‘The guy everyone can count on’ — BYU men’s golf No. 1 Carson Lundell
Hometown heroes are a common find within BYU sports with so much athletic talent coming out of the state of Utah.
Carson Lundell of the BYU men’s golf team is one such local product. Raised in Alpine, Lundell arrived at BYU in 2018 and made a splash early in his career. While golf seems to be a natural-born sixth-sense for the Utah local, the sport wasn’t always a part of Lundell’s life plan.
Football, basketball and baseball were the main sports occupying Lundell’s attention growing up. It wasn’t until a scout camp in the summer of eighth grade when Lundell broke his hand that golf started to make its way into his life.
With the cast covering the ring finger and pinky on his right hand, the majority of sports camps were out of the picture for at least a few months. Searching for something to fill his time, Lundell found he was still able to grasp a golf club and hit chips for the remainder of the summer.
Lundell called it catching “the golf bug.” He spent the remainder of his high school career earning a long list of awards, including two-time National Champion at Lone Peak (2015), three-time 5A State Champions (2014, 2015, 2016), two-time 5A Region IV Individual Champion, 2015 Utah Junior Golf Association 15–18 Player of the Year and team captain for the state of Utah in the Junior Americas Cup.
News quickly spread of the “Lone Peak kid with low scores,” and it wasn’t long before BYU reached out.
“He does a lot of things really well, but I think his putting sticks out more than anything when it comes to him being talented,” BYU head coach Bruce Brockbank said of Lundell. “He loves life and has a lot of energy, so I think that’s contagious for the team.”
Golf is unique among college sports for having a strong emphasis on individual scores and play while still being a team sport. Brockbank says Lundell has struck a balance between being a teammate and a great individual competitor. “When it’s time to be a teammate, he’s a great teammate and when it’s time for him to take care of business he does a good job with that.”
Lundell wants to be the guy everyone can count on and dedicates a considerable amount of personal hours in an attempt to perfect his craft. As the stats show, those hours are paying off.
Lundell has a long list of accolades throughout his BYU career, including 11 top-10 finishes, seven top-five finishes, 2021 West Coast Conference First-Team and a 2021 All-American Honorable Mention.
“He’s a big part of when we’re successful,” Brockbank said. “Not to put all the pressure on him but it makes a significant difference on our team results when he’s playing well and having a chance to win tournaments. And obviously, those are his goals.”
“I want to shoot the best scores. I want to be the guy everyone can count on to play well, especially when we need it,” Lundell said. “But more so I want to be one of the hardest workers on the team. I want everyone to see the standard that we have at BYU, especially for the new guys coming in, to kind of create that culture of hard work and being all in.”
Lundell started the 2022 spring season with a 10th-place finish at the Arizona Intercollegiate in Tucson on Jan. 25. The team is now preparing for the John A. Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii, Feb. 17–19.
