Like most golfers, Josh Fronabarger is a perfectionist.
“I won both our first tournaments,” he said. “[I] wasn’t necessarily happy with the way I played, but I was happy with the outcome.”
He’s playing well, and the Aurora senior is once again one of the top high school golfers in Missouri. His coach thinks his ceiling is even higher.
“He’s close to being pretty dominant, I think,” said Aurora head coach Brian Cox.
It’s tough for Josh to do much better than he did last year, when he finished third in the state, two strokes from the top. What makes that even more impressive, is he did it after missing virtually any preseason practice due to a pair of broken wrists suffered during basketball.
“I went up, got undercut, came down and, kind of a freak deal, just broke both of them,” he said. “Same bone in both of them.”
That put him on the shelf for weeks, which was “rough” in his own words. But he beat everybody’s expectations and returned ahead of schedule.
“I kind of just eased myself into it,” he said. “I think I only had one actual round of golf before our first match, so the beginning of the season, those first few tournaments, were rough for me.”
However, it didn’t stay that way. Josh’s work ethic borders on legendary around Honey Creek Golf Club.
“He’ll finish a tournament and come out and hit the driving range until dark,” Cox said.
So as a senior, Josh is benefitting from a healthy offseason, as well as lessons learned from his time on the sidelines.
“Not getting down on myself,” he said is the biggest lesson he’s learned. “I’ve hit a few bad shots, really bad shots, this year, and I just—my earlier years, I would have just shut down and given up probably, but with the injury, I’ve matured a little bit.”
Josh also comes from a family of athletes that includes his father and brothers, so that competitive streak isn’t going anywhere.
“He probably feels worse losing to his dad or his brother than he does some high school kid,” Cox said.
With the end of the year looming, all signs point to Josh Fronabarger playing for awhile.
“I think he’ll be ready when state comes around to challenge for a title,” Cox said.
Aurora senior golfer Josh Fronabarger is the latest Arby’s High School Athlete of the Week.
