CHERRY TWP — From avoiding the cut to emerging a champion.

Such was the four-year journey of Moniteau senior golfer Weston Kimmey.

“When he came out for the team in ninth grade, he was afraid he wouldn't make the cut,” Moniteau golf coach Sean Morrow said. “His scores were 50 and 58.

“But over the next three years, I've never seen a high school golfer improve at the pace Weston did. I attribute that to how hard he's worked on jis game and to his mental maturity on the course.”

Kimmey won the Keystone-Shortway Athletic Conference individual championship this season, carding a 37 for nine holes in the final Mega-Match of the year. He averaged 38.1 per nine holes on the campaign.

The Warriors claimed their second consecutive KSAC team title, winning the final six Mega-Matches.

“It means a lot to me that our team won it again,” Kimmey again. “But I really wanted that individual title after coming so close last year.”

Kimmey averaged 41 per nine holes last season and lost the league's individual title by one stroke to Union's Kolby Montgomery.

“That motivated me this year more than anything,” Kimmey admitted.

While Kimmey's father, Doug, is a longtime golfer, he didn't get started in the sport himself until eighth grade — and that was by happenstance.

His family happened to drive by a yard sale in Butler.

“We saw a set of golf clubs for sale,” Kimmey said. “They wanted something like $25 for the whole thing. Those clubs were more than good enough for me.

“My dad took me out golfing and the rest is history. My mom started playing and it became a family sport for us. I fell in love with the game. It's definitely an addiction now. During most of my free time, I'm doing something related to golf.”

Kimmey recently became a member at Oakview Golf Club in Slippery Rock. During the past offseason, he said he and his Moniteau teammates “played almost every other day at Lake Arthur.”

Lake Arthur Golf Club is Moniteau's home course.

Carrying a 3.9 grade point average, Kimmey wants to play golf in college and major in engineering. He us looking at Bucknell among other schools.

“My education will come first, but I'm planning to put golf into the equation if I can,” he said.

Morrow said Kimmey will be “an excellent addition” to any college program he joins.

“He is so dedicated to the game,” the coach said. “We play at Lake Arthur where the greens are practically perfect. Some of the other courses we play on in the league aren't quite as good and Weston has struggled with his putting at times on some of them.

“Put him on a good course and he is outstanding, very consistent. He's the first conference MVP we've had in golf in my 12 years here and may be the first in the program's history.”

Moniteau's back-to-back KSAC golf titles mark the first time the team has ever won the title.

Kimmey stands 5-foot-10, 155 pounds and his drives average more than 260 yards off the tee.

“I've seen him catch a 3-wood for about 285 yards,” Morrow said. “He consistently hits 260 or 265.”

But it's the mental side of the game where Kimmey has gained the most ground.

“Gaining confidence in myself, being able to handle a bad shot ... That's helped me more as a golfer than hitting any amount of balls on the range or the course,” he said.

Morrow said that's been the biggest change in Kimmey's game.

“When he hits a bad shot, he doesn't stew about it or dwell on it. He makes up for it,” Morrow said. “That's why he's only going to get better as a golfer.

“He'll never stop working at his game physically and he keeps getting mentally stronger. That's a good combination.”