H over a magnifying glass over a map of the state’s southeast portion, and the small village of Busby will appear. Encircled within the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Eastern Montana, it is where approximately 700 souls call home.
It’s also where Sable Kerzmann – a member of the Tribe – grew up and commuted 90 minutes on a bus each way to attend high school in Colstrip, some 40 miles northeast.
“We left an hour and a half early just to go to the same school and attend the same days everyone else from town did,” she recalled. “Most days I left the house at 5:30am and I got home at 8:30pm.”
Several years later, Sable remains on the reservation, working in Ashland. A mother of two who hails from a large family in which she has nearly 40 first cousins, Sable is a registered nurse and administrator at Heritage Living Center in town, overseeing dozens of its elderly residents.
She also happens to be one of Montana’s finest golfers, a merited distinction that has allowed her to travel far beyond the confines of her small yet beloved community, as well as represent her home state in USGA championships.
“Golf has afforded me experiences and to see places and people I surely wouldn't have had the opportunity to see otherwise,” Sable said. “It was my portal to a much bigger world, especially in contrast to growing up in the middle of nowhere in Montana."
She’s always been an athlete. Growing up a talented volleyball player at Colstrip High, Sable took up golf at the urging of one of her friends who played on the school’s golf team, which had a blank roster spot that needed to be filled.
“She knew I’d be able to figure it out,” Sable said of her would-be golfing teammate.
Sure enough, Sable and the Colstrip girls won the Montana Class A State Girls Championship in October 2003, a team effort boosted by Sable’s solo fifth place finish. To date, it remains Colstrip golf’s only such title, having moved to Class B in the years since.
Soon, one by one, the doors began to open. Sable’s carefully crafted skills earned her a spot at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, the state’s largest city which certainly contrasted Busby and Colstrip in size. Adorning the green and gold of the school’s Battlin’ Bears, Sable kept up with her teammates and even performed well at national tournaments, before returning home a year before she was to graduate to give birth to her first daughter, Kyla.
“My kids were the best thing that ever happened to me,” Sable maintains in retrospect of returning home at that time.
Once Kyla and second daughter Kambryn were born, Sable began working at the Northern Cheyenne Service Unit in Lame Deer, the town where the Northern Cheyenne is headquartered. As an appointment clerk, she realized she had a genuine proclivity for being in healthcare.
“I genuinely loved the facility,” she explained. “So, it just kind of sparked my interest.”
Her passion was noticed by nurses at the facility, some of whom encouraged her to return to school.
“The nurses were like, ‘Sable, what are you doing? You need to go to nursing school. Just go, come back and serve your people,’” Sable said. “So that’s what I did.”
She had some college golf eligibility remaining following her early exit from Rocky Mountain. In pursuit of an associate nursing degree, Miles Community College in Miles City – about an hour or so northeast of the Reservation – offered Sable a full scholarship that covered her education costs. The golfer earned her coveted nursing degree and, after passing her board exam, her nursing license.
Sable was now equipped to serve her people on the Reservation.
As her medical career began, her days became full, which was to be expected given the effort she was giving toward raising her two young daughters in addition to her and her husband’s work.
“It was tough,” said Sable. “But I still made it a point to play. I still played in the summer when I could.”
She qualified for the USGA Women's State Team Championship in 2009, 2011 and 2017, which led her from what she called “the middle of nowhere Montana” to compete in all parts of the U.S.
Having won a high school state championship and earned a golf scholarship which enabled her to earn a nursing education, as well as making friends and being able to experience the life-expanding joys of travel, Sable knew she wanted golf to provide similar opportunities in the lives of her two daughters, Kyla and Kambryn.
“Golf can have a profound impact on an athlete's life, on any player's life,” she said. “If you have a good understanding and an open idea of how you're viewing it, how you meet challenges, how you overcome things; honesty, and integrity.”
Sable eventually began to coach the boys' and girls’ golf teams at her former Colstrip High School, to which she and her daughters continue to commute from the Reservation. Kyla, 18, and Kambryn, 17, are both nearing the end of their high school years. Kyla has become a fine player, performing well in Class B individual play in spring 2026. Kambryn has more recently decided to prioritize rodeo – a popular and deeply rooted sport in Big Sky Country – instead of golf, but the younger sister still knows her way around 18 holes when called upon.
Coaching is and has been a valuable role for Sable. At some point, she hopes to add that role to her repertoire of the many she serves on the Reservation, to lend both her golf and volleyball knowledge to local children. That’s part of a goal to represent the Northern Cheyenne community through her golf proficiency and allow some of its youngest athletes to work toward the opportunities that she had.
“The biggest amount of pride that I have with me and golf is that I want to bring something positive,” she explained. “I want to bring a positive view and a positive light to my community and to the people that I know and the people that I love. And I'm able to do that with golf.”
It’s a full-throttle effort. As recently as 2025, Sable placed third in the Montana Women’s Mid-Amateur and continues to play in fundraising tournaments, playing out of Ponderosa Butte Golf Course in Colstrip. Wanting to give her older daughter an additional learning experience, Sable has had Kyla caddie for her throughout the past two years and is intent on returning the favor in any of Kyla’s future competitions.
“My dad caddied for me probably 10 years straight, and that was a really good thing for us,” Sable said, referencing her golf beginnings. “I imagine I'll do the same thing with my grandkids and hopefully I'll be the caddie out there someday.”
In a life where Sable has given her all as a mom, nurse and coach – roles that collectively entail love, service and mentorship – the game that granted her so much forward progress will unequivocally remain, as long as Sable is able.
“I’m going to play golf forever, I’ll say that,” she said. “I'll just keep practicing and trying to improve. That's one of the things golf teaches us, we've got to just keep working to make improvements.”