Stuckless caps high school golf career with WOSSAA bronze

As he navigated the course at St. Thomas Golf and Country Club during the WOSSAA boys golf championship this autumn, Karstin Stuckless tried to stifle every distraction.

He focused so intensely that familiar faces in the crowd didn’t register. His coach at South Huron District High School watched from the gallery, but Stuckless didn’t see him.

“I'm kind of good at blocking everything out and focusing on my game,” said Stuckless, a Grade 12 student at South Huron.

“People have told me, ‘I saw you out there,’ and I didn't even really realize. After WOSSAA my coach told me saw me on a couple holes, and I'm like: ‘I didn't even notice you.’”

His focus paid off. Stuckless tied for bronze and finished just two shots out of first place.

He’d gone within a hair’s breadth of winning a WOSSAA championship. Nobody was more surprised than the athlete himself.

“If you would have asked me a couple years ago I'd be third in all of western Ontario in high school golf, I would have said you're crazy,” he said.  

“I never really expected myself to get to such a good level.”

These kinds of self-deprecating statements are common among high school athletes, who tend to gloss over the mountains of hard work that precede success.

In Stuckless’s case, the results were hard fought.

He golfed six days a week over the summer, playing as many as 27 holes per outing.

Other days he’d play a quick nine and spend hours on the driving range, building muscle memory and trying to smooth the rough edges in his swing.

All that physical work helped his mental game as well, and mental toughness may be one of his most notable evolutions since Grade 9.

“A couple years ago, I would just get so angry with myself on the golf course,” said Stuckless, son of Christian and Janice Stuckless from Exeter.

“And it didn't help. It just led to me hitting worse shots. This past year, it's just been to stay in the moment. Every shot is a new shot, keep your same focus. And even if I play bad, if I try my best — give it 100 per cent on every single shot — I can't really be too angry.”

EnaRae, left, and Karstin Stuckless. (Photo courtesy of Janice Stuckless)

His father Christian was a well-rounded athlete at South Huron in the late 1990s, and is a capable golfer in his own right.

This past summer, Christian won the men’s division championship at Seaforth Golf Club. He and Janice are sparing with advice, but they’ve counseled Karstin to stay focused and composed.

“They kind of like to stay away and let me focus my own,” said Karstin. “But they always have great advice like that for me before events.”

It bears mentioning that Karstin is not the only Stuckless making waves in high school golf.

His younger sister EnaRae, a Grade 10 student, has won the Huron-Perth girls championship two years in a row and finished fourth in the girls tournament at WOSSAA this autumn.

As a Grade 9 student, EnaRae defeated players as many as three years older, and she credits Christian and Karstin for helping with her game.

“If I'm having a bad day on the golf course, they always know how to fix it and figure out what's wrong, and then it all comes together,” said EnaRae, “It's really nice to have that support in the family, with everybody golfing.”

The WOSSAA girls championship was cancelled last year due to COVID-19, and EnaRae may be among the favourites to win next season. An OFSAA berth is also plausible in her junior and senior years. But after high school, she’s not certain how far she’ll take it.

“I definitely see golf in my future,” she said. “I'm just not sure where I'm going to go with that.”

As for Karstin, he hopes to play at the post-secondary level — ideally at Humber College, where he aims to study Professional Golf Management.

“It feels amazing to play so well, and end my high school career on such a high note,” he said. “It's a big confidence booster to end a career like this.”