CBC’s Brianna Esvelt named NWAC Golfer of Year

Brianna Esvelt has been playing golf with her dad Chad and grandpa Todd Hunt since she was a little girl.

Now a freshman at Columbia Basin College, Esvelt, has put all of her years of hard work to good use.

She finished tied for third at the NWAC Championships on Sunday and Monday at The Home Course in Dupont, helping the Hawks to third place in the team standings.

Esvelt, who was named to the NWAC first team last week, was named NWAC Women’s Golfer of the Year on Monday — the third CBC golfer to win the award in the past four years. Hope Neidhold won in 2014 and Neydeen Martinez in 2015.

“It’s really exciting,” Esvelt said. “It’s nice to see all the hard work I did in the summer and winter pay off. I’d like to do even better next year.”

Hawks coach Dan Clifford was named the NWAC Women’s Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his nine years with the team. He also won in 2008 and 2013-14.

The pair will be honored June 1 at the 30th annual NWAC Hall of Fame banquet in Salem.

At the NWAC Tournament, Esvelt shot rounds of 80 and 77 to finish with a 157 — nine strokes back of medalist Megan Cysewski of Spokane.

“It was mainly dumb mistakes, especially the first day,” Esvelt said of her score. “The last two holes I had a triple and a double (bogey). I was so mad. I put myself in a bad spot. I was seventh after the first day. The second day, it was risk vs. reward. I just went for it and did a lot better.”

CBC’s Kendall Sage shot a 161 to finish tied for eighth, while Teagan Parish (Grandview) was tied for 19th with a 170.

Esvelt said she never got serious about golf until high school. She placed fourth at the Class 3A state tournament for Kamiakin last spring as the Braves finished second in the team standings.

She won the first tournament she played as a CBC golfer, and has been the most consistent and successful player on the the team this year.

She finished in the top six in seven of the eight events she played in — earning medalist honors four times.

“I want to get better,” Esvelt said. “I’m doing fine, but I want to get where I’m shooting in the low 70s all the time.”

The Hawks practice regularly at West Richland Golf Course, and at Horn Rapids once week, where they get instruction from Chris Johnson.

Esvelt said she doesn’t have a season pass to any one golf course, but she hopes to play in a couple of tournaments this summer and hit the links with her dad and grandpa.

“I still can’t beat my dad, which is annoying,” she said. “One day, it’s going to happen.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2017 at 5:16 PM with the headline "CBC’s Brianna Esvelt named NWAC Golfer of Year."