South Warren’s CM Mixon lines up a shot on the 10th hole green Sept. 28 at the Region 3 boys’ golf tournament at Franklin Country Club in Franklin.

Bowling Green has already achieved more than it thought it would this season.

The goal was to win just one tournament, but the Purples won five. Then they added a district and region championship on top.

There’s no doubt the expectations for the two-day KHSAA Boys’ State Golf Championship this weekend at Bowling Green Country Club are sky high among the Purples.

“We’ve achieved more than what we set our goals to and that felt pretty good,” senior Tristen Carter said. “As a team, we go into any tournament with a chance to win it.”

Carter and his teammates are ready to flip a recent trend for the team at state after missing the cut last season and failing to qualify for the tournament overall in 2016.

But this fall has been a season of exceeding prior notions. Bowling Green’s maturity growth and continuous golf course management have the team ready to keep the ride rolling.

“We went above and beyond for our goals this year,” junior Collier Curd said. “The region on top made it a whole lot better, but it’s just coming together really nicely, especially at the right time.”

Bowling Green has posted three team scores below 300 with 297s at the South Warren Invitational, VanMeter Cup and Wildcat Invitational. The team won its first region title since 2014 with a 307 last week at Franklin Country Club.

Translating that success to consistently low rounds at Bowling Green Country Club is the challenge now, a course where the Purples haven’t played their best.

They shot 317 at the Gator Invitational in the second tournament of the year and a 325 at the Bowling Green Invitational.

Bowling Green won the last of five boys’ state golf championships in 1997. The Purples were the state runner-up in 2007. Since then, Bowling Green’s best finish is a tie for fifth in 2014, when Curd was the fifth-man as a seventh-grader.

“I feel like we know the course better, but at the same time since it is our home course, everyone expects us to play really well,” Curd said. “I feel like that pressure effects how we play, but I think we’ll be fine.”

Purples coach Adam Whitt said the maturity level of his team has improved as the year moved on. That’s been the biggest benefit with 12 tournaments played this season.

“I’d be hard pressed to find a team in Kentucky that’s traveled as much as we have and gone to as many events as these kids have,” Whitt said. “We played in three or four tournaments that have a stronger field than the state tournament. You hope by going up there you see how you stack up. You go up there and we’ve got to play well to finish top half of an event. You can sometimes get away with winning a tournament and not playing your best, but (here) you’ve got to play well to get rewarded.”

Curd, who averages even-par 72 per tournament, will tee off at 7:18 a.m. from the 10th hole Friday. Surrounding Bowling Green teammates – Carter, Blake Stewart, Charlie Reber and Clark McDougal – will tee off from the 10th from 7 a.m. to 7:36 a.m.

CM Mixon is taking his cautious planning approach in hopes of capitalizing on a third-place finish last year with a 3-under par.

The two-time region champion likes where his game is after a long practice round on Thursday and is ready to make one last push before joining the University of Louisville golf team next season.

“I feel like I have one or two more things unchecked in my high school career,” Mixon said. “I feel like I’ve done a lot for South Warren, which is great. Right now, I’m keeping my mind focused on what I have to do. I feel like my game is here, it’s where it needs to be and it’s just staying focused and staying in the moment.”

Mixon is the last of his South Warren teammates to tee off from the 10th hole at 1:18 p.m. Friday. Individual qualifiers from the area are the Franklin-Simpson duo of Chase Wilson (11:39 a.m., 10th) and Dalton Fiveash (11:48 a.m., 10th). Allen County-Scottsville’s Owen Stamper will tee off from No. 1 at 8:20 a.m.