QND’s Eftink winds up second to one yet again, finishes season as Class 1A state runner-up

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Beau Eftink doesn’t necessarily subscribe to the theory twice is nice, especially when it comes to finishing as the runner-up at the state golf tournament.

“I already got second once,” he said. “I didn’t need to get it again.”

He most certainly doesn’t want to do it a third time.

“I wish I could get first at some point,” the Quincy Notre Dame junior said. “I want first. That’s what I’ll be going for next year. I just know I can continue to play with these good players and still be one of the top ones. So I’ll keep chasing it.”

Eftink narrowly missed for the second straight year.

Tied for fifth place and four strokes out of the lead when the second round of the Class 1A state tournament began Saturday morning at Prairie Vista Golf Course, Eftink vaulted to the top of the leaderboard by the turn, playing his first nine holes in 3-under 33.

He then battled for the lead with Port Byron Riverdale senior Aidan Dorathy over the final nine holes, albeit from opposite sides of the course. Dorathy, who started on No. 1, made birdie on No. 10 and bogey on No. 11 to sit at 1-over. Meanwhile, Eftink made three bogeys and a birdie over Nos. 3 through 6 — he started his round on No. 10 — to fall back 1-over.

It meant a three-hole shootout. Eftink made birdie on the par-5 seventh, while Dorathy birdied the par-5 16th and the par-4 17th to finish at 1-under 143. Eftink couldn’t make birdie on either of the final two holes, taking bogey on the par-4 ninth to finish at 1-over 145 and as the state runner-up for the second straight season.

“Tip of the cap to Aidan Dorathy,” QND coach Brian Hendrian said. “To play the final three holes in 2-under, that’s something special.”

So was Eftink, who shot 1-under 71 and was one of just four golfers in the field to break par.

“He really came out and played his game,” Hendrian said.

That was to stay aggressive and seize birdie opportunities.

“I approached it like I had nothing to lose,” Eftink said. “I really didn’t. It was the last round of the season, so I might as well give it my all. That’s exactly how I approached it.”

Making back-to-back birdies on his second and third holes of the day helped.

“They really gave me momentum,” Eftink said.

He never really lost it, even when he took back-to-back bogeys on the back nine.

“I just had a couple of unlucky breaks,” Eftink said.

The unluckiest came on the final hole.

Needing a birdie to tie Dorathy, Eeftink drove his tee shot down the middle of the fairway, leaving him roughly 80 yards to the pin. His approach looked like it would land softly near the front of the green, but it caught the lip where the green and the collar meet and rocketed off the back of the putting surface.

“I thought it was going to be good,” Eftink said. “I hit it pretty well and it was going right at the flag. I just kind of thought it was going to land, bounce and trickle up there to within 5 or 6 feet or something like that. It just kept going through to the back edge. I was like, ‘Aw, dang.’”

He took an aggressive line on his birdie attempt and ran the ball past the hole. His state title dreams ended there.

“I was kind of disappointed,” Eftink said. “In the end, I did give it my all, but I thought I could have come out and won it. I feel like I should have won it.”

It gives him something to chase his final prep season.

“It would be really nice to end my career as a state champ,” Eftink said. “That would be fun.”