On course with Anaconda’s Logan McKay
by Logan Groeneveld-Meijer
There’s not much Logan McKay can’t accomplish with her steadfast ambition and 14 golf clubs at the ready.
Logan, 17, is a rising senior at Anaconda High School, where she’s one of its most prominent athletes, competing in volleyball, basketball and golf for the school’s Copperheads. All those sports have long meant plenty to her, but golf has commanded her attention for the longest time.
A natural athlete with a competitive spirit, Logan was ready to join her high school golf team as an eighth grader. That year (and in each one since), she lettered and earned both all-state and all-conference honors in the sport.
Her golf excursion is one that traces back to her earliest days. At the age of three – or, that is to say, three days – Logan was brought onto the golf course in a small baby seat, accompanying her recuperating mother, while her dad, Russ, played a handful of holes.
"She has been out there ever since,” says mom Kristy, herself a longtime player. “All those years she would ride with us, but not really golf. She’d maybe hit one hole or two, but never really a whole round until she was able to play high school golf as an eighth grader.”
At AHS, that lifelong experience has served Logan well. She’s become one of Montana’s best junior players, having picked up multiple Class B high school wins, as well as a runner-up finish in that division’s state championship. Last year, she became the first AHS girls’ golfer to win an individual tournament title in over a decade. Each honor provides Logan with a sense of accomplishment and motivation.
“To think I could be good, it just pushed me to do even better,” Logan said of the statewide stage on which she often finds herself.
Both Logan’s parents have been immersed in sports. Kristy grew up competing in the Montana-favorite sport of rodeo, while Russ spent his upbringing hunting, snowmobiling and golfing with his grandfather. Once their family started to grow, both Kristy and Russ took up golf more earnestly in the hope of making the game a family activity.
While growing up in that household, it wasn’t long before Logan was geared up with a set of what she called “little practice clubs” that became the catalyst in her own playing foray. Quickly progressing with a genuine proclivity for the game, Logan was ready to contribute to Anaconda’s high school team while still in eighth grade.
“That’s when I truly started to enjoy it and realize it was my true calling,” she said.
Progressing through the first couple high school years, Logan’s time on the course was supplemented by the sports she played off it, and she’s always kept her game refined. When Montana’s cold and snowy winters descend, Logan finds the time to practice indoors in nearby Butte, where her coach, Caleb Stetzner, provides the lessons, and the indoor facility, Uptown Golf, donates generous bay access.
“She has great community support, especially with golf,” Kristy explains. “This town really cheers for her and her success.”
The support from Anaconda makes its way to Logan. Whether directly from strangers, through social media comments or otherwise, the town’s faithful offers the young athlete a level of support for which she is grateful.
“Every post that goes out, people from our town are just overflowing in the comments,” she said. “Going back and reading them, when I’m in my head or down on myself, is just a confidence booster because I know that people are behind me, no matter the outcome.”
Her high school career has come with some adversity, but she’s overcome that, too. Playing basketball in December 2024, Logan suffered a torn ACL, an injury that jeopardized her upcoming golf season. After undergoing surgery a few weeks later and spending the following months in physical therapy, Logan managed to stick a tee in the ground for Anaconda in April. What resulted was another successful season and her runner-up result in the state championship.
What means just that much more to Logan is the ability to represent the budding golf scene in Montana, where herself, both her parents and her 97-year-old great-grandmother remain. Three courses are available to Logan in her hometown, among them Old Works Golf Course, a public and esteemed Jack Nicklaus design.
“To go into the golf world and show that in Anaconda, a town in Montana, you can do well in other sports, it’s great,” she’ll say, noting how other sports like football have historically received higher interest.
As her career progresses, Logan certainly has college golf in her crosshairs. But throughout the summer of 2026, and as she heads into her senior year at AHS, she’s content to sharpen her game while free from the competitive air of a high school tournament.
“Golf is honestly everything to me,” she said. “I want to perform and do well, and I know that I’m able to. I know that it’s ‘just go out there and have fun.’”