thayer was just one shot from tying for the silver with Windsor’s Macy Kleve and Erie’s Hadley Ashton, both juniors. Ashton’s teammate, senior Logan Hale (142), took the title.
“I think it was good for the conditions and the course,” said Thayer, who placed 13th last year. When asked if having state-championship experience helped her, she answered, “No. It’s the same,” proving overthinking really is overrated.
“She’s so care free and loose and relaxed,” Kenny Thayer said. “There’s not a price on that.”
“I’ve just kind of always been that way,” Makena Thayer said regarding her mental approach. “I just don’t really think about it too much if I make a mistake. I just say, ‘onto the next hole’ because every hole is a new chance. I think if you think about it too much and get too hard on yourself, it’s not going to end well.”
The 15-year-old said she’s increased every club’s distance this year by improving her mechanics and getting stronger.
“Last year, whenever I had a second shot on the green, I’d just think, ‘hit it on the green,'” she said. “And now I think, ‘hit it close to the hole — get a birdie.'”
Kenny Thayer also believes better overall course management — “especially in terms of club selection, reading greens and being patient” — are responsible for his daughter’s performance leaps in 2024. Even though he offers coaching to Makena, he doesn’t tinker with her mechanics much and has never forced her to focus on the sport year-round.
“She’s not a single-minded individual,” he said of the “easy-go-lucky” 15-year-old, who also runs cross-country in the fall, skis for the Huskies in the winter and plays lacrosse in the spring — alongside golf.
“She plays in four sports, truly, because she has four different friend groups. In the old days, we didn’t know if she was really passionate about anything besides her friends,” Kenny Thayer said before adding, “It definitely seems like she’s getting the bug more and more for golf.”
If beating dad was last summer’s big breakthrough, Kenny Thayer may have already witnessed the next monumental step in his daughter’s progression. Unable to attend the second day of the state tournament, he listened as Makena regaled her trials and triumphs on the final hole over the phone.
“Normally when I say, ‘how’s your golf?’ she’s like, ‘good.’ That’s it,” Kenny Thayer said.
“She’s like, ‘dad, on the hole I hit my drive in the rough, just left, and I knew because of the lie I couldn’t spin it, but I had to carry the water and I didn’t want it to hit and run off the green. So, I knew if I landed it shorter on the front of the green it would bounce up, but I knew I needed to clear the water. And I hit this shot and pulled it off and rolled up next to the hole,'” he continued.
“That’s the first time she’s ever really talked golf to me in my entire life. I almost fell out of my chair and I was like, this is the greatest moment ever.”
