Zephyr Mowinkel will be a sophomore at Milford High this year, but he’s already earned a top award on the state golf scene.
Mowinkel was named the Player of the Year for the Nebraska Junior Golf Association in the 14- and 15-year-old division.
The award is based on points earned throughout the summer competition. Mowinkel scored 583.3 and won by 70 points. Among his summer wins were two smaller tournaments, worth 50 points each, one of the bigger tournaments, worth 75, and one of the summit tournaments, worth 100.
Mowinkel played all summer and met golfers from all over the state, he said.
“I’m friends with a ton of kids. It’s cool to play with them,” he said. “It’s so fun to play with everyone.”
Courses on the schedule included Lochland in Hastings, Riverside in Grand Island, Pioneers in Lincoln, Kearney Country Club and Wild Horse in Gothenburg.
Mowinkel said his favorite was Kearney Country Club. He liked Meadowlark, also in Kearney, but said you have to place the ball in the right place to score well there.
He said the mental game is especially important in golf.
“You have to be locked in,” he said.
Playing with other golfers is good for him, though, because even if his round is going badly, there are people to talk to and help him get past his bad shots.
“A bad day won’t ruin the summer,” he said. “Last year I worried about everything.”
Mowinkel said his strength is his short game, play around and on the greens. On the tee, he said he thinks about where he wants to hit the ball.
He said his favorite clubs are his wedges. He has four – 60, 56, 52 and pitch.
“I love my wedges,” he said.
His least favorite club depends on the round, he said with a grin.
He likes playing par five holes because they score the fewest number of bogies.
He knows the layout of most of the courses he plays, but he doesn’t scout them ahead of time.
“I just walk up and play the course,” he said. “None are easy. They’re all hard in their own way.”
This year’s championship was at Lochland in Hastings, and Mowinkel said he was glad to get to play a tournament on that course.
Mowinkel has played golf since fourth grade and remembered his first time playing with his grandfather.
“My first tee shot I shanked into a house (at Thornridge in Milford),” he said. “I took a 12. I ran out of golf balls.”
Last summer, he said, he spent six hours a day at the golf course and everything finally clicked for him. He took that into the 2024 high school season, where he shot a 71 at Sutton, his first competitive round under par. He qualified for the state tournament, as well.
Mowinkel said he’d love to play Augusta National Golf Course in Atlanta, Georgia, home course of The Masters Championship. Jordan Spieth is his favorite professional golfer.
“He has an amazing short game. To be good, you have to get your wedges perfect,” Mowinkel said.
His lunch of choice on the course is Blue Gatorade with a hot dog or hamburger.
His dad, Brandon, usually drives him to the summer tournaments and walks the course with him. Zephyr said they break down each round in the car on the way home.
“It’s great to have my dad there. He’s a second set of eyes,” he said.
His mom, Shelly, has been a good mental coach for him.
“To be good, it starts with the mental,” Zephyr said. “I’ve improved my mental game by a mile and a half.”
He plans to continue to play golf this fall. He hasn’t done the fall season before, which features three-person teams. The top two scores are counted. He will join two golfers from Lincoln Christian to form a team.
The high school season is contested in the spring, and Mowinkel is already looking forward to it.
“My goal is to be a 70s golfer so my team has a chance at state,” he said.
