Platke signs with Utah State
<p>Reed Platke has signed to play golf with Utah State.</p>
Whitefish’s standout student-athlete
Reed Platke officially signed last week to play golf with the
Aggies of Utah State. The Division I team plays in the competitive
Western Athletic Conference.
Plake originally committed this past
summer to play at Washington State University, but a coaching shake
up at the university forced the senior to look elsewhere. He was
quickly approached by Utah State.
“They were looking at my profile
online,” Platke said. “We went down there to meet the coach and
played with a couple of guys on the team.”
Platke felt comfortable on the Logan,
Utah, campus — the area offers a lot of the same characteristics he
loves about Montana, including hunting and outdoor activities. Utah
State was a good match for the budding golf star.
He acknowledges the collegiate level
will be very different from the competition he’s faced at the prep
level. At the bottom rung as a freshman with the Aggies he hopes to
just have a chance to make the traveling team.
“Right now I just want to play,” he
said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to
the challenge.”
Platke’s had ample success on the golf
course as a Bulldog. As a freshman he set the stage when he won the
divisional tournament and finished second at the state
tournament.
He won the Class A state high school
golf championship his sophomore year, an experience he calls the
most memorable of his prep career. It was nine degrees when he teed
off at Whitefish Lake Golf Club and Whitefish ended up winning the
team state title that year.
Platke was state runner-up his junior
season, missing the top spot by one stroke.
He calls his prep career “a great ride”
and chalks up a lot of Whitefish’s success on the course to coach
Terry Nelson.
“Coach Nelson knows so much about the
game you can’t not listen to him,” Platke said.
Nelson says Platke is an all-around
class act.
“Reed is one of those kids who has it
all,” Nelson said. “He’s a good student, extremely polite, and as a
golfer, it’s his focus and experience that sets him apart. He knows
how to manage the golf course, which is a product of
experience.”
He’s also a hard worker. Platke will
play a round of golf every day in the summer, or at least hit a few
hundred balls at the range. In the winter he trains with a golf
simulator.
“He also has a good physical regime,”
Nelson said. “That makes a huge difference.
“He hasn’t reached his potential, —
very few kids his age do. He has a lot more in the tank than we’ve
seen.”
Plake is modest about the potential
he’s shown and he knows the competition will only get stiffer as he
moves up in the ranks. Still, he thinks about what it might be like
to play at the professional level.
“It’s very hard to get to those upper
levels,” he said, “but every golfer dreams of it.”
Plake started playing golf at three
years old when his father first put a club in his hands. He played
his first tournament at eight years old.
“I’ve loved the game ever since,” he
said. “It’s a good game. It’s hard not to.”
•••
Platke’s stats
• Favorite hole at Whitefish Lake Golf
Course: No. 6 on the South course, the par 5 with water down the
left.
• Favorite golf course: South Course at
WLGC.
• Best round at WLGC: 67 on the South
course.
• Driver distance: 290 yards.
• Best part of his game: Short
game.
• Secret to success: Focus is key. Golf
is all mental.
• College academics: Plans to study
landscape architecture.