Jun. 28—Jordana Windhorst Knudsen doesn’t remember many of the fine details of her first varsity golf meet.
She does remember the bigger picture about that day in the spring of 2019, though: She felt a few nerves and, though she was just a seventh-grader, she didn’t feel out of place in the varsity lineup of a team that felt like it could contend for section and state championships.
“I remember just being so little, really having no idea what I was getting myself into, playing 18 holes competitively at the high school level,” she said earlier this week. “I really looked up to (teammates) Ava (Wallerich), Marah (Rothgarn), Molly (Kennedy) and Hannah (LaBonte), and I wanted to be there with them.
“Marah and Ava (became) close friends and were competitors. They pushed me a lot to be who I am and how I compete today.”
Who she is today, is a state champion.
After helping Lake City win the first two Class 2A girls golf team state championships in program history, Windhorst Knudsen capped one of the best — if not the best — careers in Lake City history on June 12. That day, at the Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan, she added the one thing that had been missing from her sparkling golf resume: A Class 2A individual state championship.
Because of that — and the best scoring average in southeastern Minnesota this season, 75.0, Windhorst Knudsen is also the Post Bulletin All-Area Girls Golfer of the Year for a third consecutive season.
“Honestly, I have been looking forward to that my whole high school career,” she said of winning state. “Even in seventh grade, I wanted to be that girl who wins a state title. … I feel incredibly grateful. I just finally did it. … My dad even said it to me afterward, that you can’t make that up how it happened.”
Lake City coach Steve Randgaard could see Windhorst Knudsen’s potential long before she joined the varsity as a seventh-grader. Randgaard works closely with youth golfers in Lake City and, through 37 years as a golf coach, has learned to spot the best attributes in young players. Windhorst Knudsen had plenty of them.
But even Randgaard couldn’t predict just how successful Windhorst Knudsen would become.
From her first meet as a Tiger in 2019 through becoming the state medalist last month, she played in 67 varsity meets. Lake City used her score in 66 of them.
Of the top nine 18-hole scores in program history, she holds seven of them.
She was named a Minnesota Miss Golf finalist this spring and she holds two team state championships, three Section 1-2A individual championships and, now, an individual state title.
“She puts so much into it,” Randgaard said. “She’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had. She plays year round, or close to it. … Golf is her thing, her only sport. She’s put a lot of time and energy into it and she has succeeded.”
Throughout her varsity career, Windhorst Knudsen has also invested greatly in steadying the mental side of her game. She has learned how to picture her shots before she hits them and has built up a database of tips to keep her calm on the course.
All of that came into play on June 12, when she entered the final round of the state meet — her final high school round — four shots back of leaders Kelby Anderson (a senior from International Falls) and Elizabeth Fong (an eighth-grader from Holy Angels). The weather forecast was shaky for that day, which left players wondering how much — if any — of the final round would get played.
“I knew I was down four going into Day 2,” Windhorst Knudsen said. “I also knew the leaders are very, very good players. I was going into that round with the mindset of ‘I’ll just play and not worry about my score.’ I didn’t even peek at the leaderboard for the whole round.”
Following a lengthy rain delay, the final round was shortened to nine holes; the boys played the front nine at The Ridges, the girls played the back.
Windhorst Knudsen started with pars on holes 10 and 11, then bogeyed the par-4 12th hole. On the ensuing hole, a 339-yard par-4, she hit an approach shot too hard. The ball sailed past her intended landing spot and splashed into the water that bisects the fairway just short of the green. In a position that may have derailed her game for a hole or more in previous years, she brushed off the shot, took the penalty stroke and recovered nicely to make bogey.
“She bounced right back,” Randgaard said. “She used her experience and was ready to finish strong.”
Windhorst Knudsen was playing in the second-to-last group of the day, just ahead of Fong and Anderson, and the large gallery that was tracking the leaders. She could hear the crowd reacting and when she got to the 17th tee, the group ahead of hers was just teeing off. She turned to look back at the 16th green just as Fong drained a 40-foot birdie putt.
Still, Windhorst Knudsen had no desire to check the leaderboard.
“At that point, I was thinking ‘they’re playing very well and I have nothing to lose,'” she said.
The pin was tucked on the right side of the green on the 132-yard, par-3 17th hole, making it a high risk-high reward shot. She decided to go right at it. The gamble paid off, as her tee shot stopped within six feet of the pin, then sank the uphill putt.
Windhorst Knudsen played the 453-yard, par-5 18th hole as perfectly as she’d played 17, putting her driver and a second shot right down the middle. That’s when Randgaard, who walked the final hole with her, told her the Tigers had secured another runner-up finish as a team. She then pulled out her favorite club, a 50-degree lob wedge, and put her approach to five feet. She drained another birdie putt — “I had no idea it was for the win,” she said — to close her career and put the pressure on the two players behind her.
“That was fun,” Randgaard said. “A birdie-birdie finish, but I don’t think she was even thinking about the title at that point.”
After her double-bogey on 17, Fong bogeyed 18 to drop a shot back of Windhorst Knudsen. Anderson needed just a bogey on 18 to win, or a double-bogey to tie, but she put two balls in the water and made triple-bogey.
Randgaard was having a conversation near the clubhouse and didn’t see what was unfolding with the final group. He didn’t realize what had occurred until he saw the rest of the Lake City players smiling and hugging Windhorst Knudsen near the green.
That’s when he realized she had just become the second state medalist in program history, joining Holly Duncan, who won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992 before playing college golf at Iowa State University.
“I was very surprised and just … after thinking about it, it was a fitting way for Jordana to end her career,” Randgaard said.
“All the pressure, I didn’t feel it that much, because I wasn’t in the final group,” Windhorst Knudsen said. “I’ve been in that group before and there is a little more pressure. That definitely freed my mind and let me excel. … It still doesn’t really feel real.”
Randgaard isn’t sure how he’ll feel next spring when practice begins and Windhorst Knudsen and Ella Matzke aren’t at the driving range at Lake City Golf Club.
Matzke finished fifth in the section and 20th at state. The three-sport athlete at Lake City will head to Concordia University-St. Paul this fall, where she’ll play golf.
Windhorst Knudsen will head south to play Division I golf at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C. Her ultimate goal is to become a coach, to work with athletes on the physical and mental sides of their game. But first, she’s thrilled to have a chance to play year round and to see how much more she can improve her own game.
“Her work ethic, I know she’s really going to work hard at everything there,” Randgaard said. “You won’t find anyone who works harder than she does. … She’s really smart, too, a smart player. She’s great at picking a course apart, using her course management skills.”
Windhorst Knudsen is in Charlotte this weekend for freshman orientation at Queens. Then she’ll come home to resume a busy summer schedule of junior and amateur golf tournaments before leaving for college on Aug. 20.
She credited Lake City coaches Randgaard and Brad Pederson for helping her continuously tweak her game and prepare her for the next step in her career.
When asked if she’s ready for the challenge of Division I college golf, she gave a fitting reply.
“Honeslty,” she said, “bring it on.”
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