On a crisp Friday afternoon last September, Glacier High School junior Sam Engellant was feeling good about his golf game. He had shot a 70 on the first day of the Class AA state tournament at Lake Hills in Billings to lead Montana’s top golfers and, even though his second day performance wasn’t as focused, the Wolfpack had won the team trophy and Engellant’s combined 142 was the lowest score of the tournament.
However, Billings Skyview senior Tye Boone also shot 142 after making up a four-stroke deficit on day two.
The two golfers moved on to a playoff on the ninth hole and both earned bogeys. On hole 18 it came down to a putt. Boone sank his while Engellant lipped out.
“Honestly, the fact that I got into the playoff, I was beyond proud of myself, so just being there was extremely special and rewarding,” Engellant told 406mtsports.com after the tournament.
It was a very impressive showing for Engellant, who had finished 29th — tied with his older brother Trey — at the state tournament as a freshman. And as a sophomore he hd spent the entire season off to the side of the green, never playing a stroke.
In the first qualifier of his freshman golf season, Engellant made an impression on former Glacier High School Coach Chris Michno when he shot a 66.
“Everyone took note of that,” Michno said. “I knew Sam was a generational talent.”
But that winter, in the middle of the basketball season, Engellant began experiencing debilitating headaches. Rest and medication didn’t alleviate the pain, and an MRI revealed he had a cerebral spinal fluid leak and wasn’t getting enough fluid to his brain.
“Anytime I would stand up I was having these headaches, so I had to be lying flat all the time,” Engellant said. He missed several months of school and underwent surgery to correct the problem, but the slow recovery process left him unable to swing a golf club.
When the high school season rolled around, Engellant found himself mostly cart-bound next to Michno, working as the team manager to stay connected to the sport.
“Sam showed up to every practice and every tournament, and supported the team any way he could,” said former Glacier golfer Tyler Avery, who lost a tie-breaker for the state title the year before Engellant. “I’m pretty serious and focused when I’m playing and Sam would roll up with coach in the golf cart and start cracking jokes to make me laugh and relax. I didn’t know I needed that, but he did.”
Avery, who plays for Montana Tech, remembers Engellant helping him with calculus homework on a bus ride to a tournament and his “absolutely bubbly personality. He’s everything you’d want from a teammate.”
Michno was impressed with Engellent’s maturity while recovering from his injury, always understanding exactly what he was capable of doing at the time but finding ways to push himself.
“Every day he decided he would excel at whatever he was able to do,” Michno said. “If anyone on the team needed something, they could lean on him. He would make peanut butter sandwiches to take to the golf course and make sure everyone had something to eat. At no point did he display an ounce of ‘woe is me.’”
Engellant gained a whole new perspective on the sport as the team manager. “I looked at the team as a whole, instead of focusing on my individual game,” he said. “That really benefited me and I understand how different high school golf is from playing in any other kind of tournament.”
There was certainly frustration at not being able to play as a sophomore, especially when the Wolfpack came up short of the team title, but being healthy enough to walk around the golf course and help his teammates analyze their game was a point of progress and allowed Engellant to look forward to the future.
“I watched Tyler in his playoff and there were definitely moments of thinking ‘how can I get myself there? How can I work and get to the same position as these athletes?’”
Engellant progressed through his physical therapy to the point where he could begin simple activities, even making little half swings with his clubs.
“There was a lot of worry that I would screw something up, like I would do a full swing and be back at ground zero, so I was really careful,” Engellant said. “It really sucked. There were days where I’d be so thirsty for physical activity and competition and I just couldn’t find that anywhere.”
One of the few movements Engellant could perform early on was an underhand toss, so he began playing an obsessive amount of corn hole with his dad — even joining a local league to scratch his competitive itch.
In June of 2023, Engellant was back on the tee box. He qualified for the Montana State Junior Championships and finished 10th, behind Avery, who won, and prep golfers Boone, and Kade McDonough, the 2020 Class AA champion.
“If there’s one man who could pull off that kind of recovery, it was Sam,” Michno said. “When he got the go ahead to chip and putt, he’d go out there for four or five hours. When he was able to hit a wedge shot, he decided to become the best wedge player he could, and he did.”
Michno describes it as a growth-oriented mentality that isn’t limited to golf. “Whatever the subject, he always wanted to have a complete understanding of exactly why he was doing what he was asked to do. No stone was left unturned,” Michno said. “That thirst for knowledge is exactly why his success can be seen throughout all his endeavors.”
By his junior year prep season, Engellant was in top form, physically and mentally. The season spent experiencing golf from the seat of the cart rather than the heart of the putting green changed how he viewed each opportunity to tee off.
“I love winning tournaments and being at the top, but those days when I’m not doing well, I’m just so happy to be out there,” he said. “Like at least I’m out here on the course. At least I’m able to have fun and love the game.”
Last year’s championship team was bereft of seniors – all scoring members are back. Brothers Torren and Tanyon Murray finished fourth and sixth, and Trevor Cunningham was 10th. Just a week after receiving the state trophy, Torren told the Beacon the team was already talking about how they could defend their title.
Engellant said the team dynamic this year is a perfect blend of fun and dedication to their craft.
“We hang out and have team dinners outside of practice and we all just really enjoy spending time together,” he said. “That’s been really cool, but I think it’s a key to our success, too.”
So far this fall the Wolfpack has been on a tear. At the rain-shortened Great Falls Invitational in August, Engellant earned medalist honors and Glacier took the team title
At the MCPS Invite in Missoula, Engellant finished 15 under, a dominating performance that “left me speechless,” said Avery, who continues to follow the team’s results. “I haven’t seen scores like that since maybe Ryggs Johnston.”
In every tournament this year, Glacier’s golfers have won.
“We care about every tournament differently than we have in the past,” Engellant said. “State is of course what we’re looking towards in the end, but it’s everything in the moment for us. Even if we’re watching our fifth guy finishing out at a meet, it’s the tournament we have right now and it honestly feels as important as state did last year. We’re going to give it our all because we’re given the opportunity to be there competing.”
The Class AA State Golf Tournament will be held in Kalispell at Northern Pines Golf Course on October 3-4.