Cloquet grad makes golf regional

Cloquet grad Karson Patten just keeps adding to his growing golf resume. His collegiate team, Minnesota State Mankato, qualified for the NCAA regional championship in Edmond, Oklahoma next week. Patten, a freshman, finished third individually in the nine-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meet held April 19-21.

Patten is the defending Cloquet Country Club champion, a member of Cloquet's 2021 Minnesota State High School golf state championship team, and a 2023 Minnesota Mr. Golf finalist (awarded to Minnesota's best high school boys player). He qualified for five Minnesota state high school golf tournaments between grades 8-12. He graduated from Cloquet High School in 2023 and is the son of Scott and Jodi Patten.

In collegiate golf, five players comprise a team, with the top four players scores counting toward the team total. The NCIS conference tournament was held at Adams Pointe Golf Club in Blue Springs, Missouri near Kansas City. Minnesota State Mankato shot the lowest three-round total in league history. It is the first conference win for Mankato since the 2017-2018 season.

Patten was asked about memorable golf shots in the conference meet. "I was two under par after the front nine of the opening day of the tournament. Then, starting on 10, I went bogey, bogey, and double bogey. Rather than letting it get me down, I regrouped, birdied 14 and 15, and finished (at) even par. It gave me confidence and I then completed the three rounds under par. It was very gratifying."

The top five teams (and the top two student athletes not with an advancing team) from each of four regional tournaments will qualify for the Division II National Championship May 21-25 in Winter Garden, Florida. More than 80 teams are competing in the

regionals.