The Tonganoxie High senior shot a 95 on a windy first day Oct. 19 through 18 holes, but improved the next day, shooting an 87 with more ideal conditions.

“Especially being in the northeast part of Kansas, we don’t have as much wind, so playing in the wind is harder than not,” Brusven explained Tuesday.

Wind or not, Brusven battled through 36 holes of golf and finished 10th at state after shooting a 182 for the tournament. Wellington senior Payton Ginter won the individual title, shooting a 158, while Winfield won the team title with a 738 score, six strokes ahead of runner-up Winfield.

“I was really excited because my goal this whole year was to finish in the Top 10 after getting 17th last year,” she said.

Brusven’s state performances also are notable because she’s not been playing the sport very long. In fact, the THS girls program’s inaugural season was Brusven’s freshman year.

But it was a setback in middle school that steered her toward the greens.

“Honestly, I’ve always kind of thought golf was interesting, but I had a knee injury my eighth grade year,” Brusven said. “I couldn’t play both volleyball and basketball.”

She had to pick one of those sports, and with basketball being her first love, she pondered golf as an option for playing a second sport, as it better suited her with her knee considerations.

“I fell in love with the complexity of the sport that a lot of people don’t see from the outside looking in,” Brusven said. “It kind of hooked me. “It’s patience and it also comes down to being a mental sport at the end of the day.”

Brusven competed in golf all four years at THS and soon will be preparing for her fourth and final season of basketball when preseason practices start next month.

An all-state second-team selection last year as a junior, Brusven helped the Chieftains to their first state berth in program history in 2019. Now the sport that Brusven has been playing the shortest could be her ticket to a collegiate career.

“I’m kind of just seeing if I can play golf in college,” she said. “There’s not a lot of exposure around here.”

She’s been in contact with coaches at Southwestern College in Winfield and a few others.

She also plans to pursue a career in anesthesiology, so some schools on her short list, regardless of an extended golf career, are University of California-San Diego and the University of Kansas.

Brusven is eyeing options both near and far — and then really far.

Atop her list is the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Yes, that St. Andrews, home to The Old Course and birthplace of the sport.

Brusven said her desire to further her education at that particular university was purely academic, though the golf aspect sweetens the pot.

“I think it’s more of a happy coincidence just because I really like their medical program, but it’s also where golf originated, so it has an additional bonus to it.”

The THS senior still has some time to make those decisions. In the meantime, she’ll get started on her “other” sport in less than three weeks when preseason basketball practice kicks off Nov. 16.