Butters’ clutch performance that day made that hypothetical situation an easy one for Uyeshiro.
“I go, ‘Well, if we have a playoff hole, do you want to be that guy doing the playoff hole?’” Uyeshiro said. “And he’s like, ‘Absolutely.’ So I’m like, ‘There you go. That’s the guy that I want.’”
Butters, over years of high-intensity golf and volleyball competition, has developed sound “technical” skills and created repeatable motions in the eyes of Wagner.
That consistency has yielded other tangible results besides tournament success. Butters, as of Sunday, was ranked No. 206 on the nationwide Junior Golf Scoreboard and fifth-best in Arizona (No. 1 in the class of 2027).
He isn’t ready to blaze past high school yet, but Butters beginning June 15 could start speaking with college coaches and quite a few conversations have taken place. About a month into this process, Butters said he is considering seven programs including Arizona State, Stanford, USC and UCLA.
“It’s going to be definitely a really tough choice to make later down the road,” Butters said.
“I want to say that 90% of the (Division I) coaches that we’ve talked to tell him, ‘We want you because you don’t look like a golfer. (It’s) because you look strong and really athletic and physically, that’s what we’re looking for,’ which I find fascinating,” Lisa said. “And really, we owe that to volleyball.”