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Barks wins Boys Golf Athlete of the Year at Semoball Awards
Poplar Bluff boys golfer Landon Barks has played just one year of high school golf, but what a year it was!
During his recently-completed freshman season, Barks:
* Took second at the Class 4 state tournament at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau in May, shooting a 144 to finish just one stroke back of Hannibal's Quinn Thomas for the state title. That score helped the Mules earn a state championship, the team's first state title since 1996.
* Finished second at the SEMO Conference Tournament on April 30, shooting a two-under 69 to tie Dexter's Banks Nesselrodt before the latter won the individual title in a playoff. However, the Mules won the team title by shooting a one-under 283 as a team, setting a state record for a par-71 course in the process.
* Placed third at the Class 4 District 1 Tournament at Crowne Point Golf Club in Farmington on May 6, shooting a two-under 70 as Poplar Bluff brought home a district title.
* Last but not least, Barks and the Mules competed earlier this month at th PGA High School Golf National Invitational in McKinney, Texas. Barks shot an 18-over 234 to help Poplar Bluff finish 20th nationally.
“It feels great just to be able to know that we did that,” Barks said. “I had one year with my brother (Lawson) and we took advantage of that — and we were able to get state title and go to the nationals together as a team with him.”
As a result, it should come as no surprise that Barks recently won the Semoball Awards' Boys Golf Athlete of the Year — the area equivalent of college football's Heisman Trophy — which was handed out July 12 at La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau.
It is “pretty cool to get (this),” Barks said. “You know, I'm a freshman (and) not very many freshmen … get most of this stuff.”
Better yet, Barks got to do all of it alongside his older brother, Lawson, who was a senior this spring.
“It's pretty great just to be able to know after every tournament there was somebody that would always be proud of me no matter what I did,” Barks said, “(whether) I played bad (or) played good.”
So what else stood out this spring besides playing alongside his older brother?
“It was probably just the way we stuck together as a team,” Barks said. “We'd all get together right before (we played) and we'd all pray together over the day. It seemed to work pretty well for us with us winning districts, conference and state in a row, then going to nationals.”
Barks took up golf in 2018, when he was still in grade school, and won the 12-13 age division in June 2020 at the PGA Gateway Junior Series, which was held at Bent Creek Golf Course in Jackson.
With three more years of high school in front of him, the future holds endless possibilities for Barks. But for now, he said he aims to keep playing and making progress, while “staying positive and not trying to get too far ahead of myself or anything else.”