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Maddie Denker had heard enough.

The Duchesne High three-sport athlete rejected the suggestion she take up golf numerous times from her father Jacob a few years back.

Yet Dad kept up the pressure.

Finally, Maddie relented.

"All right, fine. If this gets you to stop asking me about it, I'll just do it," said Maddie, Duchesne's 2025 Post-Dispatch Scholar Athlete.

Yep, father, indeed, knew best.

Denker took up the sport a little under three years ago prior to her sophomore campaign at the St Charles-based catholic school.

In that relatively short amount of time, she developed into one of the top golfers in the state.

Denker finished fourth at the Class 1 state tournament in October and helped the Pioneers claim the team championship — the first in program history — in the two-day event at Crown Pointe Country Club in Farmington.

That performance, along with her rapid growth, earned Denker more than a half-dozen college scholarship offers.

She will continue her rapidly rising career at Quincy University.

And it all happened because Denker was tiring of saying no to her father, who kept hammering home the suggestion.

"I couldn't believe it when she finally said yes," Jacob said. "Ever since then, the ride has been very interesting."

Successful, too.

Denker, who regularly hits the ball 260 yards off the tee, wanted nothing to do with the sport throughout most of her young life.

Ironically, she recoiled when Jacob offered her the chance to go with him for the third round of the PGA Championship during the summer of 2018 at Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country.

Maddie still remembers her answer.

"I told him, 'Why would I waste a Saturday afternoon doing something like that?' " Maddie recalled. 

Denker, who also plays soccer and basketball, regrets that choice.

"I just hope I get a chance to do something like that again sometime in my life," she said.

The 5-foot-10 Denker went from having no interest in the sport at all to it becoming one of the most important things in her life.

"I played a lot of sports growing up, but golf was just never on my radar," Denker said.

All it took was one trip to the links to change her mind. Over the summer before her sophomore year, she joined her father, grandfather and uncle for a round at Wildcat Golf Course in Montgomery City, Missouri, where the family has a summer house.

"I don't remember what I shot or how I played," Denker said. "All I remember was how fun it was and what a good time I had."

Denker showed a natural affinity for the game and sought out private lessons from Denny Walters, an area swing guru. Walters is the Duchesne golf coach but also doubles as a personal instructor for about a dozen high school and college players in the area.

So Denker decided to move forward with the sport in a serious manner.

"We just made some pretty big swing changes with her and got her to understand the game," Walters said. "She took it and continually got better and better."

Denker had some rough rounds during her first competitive year but qualified for state and finished 45th. She began that tournament shooting 130 but rebounded to record a 109 the next day.

That bounce-back performance served as a light bulb moment.

"I realized that if I improved that much, I had the ability to keep improving," Denker said. 

She did just that and became a force her junior campaign, when she finished eighth in the state after placing fifth in the district tournament.

This past fall season, Denker was the runner-up in district play and carried that momentum into the state tournament. She carded a career-best 80 in the opening round on the way to another all-state medal-winning performance.

Even Denker, who aspires to be a sports photographer, is somewhat stunned with her rapid ascension up the ladder.

"I'm definitely surprised," Denker said. "But all of the credit goes to Coach Walters. I just follow his example and do what he tells me."

Walters has enjoyed the challenge of molding Denker into a force.

"I'll take a little bit of credit, but at the end of the day, she listened and turned her game around enough to get a scholarship," Walters said.

Denker averaged 7.9 rebounds over the winter for the basketball team, which compiled an 18-9 record. She plays goalie on the soccer team and has compiled an 8-4 record with seven shutouts heading into the final weeks of the regular season.

But golf has became her favorite sport over the last few years and she has made major strides in a short amount of time.

"The best part about her is that she's going to get so much better," Walters said. "There's a high ceiling there. What she's done so far is pretty amazing, but because she's such an good athlete, she can easily take her game to another level."