Isaac Ahn still has two months before he packs his golf clubs, clothes and a few more items in his car and departs Rochester for his new home.
Boston. Cambridge, to be exact. Harvard University.
That’s where the 2025 Mayo High School graduate, honor student and star athlete will face his next challenges, academically and athletically.
As he has with everything else in life — from chess (he’s the co-captain of Mayo’s team) to charity (he founded the Swing for Kids organization that raises money for local youth golfers and the First Tee Rochester) — Ahn will meet those challenges head-on and with enthusiasm.
He’s eager to get to a campus where, he says, “you get a sense that everyone is like-minded, but bring in a lot of different perspectives.”
Isaac Ahn
First, though, he has a full calendar in June and July. There are more Minnesota Jr. PGA and Minnesota Golf Association events to attempt to qualify for and play in. He’ll crisscross the state in pursuit of championships — more bullet points for an ever-lengthening golf resume — but, more importantly, in pursuit of his open-ended goal: constantly improving his game.
“I like to stay busy,” Ahn said.
He’ll bring confidence and some momentum into his summer golf schedule. He wrapped up a tremendous high school playing career earlier this month by finishing seventh at the Class 3A state meet — his third top-20 finish in the state’s biggest high school meet — after earning medalist honors at the Section 1, Class 3A meet.
He finished his final season as a Spartan with a 71.31 scoring average, the best in southeastern Minnesota by 3.7 strokes, including seven rounds under par and six rounds in the 60s.
All of that adds up to Ahn also earning Post Bulletin All-Area Boys Golfer of the Year honors for the second time (2023, ’25).
“I was definitely very excited going into (this season),” Ahn said. “It was the last year of high school golf for me and (fellow Mayo seniors) Tim (Sexton) and Brayden Mallan. The three of us have played together for four years now. We’d all been working a lot on our games and we came in strong. … Overall, the mentality was to enjoy the season.”
This spring, Ahn continuously showed the traits that will make him a Division I golfer: his ability to stay in the moment, to focus on the present.
That poise was never more apparent than during the state meet. He opened with a first-round 76, a score more than acceptable to many players, but just OK by the standards Ahn holds himself to. He made his way to Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids for a practice round on Monday, June 9, after a busy weekend of hopping from graduation party to graduation party, his own included.
Still, going into the opening round on June 10…
“I was feeling really good about the course,” Ahn said, “but that opening round, the driver wasn’t cooperating. Those rounds happen; some days are like that. But I knew walking off 18 (after the first round), the next day would be much better.”
Ahn’s gut feeling was spot-on. He blistered the Bunker Hills course to a 3-under-par 69, a round that included five birdies. He vaulted up the leaderboard, from 28th place after Day 1 to finish in seventh place with a score of 145.
“I take pride in my ability to improve on my day and I knew I could come back as a whole new player the next day,” he said. “It still wasn’t as much change as I’d hoped for, the driver still wasn’t working, but the putter was rolling.”
That was perhaps the best sign for Ahn, who said his putting was his biggest challenge throughout a season in which he scored incredibly well. He played 15 total rounds for Mayo this spring, shooting nothing higher than a 76, while going as low as a 66, which he shot in the final round of the Section 1-3A meet on May 28 at The Jewel in Lake City. That round, paired with an opening-round 68, gave Ahn a two-day total of 134 and a comfortable six-shot victory.
Now, after a loaded summer calendar, high school golf will be fully in Ahn’s rearview. But, he said, the lessons he learned on and off the course will be packed and carried with him to Cambridge, Mass., in late August.
“It’s been really instrumental, all the way back to freshman year,” Ahn said. “I remember joining the (Mayo) team and meeting the upperclassmen. The two senior captains that year, Kole Forsthoffer and Ethan Norman, showed me what it was like to be a leader and how to use the resources available to you, for you and your team’s best interest.
“That culture has been building at Mayo for years. Coach Gunnar (Olson) is very insistent on a team-first environment, which is something that is overlooked a lot in the golf world because it’s such an individual sport. Hopefully Tim (Sexton) and I have been able to pass that down. We really appreciate coach making sure we built that positive atmosphere.”
Mayo’s Isaac Ahn plays the first hole at the Rochester Golf & Country Club during the All City Golf Invitational on Monday, May 12, 2025, in Rochester.
Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin file photo
Rochester Mayo senior Isaac Ahn hits a tee shot during the 2025 Class 3A boys golf state meet, at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids.
Contributed / Sharon Ahn
