Longhorns on the links is a phrase that rolls off the tongue, but then usually make it signal the brain for summer barbeque.

Payson High School, for the first time since 2009, may be changing that mindset after finishing ninth in the Division III state championships Tuesday, May 11.

Out of 90 golfers, new Payson graduate Colton Justice had a Top 40 finish at the Sonoran Golf Course for head coach Miguel Galindo. But Justice finished two places behind his younger No. 2, and potential heir apparent to the title of Northern Arizona’s top prep golfer, in sophomore Joey Cailliau.

“Saying I am proud of my boys competing at the State level would be an understatement,” Galindo said. “Crazy course they played. PGA Tour designed, very tough.

“I had hoped for a Top 10 finish and my boys got it done.”

Cailliau led a four-sophomore contingent of Longhorns to the highest team finish from Northern Arizona, besting rival Snowflake and Northland Preparatory Academy after posting a second round five strokes higher than the Longhorns’ May 10 opening round in Tucson.

“Given I[‘ve] got four of the five varsity players returning, it raises the bar for success,” said Galindo, whose No. 3 golfer, sophomore Joseph Lamorie, was tops on the team in its warm-up for State, the High Desert Invitational in Chino Valley on April 24. “If we wanna be on the elite level, we need to expect the program to be elite.”

That means year-round play and practices, including summer tournaments, Galindo added. He has “one or two” of his sophomores as possible participants.

Like at State, Lamorie, who finished 21st, battled 90 other golfers at the High Desert Invitational--including state champion Scottsdale Prep, which also won the Chino Valley tournament. 

Lamorie and Cailliau will form a solid junior core in 2022 along with Levi Stonebrink and Will Hubbard.

The program will need more than one off-season leap forward to catch up with the Spartans, who finished more than 100 strokes lower as a team than Payson at State. 

But finishing as Section I champs and three places higher at State than Snowflake, which won the Division III title over the Longhorns 12 years ago by a still-standing record 57 strokes, is a promising start.