Prairie’s Addison Berg learns from last year, runs away with victory at Rotary Pribyl Junior Golf Tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — Sports can teach many lessons, including to never assume victory.

“I wasn’t expecting to win, especially after what happened last year,” 16-year-old Addison Berg said after clinching the Rotary Pribyl Junior Golf Tournament on Thursday at Elmcrest Country Club. “I was just hoping I would come out and play well and the work I put in would pay off.”

Last year, Berg held a 10-stroke lead heading into the final round of the four-day tournament that lets junior golfers in the area play up to four different courses, on consecutive days, with no out-of-pocket cost thanks to the sponsorship of all six local Rotary clubs.

The soon-to-be junior at Cedar Rapids Prairie hit the ball out of bounds and scored multiple double and triple-bogeys in the final round last year and saw her double-digit lead turn into a second-place finish by four strokes.

“I feel like over the last year, I’ve grown a lot mentally,” Berg said. “Going into today, I was confident in my ability to play my game and not have any big mistakes like (last year.)”

Berg was able to claim the trophy this year thanks to offseason work on her short game while also cleaning up her swing.

“Last year I didn’t hit the ball as well as I wanted to so I got my swing worked on,” Berg said. “Chipping, putting, I just worked on my all-around game.”

Now Berg will turn her focus to another love of hers — music.

“I sing a lot,” Berg said. “A lot of choir and show choir. We start choreography next week and then we have all-state going on, too.”

While she’s excited to spend “a lot of time with friends,” she may squeeze in some Iowa PGA tournaments this fall as she continues to improve in hopes of returning to state with her teammates next spring.

“I didn’t perform the way I wanted to, but I had a lot of fun with my team,” Berg said. “They are a great group of girls. This year, I want to improve on our placement and I think the team and I could both win conference titles, as well.”

While Berg isn’t sure if she’ll play golf in college, she has started scouting the U.S. northwest for furthering her education.

“I’m hoping there will be an opportunity that will come up,” Berg said. “Washington and Oregon are really pretty. Even if I went to school there but didn’t play golf, it’d be a lot of fun.”

As far as golf and fun go, Berg’s optimal foursome has a lot of star power.

“Me, Taylor (Swift), probably my dad (Aaron) and Phil Mickelson,” Berg said. “Taylor is my favorite person to listen to, I really like to play with my dad and Phil is funny.”

While Berg easily won the girls’ open division with a three-day (54 hole) score of 230, incoming Cedar Rapids Washington freshman Jane Petersen won the girls’ novice division with a 124 total for 27 holes.

The boys’ novice division was won by Christian Cloyd (118), a home-schooler entering eighth grade and the open title went to Nile Petersen, who will be a senior at Washington this fall. Petersen had a four-day (72-hole) total of 292, defeating Cedar Rapids Xavier junior Charles Allen by five strokes.

How did the ladies’ champions, Berg (31 strokes) and Petersen (23 strokes), celebrate their dominant victories?

“We’re going to hang out here,” Berg said. “We’ll go out and play some more golf, actually.”

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