{"id":469656,"date":"2025-12-24T22:55:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469656\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:55:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:55:20","slug":"thunder-ridges-anderson-battled-through-inconsistency-to-win-a-second-state-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469656\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Ridge’s Anderson battled through inconsistency to win a second state crown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IDAHO FALLS \u2014 Back-to-back state championships are a rare achievement, but a few were brought back to eastern Idaho this season. Among those two-time champs was Thunder Ridge High School senior Justin Anderson, who claimed his second consecutive state boys\u2019 golf individual title.<\/p>\n

Anderson said that his senior season lacked the consistency he would have liked \u2014 \u201cBut I played well during the tournaments that mattered.\u201d And that was never more true than at the state tournament, when he said, \u201cMy driver was pretty bad all week. I just found a way to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior erased a three-stroke hole in the second round of last year\u2019s two-round state tournament to capture the championship as a junior. Following the title, and a summer that included victories on some of junior golf\u2019s biggest stages, he entered his final season of high school golf with added pressure.<\/p>\n

RELATED | State golf champ wins Junior World Qualifier, will play for world title in July<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Admittedly, some of that pressure was his own doing \u2014 the product of expectations he put on himself. But that made the taste of victory all the sweeter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s (state tournament) was a lot more satisfying winning than last year\u2019s, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The state tournament, Anderson said, was played at Nampa\u2019s RedHawk Golf Course, a track with which he is quite familiar. Due to its difficulty, it hosts junior state championships. Long and, in places, treacherous, RedHawk is unforgiving for players who are not putting their drives where they want \u2014 which was something he could not do the week of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Already a champion, though, Anderson approached the tournament like a champion and made sure his misses were in areas that allowed him to scramble for pars. Missing in the wrong spots can leave you with \u201csome pretty big numbers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then, he capitalized on the holes where it was possible.<\/p>\n

Anderson went into the red both rounds, shooting a three-under 68 in round one and a one-under 70 in round two. He finished his run at the repeat by beating Mountain View\u2019s Gavin Mlynarik in a playoff hole.<\/p>\n

\"ThunderJustin Anderson signs a letter of intent to attend and play golf at Boise State University. | Photo courtesy Jeff Anderson<\/p>\n

Winning another state title wasn\u2019t the only exciting news Anderson created this season. In November, he signed a letter of intent to attend and play college golf at Boise State University.<\/p>\n

He said that his mother\u2019s family lives in the Boise area, which influenced his decision to attend BSU.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s D1, and they\u2019re moving to the Pac 12 so it\u2019ll be fun, for sure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Anderson has been playing golf since he was a toddler. And while it was just a fun sport for years, he decided to take it seriously when he arrived at Thunder Ridge, realizing it could be something he could compete in beyond high school.<\/p>\n

Now, he is a two-time state champion, and East Idaho Sports boys\u2019 golf Player of the Year and soon-to-be NCAA Division 1 golfer.<\/p>\n

\t \t \t \t=htmlentities(get_the_title())?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(‘For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https:\/\/www.eastidahonews.com\/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.’)?>&subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews” class=”fa-stack jDialog”> \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IDAHO FALLS \u2014 Back-to-back state championships are a rare achievement, but a few were brought back to eastern…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":469657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-469656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115777014048377755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}