Column: Keenan balances the good and unpredictable

Ryan Keenan, raised in Bigfork and educated at Flathead High School, has been balancing the good with the unpredictable.

The good: A renowned engineering school called Montana Tech. The unpredictable? The weather that hazards the Tech golf team.

Keenan made the best of both, competing with the Orediggers for three years while earning his petroleum engineering degree in four.

Along the way he landed a job with the French petroleum company Schumberger, and saw Montana Tech nail down its first tournament title in 10 seasons.

“It was exciting,” Keenan said. “In my four years of college … it was the most exciting because we really knew we were in contention. There was a lot of energy with the team that we hadn’t had the previous three years.”

Butte sits a mile about sea level and has a “wait 15 minutes” climate. Golfers beware, but also know this – the Orediggers have access to Butte Country Club, and Butte’s municipal course, and the Anaconda Country Club, and the Old Works AND, once a year, the ultra-private Rock Creek Cattle Company that sits above Deer Lodge.

That circuit could and does give Tech coach Sean Ryan – a former Tech golfer who took over when longtime mentor Lee LeBreche suddenly passed away 14 months ago – a recruiting edge. Keenan saw it last fall.

“We were able to compete at a high level and have a chance to win every tournament,” he said. Unfortunately that start didn’t lead to a storybook finish this spring – the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to that.

“I’m fairly confident we would have been in the top two, if not the top,” Keenan said. “I’m excited for the next two years – they’re going to get a lot of Ws.”

Coach Ryan is going to turn 27 in July, which makes up not much older than Keenan, who graduated from Flathead in 2016. He lauded the senior for his leadership on and off the course.

“He was really a team-first guy and showed them, Guess what, we have a chance to win a tournament for the first time in 10 years, which we did in Great Falls (the Argo Invitational last Sept. 9-10).

“We came back from like 12 shots against Rocky, and it was Ryan (who fired a 73) who had a few early birdies and had a little swagger and showed the team we could put some red numbers on the board.”

Ryan marvels at what Keenan has accomplished, including a heavy course load his junior year that took him away from golf. “I don’t remember how many credits he was taking but he was taking a boatload,” he said.

Keenan had decided to add a Petroleum Landman certificate to his academics, while ascending to leadership roles in both the American Association of Drilling Engineers and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (president).

There are roughly 70 members of the SPE at Tech, a number Keenan says has shrunk some. He’s well aware of the oil supply currently outpacing demand – and feels his decision to take a job in the service industry end will send him to his first job, in Malaysia, sooner rather than later. His first day is to be June 7.

Either way he has a freshly minted degree from Montana Tech – a license to see the world, really, and get paid while he does it.

“We’re very lucky in Montana to have an engineering school like we do at Tech,” he said. “Most everybody comes here for the school – and unlike others except maybe MSU-Northern, it’s mostly in-state kids. You end up falling in love with Butte; there’s so much to do outdoors around the campus.”

Including golf.

“We have a pretty short season,” Keenan allowed. Snow on the Old Works slagtraps is not what a college golfer wants to see. But in golf as in life, you take on the unpredictable.

“You just work around it; just do the best you can.” he said. “You have to accept what happens – you realize how emotions can affect your game. You just have to play through, no matter what.”

Reporter Fritz Neighbor can be reached at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com, or at (406) 546-1122.