He begins to line up an important putt, the one that could determine whether or not he goes to the college of his dreams. Everything is resting on this one shot.

Sophomore Matt Prieskorn is ranked second on the Texas High varsity golf team, which is a large accomplishment especially for an underclassman.

Prieskorn comes from a distinguished golf family with both his father and older brother playing NCAA Division 1 collegiate golf, the strongest college division for sports. Prieskorn has rarely been able to play golf without being compared to his family.

“I have felt a lot of pressure to play college golf because my dad and brother both have played it and encouraged me to play it.” Prieskorn said.

Prieskorn is also in the top five percent of his class, which places a lot of stress on him. Because of this, he finds it difficult to focus focus solely on his golf game.

“I have always been able to manage good grades and a good game,” Prieskorn said. “However, sometimes it forces me to have a lot of extra homework due to me missing school primarily because of golf.”

Prieskorn is uncertain of where he wants to play golf in college and he has been forced to dedicate a lot of time and energy to be good enough to make it to the collegiate level.

“It has been very tough trying to make the decision whether I want to play college golf or not,” Prieskorn said. “I know it will take a lot of work to get to that level.”

Many golfers will go through phases of intense hot and cold streaks and this can be very frustrating because the goal is to be consistent at all times. This has forced a lot of golfers to quit. The amount of golf rounds played per year has decreased from 550 million to 465 million.

“I’ve been in a bad enough slump to where I would consider giving up.” Prieskorn said. “My dad and brother have gone through similar slumps so they have been able to support me and help me get out of the slumps.”

Prieskorn has recently gone through a lot of success and even shot a personal best. His first major tournament win came at the Tiger Classic, one of the team’s biggest annual tournaments.

“I shot a 65 at Bart Granger which was a personal best and a 70 and 75 at the Texas High Classic, which I won,” Prieskorn said.

Jay Brewer, the varsity golf coach, is encouraged by Prieskorn’s continuing success. However, he still has room for improvement.

“[I’m] really proud of his first high school win at the Tiger Classic,” Brewer said. “[He] is an extremely talented player with a great work ethic. [His] only area needing improvement is course management.”