During his Saturday morning match, Jared Helin heard his opponent's Dad ask another spectator if his son was competing against the mayor of Manhattan.
It's a fair question, given Helin was one of the older competitors in the field at last weekend's Kansas Amateur Match Play Championship at Colbert Hills Golf Course.
The K-State assistant women's golf coach was also followed by a small army of golf carts throughout his run to the semifinals of the tournament, a fan favorite at one of the first events this summer where spectators have been able to watch live sports in Manhattan.
The last time the Kansas Amateur was played at Colbert Hills was in 2007, when the tournament was won by 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.
Given the circumstances, it occurred to Helin that he was competing in front of more spectators at Colbert Hills than golfers on the PGA Tour would be that same weekend.
"I've played in tournaments where I had two or three friends or family members watching me," Helin said. "It made a big difference to have people cheering me on. Some of the shots that I hit, I normally wouldn't be too happy with, but when the crowd celebrates and everybody is applauding, it threw some affirmation and confidence in there that I might not have had."
Advancing all the way to the semifinals, Helin eventually fell short against Wells Padgett, an SEC champion and rising senior on the Auburn golf team.
Qualifying as the No. 8 seed in the 64-golfer field, Helin found his way past four different opponents including 2018 Kansas Amateur champion Sion Audrain, a freshman at Kansas.
"There were a lot of wild moments," Helin said. "Against Sion, I kind of shifted it into gear. I was really tired early in that match and wasn't sure if I had it in me. I mentally pulled myself together after being three down, holed a bunker shot on 15 and that kind of just flipped everything for me."
As Helin explained, going on runs is crucial to success in match play, where golfers have to respond to their opponent's game as much as the challenges of the course.
Unlike stroke play, where scores accumulate over the course of an 18 hole-round, golfers compete to win holes in a match-play tournament.
If your opponent goes for it and drops their approach shot a few feet from the pin, you don't have anything to gain by playing it safe and trying to make up the difference later in the round.
"It's all in how you handle your emotions and your decision-making," Helin said. "In match play, you're not really playing the course anymore, you're playing your opponent, and if your opponent is showing a little bit of weakness, you have to pounce on that."
Helin said that watching his golfers on the K-State women's team in tournaments helped him against a field of NCAA and high school players with more recent experience in competitions.
That's where his focus on staying neutral came into play throughout the Kansas Amateur. But that doesn't mean he wasn't able to enjoy golfing in front of family and friends at Colbert Hills.
Helin said that at one point he counted over 30 golf carts full of spectators following him and his playing partner across the course.
"It helped having a lot people out there watching that I could joke with and not take things too seriously," he said.
The former assistant golf pro at Colbert Hills, Helin guessed that he's played almost 3,000 rounds at the course over his career. He's more than familiar with the unique challenges of golfing over hills that can feel too steep for competitors to cross without a cart.
Rainy weather early in the week gave way to sunny skies over the weekend, changing the mood of the course and forcing Helin to adjust his approach as he battled through the tournament.
"As the week went on, the greens got really firm, faster and you were rewarded more for good shots, but you were definitely punished for being just a little bit off," he said. "The course never plays the same because it feels like you always have an awkward lie to deal with – you always end up in a spot where the line that you've drawn doesn't really suit the spot you need to hit."
Even as he navigated the changing weather and an increasingly deep field of golfers, Helin was able to rely on his short game to carry him through to the semifinals of the tournament.
"I hit five chip-ins over the course of match play. Normally, I'm lucky to see one chip-in every five or six rounds, but to have five in five rounds was incredible," he said. "I honestly had four or five more that were really close to going in, but they still saved me from losing the hole."
Finishing the tournament with a 5&4 loss to Padgett in the semifinals, the 34-year-old Helin was the oldest player remaining to make it to the weekend of the Kansas Amateur.
For a coach who's spent more time watching his golfers compete in tournaments than participating himself, it was a productive week at Colbert Hills for Helin.
It was also a particularly meaningful reversal of roles when K-State women's golfer Briony Bayles came out to watch Helin compete in one of his Saturday rounds.
"As a coach, you love the competition aspect of sports and you miss it all the time… Normally, I'm out there watching them or watching somebody on a recruiting trip," Helin said. "To see Briony out there supporting me and cheering me on, that was special."
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