Rycroft's Max Sekulic (pictured middle with trophy) and his teammates celebrate an historic weekend in Stockton, California. Photo: Washington State Athletic Communications.

By Shane Clausing

record breaking weekend

Rycroft’s Sekulic leads Washington State University golf team to record-breaking weekend in California

Oct 25, 2021 | 1:05 PM

Rycroft’s Max Sekulic made history for Washington State University (WSU) this past weekend in Stockton, California.

Sekulic ended up carding the lowest three-round score in WSU history, shooting 16-under par (197) to win the individual title at the Visit Stockton Invitational.

Max’s 16-under par score broke the previous school record by four strokes.

He tells EverythingGP, he feels he shot so well because the course really fitted his playing style.

“It was a lot of fun, it was a course that set up to the strengths of my game, which is driving the ball and wedge play,” he explained. “I was pretty aggressive off the tee, I hit a few drivers to get a wedge in my hand going into the greens. Doing that, I made quite a few birdies and minimized the bogeys. I had a very strong nine holes to get it done.”

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His performance also led WSU to their first tournament win in men’s golf since 2017.

“To get the win as a team and win myself, that was super cool and was definitely the coolest experience I’ve had in college golf,” he said.

Sekulic’s historic performance was capped off by him shooting seven-under-par on the back nine Saturday, to help put his school in a winning position.

On the back nine Saturday, Sekulic eagled two holes, as well as several birdies. He thinks that because he was loose, he was able to perform well on the course.

“My coach told me that we had to make up a few shots on the back nine and that kind of freed me up,” he said. “You play away from avoiding mistakes to seeking to make birdies and eagles on holes. I had a good birdie on nine from the rough, on 10 I hold out from 130 yards for eagle.”

“This whole time I wasn’t looking at the leaderboard or checking the scores, I was just playing. It was very cool, I don’t think I’ve ever shot 29 on nine holes in a tournament, so to do it when it mattered was really special.”

He pared the 18^th hole to secure his school’s first win in men’s golf since 2017. The WSU golf team as a whole shot 816 (-36) over the course of the three-day tournament.

Sekulic also became the first WSU golfer since 2016 to win a golf tournament individually.

“Max played great golf all week,” said WSU head coach Dustin White in an interview with WSU.

“He wanted to win, maybe too bad at times, and he finally broke through. To shoot 29 on his final nine holes and end up shooting 62 in the final round is seriously good stuff. I’m happy he’s got this under his belt and validated his hard work. He’s been a guy to rally around this fall and I know his teammates are happy for him as well.”

Sekulic and the Cougars have one more tournament remaining in Monterey, California before concluding the fall season.

Max wanted to thank his parents, Nick and Caroline, and his siblings, Oliva and Theo for their support.