Not many state records last for the better part of five decades.
That’s especially true in a sport like golf where technological advances have consistently improved such records for years. That will be on display this weekend in Afton, Rawlins and Big Horn, where the Class 4A, 3A and 2A state golf championships will take place, respectively.
But Wyoming’s best high school golf may have happened at a state meet nearly 50 years ago, where one team set a record that has been not only unbroken, it stands alone as a paragon of the sport.
No team has even come close to challenging what happened at the 1976 state Class AA golf tournament in Casper, where for two days at the Casper Golf Club, four students at Natrona formed the greatest golf team to ever play in the state.
As a team, the Mustangs tallied 582 strokes, a number encompassing the total strokes for the team’s top four golfers over the two-day tournament. That number of 582 continues to stand as the closest thing Wyoming high school sports has to an unbreakable record.
Despite improvements to clubs, golf balls, courses, and more, the 1976 Mustangs’ two-day total has never seriously been challenged. Only four boys teams in state golf tournament history have broken the 600-stroke barrier, and only one other team has come within 12 strokes of the 1976 Mustangs’ 582. The second-best mark came from Cheyenne Central’s 2005 team, which tallied 594 strokes over two days (293-301). The teams from 2015 Riverton (286-311=597) and 2010 Sheridan (297-300=597) are the only others that have ever broken 600 strokes.
So what made these Mustangs unique? Well, having two state champions on the roster sure helped, but even individual talent can’t solely explain what happened at the 1976 Class AA state golf meet.
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What’s unusual about Natrona’s state record score is that it seemingly came out of nowhere, both for the team and for the sport.
The previous year, Campbell County and Cheyenne East had tied for the Class AA championship (with the Camels winning in a playoff) with team totals of 662. Natrona finished sixth at 685; do the math, and the Mustangs improved by a whopping 97 strokes just one year later.
Prior to Natrona’s 582, the best two-day total for a state championship meet was Kelly Walsh’s 634-stroke total in 1972, which tied Natrona’s 634 in 1968. The ’76 Mustangs beat that record by 52 strokes.
Moreover, the ’76 Mustangs had not played their best golf prior to state. The Natrona yearbook said the Mustangs played in seven tournaments before state, winning just two — the Casper meet and the Laramie meet. The week before state, Campbell County had won the Douglas Invitational single-day tournament with a 306; Natrona shot a 311 and finished second. The Mustangs also finished second in a meet in Riverton, third in Sheridan, fourth in Gillette, fifth in Cheyenne.
Sure, the Mustangs were contenders for a title. However, nothing indicated the Mustangs were on track to turn in a record-setting performance.
But on day one, the Mustangs shot a 294 — the first time ever a boys team had finished with a team total under 300 strokes on a single day of state golf tournament play — and the record chase was on for coach Don Weishaar’s bunch.
Senior Rob Bennett, the defending state individual champion, led the Mustangs and took individual honors for the day with a 68, a score noted by the Casper Star-Tribune as even par. But it was the depth that paced the Mustangs to such a low team finish: junior Max Gutz and sophomore Scott Puzey added a 74 apiece and senior Eric Sherer shot a 78 to round out the day.
The score was good enough to give Natrona a 14-stroke lead on defending team champion Campbell County, which itself had shot a 308 and was still on pace for one of the best scores in state golf meet history.
Somehow, the Mustangs were even better the second day. Bennett shot a 72 to win the individual championship for the second consecutive year at 140 total strokes. But again, the depth was the story. Puzey hit a one-under 67 to finish second to Bennett in the individual chase; Sherer shot a 72; Gutz a 77. Together, they combined for a total of 288 strokes on day two, six strokes better than the already-record pace they set the day before, and 582 for the meet.
Puzey, reached via email this summer at his home in Thailand, said he remembered the tournament well. Several factors played into the Mustangs’ favor that day, including the pressure he felt as an underclassmen to perform well after winning the spot on the team over several seniors.
He also said the Casper Golf Club was an advantage to the hosts. “It was our home track so we all knew the course well,” he said.
Natrona won the team title by 27 strokes. In doing so, the Mustangs beat a team in Campbell County that would have obliterated the state record for two-round score with its 609, which would have beat the old record of 634 by 25 strokes in and of itself. The Camels’ 609 still stands as the 15th-best team round at state and is one of just three such rounds to have been shot in the 20th century.
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The records didn’t last.
The next year, Natrona finished fifth at state with a two-day total of 641, with Gutz and Puzey shooting in the 80s.
Natrona did return to the top of the podium in 1978, with Puzey winning the individual title at 151 strokes and the Mustangs the team title (by more than 20 strokes) at 627. Puzey said NC’s title that year came in Cody, with snow dotting the course during the tournament, and “that was a better team.” Both Don Bader and Mike Quarve finished in the top five for Natrona, and teammate Mike Hauffe wasn’t far behind.
After Campbell County’s 612 to win the state meet in 1977, it would be another 15 years before any Wyoming team broke 620 strokes at state; in 1993, three teams (Natrona at 605, Cheyenne Central at 610 and Kelly Walsh at 618) did so. It would be almost 30 years before another Wyoming team broke 600 strokes at state, with Central’s 594 in 2005.
For Weishaar, who died in 2004 with 12 state golf championship teams to his name (nine for the Natrona boys, one for the Kelly Walsh boys and two for the Natrona girls), the 1976 team represented the pinnacle of what was possible in a fickle sport.
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Don’t read this part if you don’t want this good story spoiled… (because here’s where the story unravels a bit, and people reading this story carefully and familiar with golf may have already identified it. If, indeed, the par for the course was 68, instead of 72 as it normally is on a typical 18-hole course, Natrona’s record may need to come with an asterisk. A team of four players shooting even par over a par-68 will shoot 32 fewer strokes in a two-day tournament than a team shooting even par on a par-72. If NC’s ’76 team had been on a par 72, a score of 614 (582+32) is more likely. That said, state tournaments have been played on courses of varying par totals; I’m still digging into what they might have been, because the record-keeping on that has been incredibly inconsistent.)
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The four players of Natrona’s record-setting team all went their own ways.
Puzey played professionally around the United States for much of the 1980s and 1990s and later moved overseas, playing professionally as part of the senior tour in Asia. Bennett played golf collegiately at the University of Wyoming and now lives in Casper, working as an engineer. Sherer moved to Texas and has been a lawyer in the San Antonio area for the better part of four decades. Gutz, now Max Guetz, attended UW as well — he and Puzey were fraternity brothers before Puzey transferred to SMU.
Together for two days, though, they set a record that still stands — and may stand forever.
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Here are the top 10 two-day scores from boys’ teams at the Wyoming high school state golf championships:
| Team | Score | Class | Year |
| Natrona | 294-288=582 | AA | 1976 |
| Cheyenne Central | 293-301=594 | 4A | 2005 |
| Riverton | 286-311=597 | 4A | 2015 |
| Sheridan | 297-300=597 | 4A | 2010 |
| Cody | 298-302=600 | 4A | 2005 |
| Lander | 295-306=601 | 3A | 2019 |
| Cheyenne Central | 302-299=601 | 4A | 2006 |
| Riverton | 296-306=602 | 4A | 2014 |
| Kelly Walsh | 304-300=604 | 4A | 2018 |
| Natrona | 293-312=605 | 4A | 1993 |
–patrick
(Photos courtesy of the 1977 NCHS yearbook.)