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Cathedral golfer Chase Kaiser finished the final round of his high school career and waited an hour to find out he won the MAIS 4A state championship Thursday afternoon.

Surrounded by friends, family and his coach, Kaiser chatted to pass the time the nerves building. It wasn’t until the official scorer wrote down the last score that he knew he had won.

“I wasn’t playing with anybody who was close to my score,” Kaiser said. “I really didn’t know how anybody else was doing on the course. I was just trying to stick to what I was doing.”

In yesterday’s practice round, Chase had some issues with his swing pulling the ball away from where he wanted to put it.

His Head Coach Kurt Russ said today’s round was the best round he had ever seen him play as Kaiser shot a 68. Russ said from the first tee shot he knew his golfer was locked in and focused.

“He piped it right down the middle and then spun the club,” Russ said. “His approach shot almost went in. He almost eagled the first hole he played. I could see in him that he was hyper-focused. I have had him since he was in seventh grade. I have never seen him that focused before. It was fun to watch.”

Kaiser said he didn’t think about the state championship being his last high school competition. His dad Hayden Kaiser had played golf —20 years ago had won a tournament at Duncan Park with Kurt Russ— told him to go out there and play.

When he went on the driving range, he got the issues he had fixed almost immediately. It was an instant change compared to yesterday. He said everything started to feel so much better on his way to winning a state championship. His 68 score could have been a 65 his coach said.

“It feels awesome,” Kaiser said. “It has been a long wait.”