With one more tournament on the schedule for the Texas State men’s golf team, senior Jack Burke is looking to cap off his standout collegiate career with the Bobcats on a high note.

The senior has been a member of the golf team since his freshman year, 2021-22. Prior to joining the Bobcats, Burke was a standout high school golfer, earning the district, region and state champion titles.

Through his years with the game of golf, Burke has faced some challenges to make him the successful golfer he is today.

“Adversity definitely smacks you in the face in golf a lot more than you can throw punches, but I’d say when it hits you you, just have to be able to let it fall off your shoulders and move on,” Burke said. “Just do your best to forget about it and try to overcome it as best as possible.”

Head coach Shane Howell said one of the biggest challenges for Burke to overcome was his attitude.

“When things were going good, Burke was totally fine, but early on in his career if he had a bad break on the golf course or he didn’t think that things were going his way, he’d kind of be ‘poor me,’ and [his] attitude would kind of go south,” Howell said. “He had to work really hard at that, there was a lot of tough conversations between me and him on that.”

Howell said through the roller coaster of ups and downs Burke has been a key contributor to the team over the years, as he continues to get better. As Burke grows as both a person and with golf, he has stepped into a leadership role amongst the team, leading the six new players that have come in this season.

Burke has demonstrated his leadership skills when expressing different course management and strategies to the team in team meetings, since he has experience playing the courses and finding success.

“Just that extra voice from him. Obviously, the coaches are going to coach and we’re going to put together good strategy, but coming from their own peer group that always means a little bit more,” Howell said. “There’s just a little bit more buying when you have a guy like that, especially when he’s having such a good season like he’s having.”

Ben Loveard, a transfer from Mississippi State, has worked alongside Burke in both qualifying practices and tournaments. The junior was able to quickly adjust to the teams’ day-to-day practice routine and community through Burke’s leadership.

“Jack’s a great guy; he had a great season and he’s a great player,” Loveard said. “I’ve learned a lot from him from being able to practice with someone like that, someone I get along with really well, and have a good time. A lot of jokes. So to be able to have that sort of character around at practice has been really good for me and also just for the whole team.”

The team’s culture and community has helped shape Burke into both the golfer and team leader he is for the Bobcats.

“We have a ton of good guys so I would say just the constant competition and just hanging out outside of golf and we just have a good time,” Burke said. “They’ve helped me grow a lot as a person, hopefully I’ve helped them grow a lot as a person too.”

When reflecting on his time with Texas State, both Howell and Burke share a key memory, winning the National Golf Invitational (NGI) tournament in the Bobcats’ postseason.

“When we won the NGI, basically the NIT of college golf,” Howell said. “That was a huge breakthrough for this program and this team. That was a really good moment.”

Burke aspires to finish his senior year with a good run in the Sun Belt Conference Championship. Both Burke and the team had a rough season last year, but have been able to hold a steady momentum this year going into the conference championship.

“As far as our season has gone, we’ve come up a little bit short of our expectations, but we’ve built a little bit of a good momentum going into the conference, so hopefully next week we can cap it off,” Burke said.

Throughout his collegiate career Burke has acquired a multitude of honors including two top ten finishes and Sun Belt Golfer of the Week. Howell says Burke has worked hard over the four years to get to where he is today.

“He deserves everything in life,” Howell said. “He works super hard at it and I’ve been really lucky to be able to coach him during his career.”