Three Blossoms take on state meet

A trio of Blooming Prairie golfers took on the Class A state meet at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker last week with Aubrey Alwes, Brady Johnson and Drew Reinke representing the Awesome Blossoms.

Reinke made his second appearance at state as the team’s only returning qualifier, but he was joined in 2026 by Alwes and Johnson, marking a special moment where all three senior athletes were able to compete together at the big meet for a final two-day tournament.

“These three seniors have meant the world to our program. They put in the work and they play a lot of golf outside of practice and the season. They’re great ambassadors to the young kids as far as what practice should look like and how to play the game,” said Blooming Prairie head coach Andrew Hardecopf.

Alwes wrapped up her final meet as the team’s best scorer by finishing with 187 strokes (+43) for 40^th place.

The senior battled hard on the first day but had some difficulties early on to finish her front nine 11 strokes over par with two bogeys, two double bogeys and a triple.

She finished out the day by going 13-over on the back nine to finish with an opening-round 97 (+25), but was able to bounce back with a much cleaner second day.

A few more par saves on the front nine mixed with some key bogey putts kept her at eight over heading into the back side of the course.

When it mattered most, Alwes turned up the heat by scoring a key birdie on the 11^th hole to shave off a stroke and build some momentum to help her finish her tournament with a 90 (+18) for a seven-shot improvement from the day prior.

“The big difference between the two rounds was her putting. The green complexes at Pebble Creek are large and the have a lot of angulations that can make it easy to three-putt. I thought the second day, her tee shots were super on point. She had a lot more one- and two-putts because of how well she set herself up,” said Hardecopf.

On the boys’ side, Blooming Prairie’s Johnson finished in 43^rd place with Reinke taking 69^th.

Johnson managed two rounds of 81 (+9) for a 162 in the tournament, but had two very different days on the course.

His first round saw him put together a birdie on both the front and back nine, but also featured at least one double and three bogeys on each side of the course as well.

The second round was much more consistent for Johnson, and although he didn’t score a birdie or better through 18 holes, he did manage to minimize his errors with just two doubles and three bogeys on the front nine and a relatively clean two bogeys on the back nine.

“Brady played about as good of golf as a kid could. He wasn’t too strong off the tee the first day, so he had some compromised second shots. But he scrambled and made a lot of pars in situations where par was going to be a good score… He also putted really well. The second day, I think some fatigue got to him from all of the golf, but he’s been a varsity contributor since seventh grade and I couldn’t be more proud of how well he played,” said Hardecopf.

Reinke also put together identical scorecards in his tournament action by recording a pair of 87s for 174 total strokes.

Much like Johnson, Reinke had more marks on his scorecard the first day with one birdie, 10 bogeys, a double and a quadruple.

Despite the swingy first day, Reinke played more conservative golf in his second round and despite not notching a birdie, he did cut his bogeys down to five singles, and five doubles.

“The course doesn’t reall lend itself to Drew’s game. He doesn’t try to overpower a course. He is a very technical golfer… He had a roller coaster of a round the first day, but really put together a good, consistent round the second day,” said Hardecopf.