Arrange to meet Nicole Kolbas at the golf course, and she'll beat you there. She'll also be on the putting green, practicing.
Putting wins tournaments, Kolbas says, and she would know. She won her third consecutive Class A state championship in October, solidifying her spot as the Journal Star's 2023 girls athlete of the year.
It's not easy these days to catch Kolbas, who is playing a pro-like schedule this summer. She played the famous Pinehurst in North Carolina last weekend for the North and South Junior Championship. This week, she'll be in Colorado.
There's been plenty of dashboard time, airline miles and, well, a couple of speed bumps along the way.
"My mom and I spent the night at the Colorado airport last week," Kolbas said.
The Lincoln Pius X graduate enjoys playing on the national circuit, where she can stack her game up against the biggest up-and-comers, most of them going to Division I colleges. That includes Kolbas, who is revving up to start her career at Indiana, where she's set to be the only incoming freshman on a team that found its way to the transfer portal.
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"I'll be learning the ropes, and they already know them," Kolbas said. "So it's a little intimidating."
If history is any indication, it won't take long for Kolbas to find her footing. She has a winning instinct — the one where she likes to win because it means she didn't lose. A runner-up finish earlier this summer sent her on a 6-mile run.
"It was either that or punch a wall," she deadpanned.
On this day, Kolbas isn't playing a round on the course. Instead, she's battling her younger sister in a putting competition and then hitting the driving range. Sometimes, her practice sessions can last up to eight hours — an early morning round, a bucket (or two) of balls and four hours of putting.
"I love early morning tee times when there's still a little bit of dew on the ground," Kolbas said. "The practice days are all different. Sometimes I go to the course in the morning, go home, nap and then come back in the afternoon."
After a series of photos staged on the tee box of the second hole at a course just outside of Lincoln, Kolbas can't help herself. A ball is sitting on a tee, and she has a driver in her hand.
There's only one thing she can do.
Kolbas smacks the ball in a fluid motion that's as graceful as it is powerful. It floats in the air — quite a ways — and settles on the right side of the fairway, a perfect set-up for a hypothetical approach shot, as if she had the ball on a string.
"First shot of the day," she said cheerfully.
It's in these practice sessions with her mother, Steph Kolbas, that her state championship aspirations were born.
"I'd have a 3-foot putt, and we'd go, 'OK, this one is for the state championship,'" Kolbas said.
Kolbas got her first taste of the tournament as a freshman in 2019. She finished second behind Kaitlyn Hanna. That fueled the fire, to put it lightly.
"It stung because I was like, 'This was the dream and growing up, and I fell short,'" Kolbas said. "Second place is great. Second place is awesome. But it's a 'If you're not first, you're last' type of thing."
She showed up at Norfolk as a sophomore and blew away the competition, setting an all-class record with a two-day stroke total of 140. She won by 12 strokes.
"I had nothing else to lose except for a second-place finish," Kolbas said. "And I think after that putt on the last hole … it was just a sigh of relief."
The following year, she broke that two-day record by four strokes, winning by six.
Seeking the three-peat in October, Kolbas had to grind. She walked up to the 15th hole tied for the lead after going bogey, bogey, double-bogey. A smooth 15-foot birdie putt on No. 18 sealed the deal.
"I'm very grateful I had those goals and those passions to be able to reach that level," Kolbas said. "It was very cool, and I'm going to forever remember those memories, just winning back to back to back I think is kind of insane. I have to remember that I actually did that."
Kolbas is a natural on the golf course. And with a mother who "could have turned pro" as her coach, it's easy to think golf has always been the path for Kolbas.
Turns out, her dad's sport, soccer, was what Kolbas hoped to play at the next level — until she tore her meniscus in a game, ending her days on the pitch before high school.
She doesn't think her former teammates miss her.
"I used to show up to soccer practice with different FIFA workouts. Girls didn't like me so much for that," Kolbas said. "That's something I've always looked forward to in college is that there is going to be a lot of team chemistry among like-minded girls that want to stay late at practice."
The competitiveness could stem from having two older brothers and a younger sister. She beams as she recalls a made-up game she played with her siblings with clubs and plastic golf balls. The premise was simple — hit the ball around the house as quickly as you can. Fewest strokes wins.
Or maybe it's from her first true taste of winning, as a 14-year-old beating the 16-year-olds in their division at a local tournament. She wanted to play with the older kids — and it wasn't because she was certain she'd win.
She shrugs. "They play 18 holes, and we only played nine. I wanted to play more."
Her swing coach, Tom Sieckmann of Omaha Country Club, says Kolbas is "inquisitive" and comes prepared with questions or focal points after a recent round.
"She's a hard worker," Sieckmann said. "She never settles and she's never satisfied with how good she is. She wants to get better."
Hang around Kolbas for even an hour, you get the sense she's constantly got an eye down the road. She's humble, and she smiles as she considers some of her favorite moments on Nebraska golf courses. At the same time, she's excited about the next chapter and has every reason to be.
She wants to keep outdoing herself, over and over again. And if anyone can do that, it's Kolbas.