After a season at Oregon, Cibola's Krafft sees improvement

Jul. 27—Play the game long enough, one finds there's an unavoidable reality: sometimes you just get beat.

For example, Aidan Krafft was one down against Ethan Chung in the quarterfinals of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Amateur at Chambers Bay Golf Course in Seattle last weekend. The former Cibola High School star didn't feel like he hit the ball "great" with a 70 in the first round of stroke play before shoring up his swing for a torrid second-round 65 and three match-play victories in two days to get to this point.

That is, being down to Chung with three holes to go. On No. 16, Krafft drove it maybe 40 yards short of his opponent before hitting his approach within three feet of the cup. Chung three-putted.

All square. Two holes to go.

Playing No. 17, Krafft found his approach — embedded in the side of a bunker.

"Like the worst plug I've ever seen," he laughed. Krafft lost the hole to go back to one down. Chung birdied No. 18 to seal the match.

All things considered, that's fine.

"I played well," Krafft said. "I just got beat. I didn't feel like I lost it or I didn't play good. He was better than me that round."

After finishing his freshman year at Oregon, Krafft didn't win, but he still earned medalist honors at the PNGA Amateur. It's yet another honor for the 2022 Journal boys golfer of the year after he notched two state championships at Cibola with a state record final round 60 en route to his second title in 2022.

Now, Krafft can look forward to his first appearance in next month's U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club outside Denver, courtesy of a four-under two-round 140 at a sectional qualifier in Arizona. Another year at Oregon, building off four top-20 finishes and finishing fifth on the team in stroke average (72.62).

Mostly, the feeling that worthy improvement — lots of it — is in reach.

"I just feel way more refined than I used to be, and I know there's still so much learning to be (done)," he said.

Over the last year, Krafft hasn't lived the difference between high school and college golf so much as the difference between good high school and great college golf.

"There's just so many good players, there's so much good competition and they really make the courses hard for us," he said. "We're learning about as much as we can, without getting like a PGA experience."

Part of that comes from the coaching staff at Oregon. Head men's golf coach Casey Martin is a PGA Tour veteran and former college teammate at Stanford of New Mexico golf luminary Notah Begay III. Martin is widely known for successfully suing the Tour to use a golf cart during sanctioned competition.

"He's told me that he just sees a lot of potential in me ... the guy is so cool," he said. "Even (assistant coach and former PGA Tour player Jeff Quinney) is so cool. The knowledge that they have, (from) both being on Tour and making it, they both know how to get there and what it requires."

Working on chipping in particular, the difference between how Krafft played in his junior career compared to now is night-and-day.

"I would hit like 15 out of 18 greens and shoot like 1-under because (on) the greens I'd miss, I'd make bogey," he said. "Now it's like I'm getting better, chipping better, my course management's better: if I miss greens, I'm in the right spot."

In other words: improvement.

"I feel like my game is starting to get a lot better and a lot more solid," he said. "I always felt like I was good — I just didn't get out what I was putting in, wasn't scoring how I feel I should be or how good I was at the time. But now (that) I know that I'm only gonna get better."