Becker golfer and student Jackson Fluck will be swinging clubs for Aurora University next year.

 

Aurora is located just outside Chicago in the state of Illinois.

 

Fluck was recruited by his future coach, Justin Wyeth after Wyeth reached out to him in the wake of “seeing a few articles about him and his scoring abilities.”

 

“With him being from Minnesota and I'm outside of Chicago, I don't know ‘his game’ all that well,” said the coach.  “I'm basing my decision off what I've read and looked up (about him) and what his coaches have said to me.”

Wyeth says he recruits the student and the person jas well as the athlete.  

 

“But, I love his ability to score,” he said. 

 

Fluck says he decided to go to Aurora because of the atmosphere there. 

 

“I also wanted to go to a bigger town just to get a different perspective of the world,” he said. “Coming from a small town like Becker is great — don't get me wrong — but there is always an itch to see what else is out there.”

Fluck also got offers from Carthage College in Wisconsin, Dordt College in Iowa and Albion College and Siena Heights in  Michigan.

 

Wyeth said the first time he and Jackson met was on a very cool day in Chicago. Jackson took a cart around the course to just check things out.  When he came back in, Jackson told Wyeth, “Coach, if my wedge game is dialed in, I could go pretty low out here.”

 

Which is key since Jackson feels his best part of his game is his short game.

 

“My wedge game has really turned around when I started working with my swing coach, Chad Seime of Territory,” Jackson said. “He has really developed my game from ‘okay’ to now I feel bad if I shoot anything above 79.”

 

At the ripe young age of two, Jackson first picked up a golf club and felt a kinship with the device immediately. All his improvements, successes and accomplishments have been self-made with the exception of some junior golf instruction from Steve Whittaker and current instruction from Varsity Head Coach Dan Olson.

 

“I have been fortunate to have Jackson involved with the Becker varsity golf team since he was in the middle school,” said Olson.  “He is a great person and a positive force on the team.”

 

Olson says Jackson plays golf with a great deal of emotion  and heart.  

 

“It has been an honor to watch him and his golf game mature over the last five seasons.  I truly think that this year will be his best as he made more improvements after last season.”  

 

Coach Wyeth recalls a time he told Jackson that whatever college he decides to commit to, it won’t be easy cracking into the top five starting lineup.

 

“Jackson said, coach, I don't want to sound cocky but, I'm not afraid to compete or be challenged,” said Wyeth.

 

“That right there is who I am and how I coach,” he said. “I want competitors, confident kids and kids with experience.”

 

Jackson’s family is also very proud of their son and all his sports and academic triumphs.

 

“We are happy Jackson is getting to live out his goal of playing college golf,” said Jackson’s father, Lonnie. “What make us most proud is when the other coaches tell us that he causes problems for the other teams as all their players want to play in Jackson's group and what a great kid he is.”

 

Jackson has been playing the players tour on the MNPGA tour since 8th grade, which features the top players in the state.  He has played in over 150 golf tournaments.  Lonnie says if he plays loose and is cracking jokes with his playing partners, he is playing at his strength.  

 

Jackson has played varsity since the seventh grade and went to state as a sophomore. He has a great ability to see what is wrong with player’s games and help others improve.  With that, he has given back to the Pebble Creek kids program, helping younger kids with his ability.   He even served as his dad’s swing coach for years.

 

“He has incredible strength and is amazingly flexible for a guy his size,” Lonnie says. “We are glad that this decision is behind him and he can focus on the goal of getting his team back to the state golf tournament in back to back years, which has not been done in Becker in the past 40 years.”

 

Jackson’s goal is to get an education, of course and become a better student and athlete next year at Aurora. Beyond that, he’ll just take things one day at a time.

 

“”My goal realistically is to turn pro,” Jackson said. “It’s definitely going to take some hard work but that is my main goal to make it to a tour some day.”