File photo by Ari Selvey Owen Strei was named as the 2025 All-Journal Boys Golfer of the Year on Wednesday.

NEW ULM — Owen Strei has been waiting patiently for his opportunity.

Two seasons ago, Sleepy Eye United’s Carson Erickson was the top golfer in the area. Last season, Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ben Pearson was the undisputed leader of the Tomahawk Conference.

Strei learned from both of them as he worked through his sophomore and junior seasons at New Ulm Cathedral.

“I definitely learned a little bit, especially with them being older,” Strei said. “Their mentality and the maturity of their game was a little bit different than mine when I played against them. Erickson, when he graduated, I was a sophomore, so obviously there’s an age gap there, which definitely showed in the difference in maturity. But walking with them and playing with them all the time, it gave me a boost in where I needed to be mentally to play at that level.

“Same with Ben, even though we’re only a year apart. I feel like there was a different maturity in his game as he was going into his senior year. And it was something that I looked forward to, because I know that over time as you get older, you’ll become more mature, understand your game a little bit more and be able to stay calmer and make better, rational decisions with each shot. I feel like that was the biggest thing that I took away from their game.”

This season, it was Strei who was the leader in the Tomahawk-Valley Conference, finishing as the conference champion, the Section 2A Champion, and taking 15th at the Class A State tournament. Strei dropped his nine-hole scoring average from 41 to 38.4 and was the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Boys MVP. For his accomplishments, Strei has been selected as the 2025 All-Journal Boys Golfer of the Year.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I feel like every golfer winning an award definitely means something. I don’t really know the words to express it, but it definitely shows the work I put into it.”

It was that maturity he saw in Erickson and Pearson that Strei found the most improvement in this year.

“The biggest improvement for me was probably the mental side of the game,” he said. “Just trying to stay calmer when things didn’t go according to plan, and also a little bit of course management, trying to hit the ball in the right spot instead of trying to attack the pin every time. Just trying to give myself more chances to make par instead of trying to get aggressive and make a mistake and make a bogey and then trying to make it back with a birdie or something like that. Just understanding that not everything is going to go my way every time and just trying to take it one shot a time.”

In the first round of the state tournament at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Becker this year, Strei shot an 81. But on the second day, Strei improved to a 75 to finish in a tie for 15th place.

“State Day 1 didn’t go according to plan or how I exactly wanted it,” Strei said. “But I think the biggest transition going to state for me was that I need to understand I need to enjoy it. Because Day 1 I feel like I may have taken it a little too seriously knowing it was going to be my last year up there. But I think going into Day 2, I took that perspective and changed it a little bit and was like, ‘This is my last time up here. I’m going to enjoy it,’ which caused me to play a round like I expected myself to play, which made me really happy and put me back into a better place.

“Obviously, every golfer is going to say they can do better or want to better, which I would also say for myself. I probably would have liked to do better than 15th and know I can do better than 15th, but at the same time, I played what I was capable of at the time, and I think that was the greatest thing for me, is knowing I didn’t give up and I gave myself 100% of my effort at the time. So I was happy where I placed.”

Strei thinks the best rounds of his career have come in important spots — either in the section or conference tournaments.

“Last year at sections was probably my first round where I was like, ‘OK, I’m starting to see myself in places I want to be,'” Strei said. “Because I went 83, which wasn’t by best day, and then Day 2 I went out and fired 1 under [par], which was my first time ever breaking par in a tournament, which was great. I saw a lot of improvement in my game. But then this year I saw a big change, my scoring average dropped three shots and I played some of the best rounds of my career during conference, which was awesome.

“I went 72 at the first meet, then I went 74 in the second one, then I fired my lowest score in a competitive tournament ever, 67, which I saw massive improvements in my game this year, which was a big bonus, especially since it’s my senior year.”

Strei plans on continuing his competitive golf career at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln.

“I’m definitely still chasing that goal of playing competitively,” Strei said. “I’m going for the PGM program — professional golf management, so I’ll be going to become a pro in the golf space. But other than that, I’m going to try to play either club golf there or try to walk on the team there, we’ll see where that goes. But that’s my plans at the moment.”

In order to achieve those goals, Strei will continue to work on both the mental and physical sides of the game.

“I still have plenty of room in my game to mature,” Strei said. “Definitely shot selection. A big thing I’ve seen playing outside of high school in different tournaments is the different shots people can hit, I probably need to add some new shots to my bag. And then just dial in the other parts of my game, like putting I can probably get a little better at, iron play I can get a little better at. Stuff like that. But other than that, just focus on the basics and keep drilling those in.”