2024 NewsTribune Boys Golfer of the Year: Hall’s Landen Plym

When people look back on Landen Plym’s golf career at Hall, he wants to be remembered for how he treated his teammates.

“I don’t want to be remembered as anything special other than a good teammate and somebody that people enjoyed playing golf with,” Plym said.

He’ll be remembered for much more than that.

Plym will be remembered as one of the best golfers in school history, coach Mason Kimberley said.

“Statistically, he’s the best ever,” Kimberley said. “He averaged below 39 all four years. He was a 22-time match medalist in nine-hole events with a .600 winning percentage, an eight-time medalist in the larger 18-hole invitationals. He put together a truly impressive résumé over his four years.”

And this fall he put an exclamation point on his career.

Plym had an area-best 36.5 average, won the Princeton and Kewanee invitationals, and finished second at the Three Rivers Conference Meet. He won the Class 1A St. Bede Regional with a 73 to lead the Red Devils to the team title, and placed sixth with a 76 at the Rockford Lutheran Sectional to earn a return trip to state, where he finished his career with a 13th-place finish.

For all he accomplished this season, Plym is the 2024 NewsTribune Boys Golfer of the Year. He also won the award as a sophomore and junior.

“I think I saved my best season for last,” Plym said. “This year I seemed to have been more consistent than I have been in the past, and that led to me being more confident and shooting better scores.”

Plym was so consistent that he shot over 40 only once out of 30 nine-hole rounds this fall.

“Landen paid a little more attention to detail when it came to swing mechanics this season, which allowed him to be better at making midround corrections and adjustments whenever he didn’t get off to a great start,” Kimberley said.

Plym said he focused on his short game in the summer, which paid off throughout the season.

“I definitely improved my chipping and putting,” Plym said. “When you have bad days on the golf course, the only thing that can save you is your short game. So over the summer I made sure to spend more time on the practice green. And when you have a good day on the course, having a good short game just leads to more birdies and a lot lower scores.”

Plym had good days on the course throughout the postseason as he won his second career individual regional title and earned his second state berth after missing by three strokes as a junior.

At state, he carded a 76 to make the cut and finished with a 75 for a two-round score of 151.

“I just tried to treat the postseason rounds as if they were the same as regular season,” Plym said. “I made sure to keep the same mindset, and I also had less pressure on myself because of how good of a team we were this year.”

Along with individual success, Plym led the Red Devils to one of their best seasons.

Hall won the Princeton Invitational and Bureau County Match Play and placed second in the Kewanee Invitational and the Three Rivers Conference Meet.

The Red Devils also captured their first regional championship since 2007.

“Landen isn’t the most vocal leader, but he has a tremendous ability to lead by example,” Kimberley said. “His calm and collected on-course demeanor runs off on everyone else, which led to having perhaps the best season in the history of the Hall High School golf program.”

Plym plans to play golf at IVCC next season.

“Landen will certainly be missed, but he really raised the bar for our program at Hall, and I hope that future Hall golfers will strive for excellence in the same way he did,” Kimberley said.