RIDGEFIELD — For many of the best high school golfers in the state, the game is adopted and honed at a young age.
Not the case for Ridgefield golf’s Kellen and Cade Bringhurst.
That hasn’t stopped them from leading the way for the Spudders.
Kellen, a junior, is Ridgefield’s top player, while Cade, a freshman, isn’t far behind. He’s the team’s No. 2 player.
The two lean on each other as brothers, teammates and competitors. After rounds, they’ll find each other and break down the makeup of the course and how one another performed.
“When we’re playing in an individual tournament it’s like ‘I want to beat you,’ but in (high school) matches … four scores count and we really need to beat the other team. It’s like, ‘I really hope you do well, beat me and do your best.’ ”
Cade looked up, surprised.
“Actually, no,” Kellen added with a smirk. “I hope you don’t beat me. I hope you play well but I beat you.”
Not every golfer has every day to play the sport with a sibling. But the competition is high between the Bringhurst brothers, as they often playing neck-and-neck in tournaments. Then they come home together and often talk about what they know best — golf.
They’re quick to poke fun at each other, and laugh it off, too.
Call it brotherly love.
“Ultimately I want Cade to play well, but I want to play better than he played,” Kellen said.
The two were quick to agree in unison that their relationship with golf is very competitive. Since they play every day, there is plenty of opportunity to compare notes.
It’s made them better players.
The two seem to be motivated be one another’s success.
Spudders coach Bob Ball has taken notice.
“I absolutely think there’s a sibling rivalry and they do feed off each other,” he said. “At the start of the year I didn’t pair them together, but I have last few matches and they played better. They both want to beat each other and they both want each other to do well.”
This boys golf season features top-notch freshmen in the 3A and 4A ranks. Camas’ Owen Huntington comes to mind, as does Mountain View frosh Graham Moody. Mountain View’s Willie Yeh won the Prairie Invitational on Wednedsay.
Add Cade Bringhurst to that list. He’s played with those guys, and respects their game. Soon, he hopes to be mentioned in their company.
“Cade’s right in that mix,” Ball said. “All the junior golf he’s played, he came pretty ready … and he wants to be in that group. As a smaller school we maybe don’t get the visibility. But he’s in the group of very good freshmen in the area.”
Though Cade said his dad first taught him how to play a little when he was six or seven years old, he only started playing competitively in seventh grade.
He filled his weekends this past summer with Oregon Golf Association tournaments, which Ball said prepared him well for his first high school season.
“We’re sort of new to it, so we’re still trying to progress,” Cade said.
Still, the brothers feel like they are equipped to play with some of the top competition in the state.
“Now that we know that we can compete with kids who have been playing since they were eight years old, it’s better,” Cade said.
Their approach to golf, they say, is treated like their approach to their studies. Both sport 4.0 grade point averages. Kellen is a part of Clark College’s running start program, and also plays on Ridgefield’s varsity basketball and baseball teams (he was named to the second team all-league for baseball last season).
But in the Bringhurst household, golf is king.
Aside from being mainstays in Oregon Golf Association tournaments, the brothers practice for hours on end in their basement and admit to the TV being turned to golf about “80-to-90 percent of the time.”
Installed in the basement is a turf mat, sheet draped down from the ceiling and a simulator, which gives them 24/7 access to the (albeit simulated) golf course.
Their mom, Zenia Bringhurst, said that even after a long day at the course, they sometimes come home and hit balls.
They both hope the hard work will pay off in the form of playing at the collegiate level. They dream of one day playing at the pro level.
“Kellen, you can be my caddy,” Cade joked.
“I’ll be the opponent who beats you,” Kellen quipped back.
“Good luck with that,” Cade said.
