QND’s Eftink joins select company with runner-up finish at Class 1A state golf tournament

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Beau Eftink learned the value of patience through the agony of waiting Saturday afternoon.

The Quincy Notre Dame sophomore golfer posted a 1-under 71 in the second round of the Class 1A state tournament at Prairie Vista Golf Course and was the clubhouse leader at 1-over 145 when he finished his round.

At the time, there were two golfers a stroke or two ahead of him with seven holes to play in their individual rounds. So Eftink and his teammates were left to watch the live scoring app to see if there’d be any fluctuation.

“We kept refreshing the scores and they were taking forever to refresh,” Eftink said. “They were waiting on this one hole for like an hour because there was a huge backup. So we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ We couldn’t get any of the scores, so we were sitting there waiting and waiting.

“Eventually, we just went out there and watched them.”

Every minute added to everyone’s anxiety.

“Yeah, I was nervous,” Eftink said. “While I was watching them, I knew what they had to do to get to the point where I wanted them to get.”

That ended up being one of the highest finishes in school history.

River Ridge’s Thomas Hereau birdied two of his final four holes to shoot a 1-over 73 and post a 1-under 143 to win the individual championship. Eftink tied with Harvest Christian Academy’s Liam Lodding and Grant Park’s Trey Boecker for second place, with Eftink winning the tiebreaker for second place.

Eftink is the sixth golfer in QND history to finish as the state runner-up, the last being Alex McCulla, who was the runner-up in Class 2A as a sophomore in 2018 and a junior in 2019.

Dan Citro won an individual state championship for QND in 1997.

“It makes me more excited about the game and think about my future and what I have in golf, how much I can get done and how much better I can actually get over the years as I keep working at it,” Eftink said. “For me to come back and get second is really nice.”

Shooting the lowest round of the day — Eftink, Boecker and Vandalia’s Conner McCall each shot 1-under 71 — made it memorable.

“He was a lot of fun to watch today,” QND coach Brian Hendrian said. “He was aggressive from the get-go and played really well. He was steady throughout. He just made par after par after par when he needed to and got up-and-down when he had a little bit of a loose shot somewhere. He played well. I’m really proud of him.”

Opening on Prairie Vista’s back nine, Eftink birdied the par-4 11th before making bogey on three of the next four holes. He birdied the par-4 18th to make the turn at 1-over 37. On his second nine, he birdied both par-5s to shoot a 2-under 34.

“Definitely, my putting on the second nine was big,” Eftink said. “On the front nine, it was pretty rough. I didn’t make anything. I lipped out three or four times. I couldn’t get anything to fall. Right around No. 18 and the rest of the round, I started making putts. It just kept getting better and better.”

He also avoided danger with a pair of closing up-and-downs..

On the par-4 eighth hole, Eftink chipped to within a foot to save par. On the par-4 ninth, his second shot went behind the back of the green, and he chipped to within 6 feet and made the putt to finish the lowest round of the day. Eftink and two other golfers were the only ones in the field to break par.

“Those were huge saves where he made clutch shots,” Hendrian said.

And he has two more years to make more. First, he gets to cherish quite a feat.

“Getting second at state as a sophomore is pretty cool,” Eftink said.