FAIRMONT — On June 15, Fairmont golfer Bergen Senf left the Class AA state golf tournament with a sense of accomplishment.

After all, that moment is what she had worked for since the end of the Section 2AA tournament last year.

“When the tournament got done last year, she didn’t realize how close she really was to state,” Cardinals head coach Brad Haugen said.

She finished 11th at the meet with a two-day score of 188 as an eighth-grader and went right back to work in the offseason. Senf took no breaks during the winter months and practiced inside, which “isn’t a lot of fun.”

“I did a lot of work over the winter just keeping up hitting, making sure my stroke was where it needed to be for the season,” she said.

All of the extra time and work began to manifest itself quickly as Senf, a freshman, was the team’s top golfer through much of the season. This came as no surprise to Haugen.

“It was kind of crazy, I was thinking the other day that two years ago, I was Bergen’s junior high coach for a couple of weeks,” Haugen said. “We had her in practice at the beginning of the season. I remember going up to (then head golf coach Paul Baldus) and saying, ‘Coach, you gotta move her up because she’s going to go places.'”

By the time this year’s section tournament rolled around, Senf had hit her stride and shot an 89 for second place during Day 1 of the section meet. This all but guaranteed her a shot at the state meet.

“We were actually pretty locked. I just had to go in and shoot a normal score for me, so it wasn’t a big surprise, but it was really awesome to be able to go (to state),” Senf said about Day 2 of the section tournament.

She ended up with a 90 on the second day for the third-place finish and her first-ever state bid.

“Golf is my thing, something that I really love to do,” she said. “I work really hard on it, so it was really nice to have all of that come together and be able to go to state.”

Senf had a little over a week to prepare for the state tournament and had some help along the way from Haugen and her grandfather.

“Her grandpa, Tom, came up and caddied for her on the practice round and it was awesome because he was jotting down notes, and I was jotting down notes,” Haugen said. “That night at the hotel, we sat down and put the notes together and really had a nice plan for Bergen.”

Many members of the Senf family made the trip to Jordan in support of Bergen. Unbeknownst to anyone outside of the family and Haugen, Bergen had a few jitters and dealt with some nervousness.

But once she hit the ball off the first tee, Senf was back in her mode, working the game plan that she, Haugen and Grandpa Tom had put together.

“I tried to keep my head because it’s hard when you go up there and see all these super good girls that are hitting 238-yard drives off the range and just plugging away,” Senf said. “There was a lot of other people, but you can’t let it be more than what it actually is — just a golf tournament. Otherwise, I would have freaked out.”

Senf ended up finishing the tournament with a score of 175 for 25th place overall.

“I felt really calm through the whole thing because I knew what I needed to do and I knew what I could do,” she said. “It’s good to know what state’s like because I always wondered about it. Now I know and I’m not super nervous about it for next year.”

On June 15, Bergen Senf got her first experience on the biggest stage for a high school golfer, and she’s just a freshman at that. As Senf was leaving, there was one thing on her mind.

“I just want to go back, that’s all I got,” she said.