Dynasty on the 6A links, Part 3

Westlake High School’s boys golf team is in the midst of a dynastic run. The Chaps have won 8 of the last 9 6A state championships and have now claimed 15 state titles in their history, more than any other sport at the successful school. After the Chaps’ 2026 championship, we sat down with longtime golf coach and current Westlake athletic director Callan Nokes, who delivered 9 state titles in his tenure, to unravel the secret to the Chaps’ success. The answer, you might expect, isn’t one small thing. In order to go fully behind the red-and-blue curtain, we’ll take a deep dive into the pillars of success one at a time with a multi-part series on Westlake’s unrivaled 6A success.

Part 1 (Thursday, July 9): Team Building, Strength Training, and a College Atmosphere

Part 2 (Monday, July 13): Practicing Competitive Golf, not ‘Golf Swing’

Part 3 (Tuesday, July 14): Creating Program Depth through Frequent Team Qualifying Chances

Part 4 (Wednesday, July 15): Embracing the Expectations and the Chaps who Delivered when it Mattered Most

The schools competing for the Texas 6A state golf championship each year have one primary similarity: The top players are very good players with either Division 1 or professional aspirations.

“Every team that’s in the state tournament has 1 or 2 guys that are going to be D1 players that are just bad-asses,” former Westlake coach Callan Nokes, who led the school to 9 state titles between 2003 and 2023, said.

Those players consistently score in the low 70s and, when things are going well, can score in the mid-60s. The teams begin to separate with the players who round out the 5-man lineup. For Westlake, the players holding the 3rd through 5th spots consistently score in the mid-70s. Anything much above that and title hopes decrease significantly.

“You have to have that,” Nokes said. “You don’t want to have to count an 80. You’ll never win if you have to count an 80.”

To Nokes’ point, dating back to the 2014 title, Westlake’s highest-scoring round during a championship season was 76. The 2022 team was so dominant that all its scoring rounds were 73 or better.

Most schools that can compete with Westlake have 5 solid players. But probably not more than that. Through the years, Nokes said players who might rank between 6 and 10 on the team can also approach 75. This group, Nokes said, is where Westlake separates itself from the field.

“The guys that win the state tournament are the program guys that you’ve developed over time,” he said.

Not everyone who tries out for the Westlake golf team – the Chaps’ combined varsity and JV roster includes more than 30 players - walks in as a scratch golfer who can consistently score in the low-to-mid-70s. Nokes has seen his share of late bloomers, be they multi-sport athletes who want to become better golfers and are willing to put in the work, or just golfers who haven’t put it all together yet.

“I think of guys like Trevor Brown and Nick Costello,” Nokes said. “They were mid-80 shooters when they were freshmen. They were both able to improve so much, so fast that they were both in the top 5 on our state champion team as sophomores.

Costello and Brown each played in 3 different state tournaments, winning the title as sophomores in 2014. They weren’t the lowest scorers on the team, Nokes said, but they both averaged 76 in the state tournament, which helped Westlake pull away for the title. Their 2015 and 2016 teams finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Depending on the tournament, qualifying can look different from week to week. District, regional, and state championship qualification might have different metrics from regular-season events. While Nokes made it policy to take multiple teams to in-season tournaments, competition for one of the coveted top 5 spots remained fierce.

“That was something we started that nobody else was doing,” Nokes said. “We took 2 and sometimes 3 teams to every varsity tournament. It cost a lot more in the budget, but it built our depth.”

And if that tournament happened to be at the site where the district, regional, or state tournament would be held, it gave Nokes an extra data point to evaluate during qualifying.

“I always weighed those tournaments a little bit higher than I weighed just everyday qualifying,” he said. “Every-day qualifying is just 9 holes after school. It’s not like a competitive 36-hole tournament where you have to string together 18 holes. I wanted to see who could stay focused for all 18 holes.”

Grant Feldman, a Westlake player who just finished a record-breaking career at Creighton, said the near-continuous qualifying helps players 2 ways. First, it keeps them sharp for the next event. Second, it gets them more comfortable for college golf.

“When I got to college, I was very comfortable with qualifying for spots,” he said. “Not everyone on the (Creighton) team felt that way.”

With little question, Feldman represents the best example of - and justification for - Nokes’ dedication to qualifying events. In 2022, between the regional championship and the state tournament, the coach staged a 2-man qualifier to give Feldman a chance to round out the top team after playing in the second group for all of his junior and senior seasons.

“I had never been inside the top 5 for my high school career,” Feldman said. “That shows how tough it is at Westlake. At regionals, I was one of the top 2 on the second team, and I was playing well. So we had a 1v1, 36-hole qualifier for the final spot, and I came out on top.”

“People thought I was crazy to put him in the lineup,” Nokes said, “but I knew he was ready. He had played well at district and played well at regional, and I had a hunch that he was going to be better for us in there.”

He was. Feldman posted rounds of 73 and 72 to back up state tournament veterans Jacob Sosa and Zach Kingsland en route to a 23-stroke win.

“I was proud to represent us at the highest level,” Feldman said. “I knew we had a good group of guys that would play well, so I just wanted to play my game and put up respectable scores. If I could do that, I knew we’d get it done. To be part of the state championship team…I was happy to end my career that way.”

However Nokes judged qualifying, it worked.

• Part 4 (Wednesday, 7/15): Embracing the Expectations and the Chaps who Delivered when it Mattered Most