CORTEZ – After this rigorous past week, Montezuma-Cortez golf head coach Jarrett Watkins and his Panthers are looking forward to a few days to reset.
Right after the Panthers hit the books again to start the academic year, M-CHS spent five straight days on the course – three in competition, and two helping facilitate the Pinto Bean Classic at Conquistador Golf Course. The latter effort served to help raise funds for the program, as the Panthers took on various jobs around the course to assist the 220 professional and amateur golfers that descended on Cortez for the golf course’s largest event of the season.
All the while, M-CHS had their own playing ambitions to worry about, with a trip to Alamosa on Friday, Aug. 15, before tournament play at Hillcrest in Durango on Aug. 18 – leading up to the Panther Invitational on Aug. 19. All told, 90 holes of golf, 54 in their own competition and 36 as a spectator, but the Panthers held their own. A young squad posted some of their best numbers of the early season on their way to a seventh-place team finish on Tuesday afternoon and a score of 251 – their best team total so far.
“It was a lot to ask of them, but they took it all in stride,” said Watkins of the intense schedule.
Three sophomores led the way to accumulate the team score, with Zye Kuenzler surging up the leaderboard on the back nine to take third individually in the field with a 74. Four birdies on the incoming nine, including three in the final four holes helped Kuenzler post a scorching 34 on the last nine holes and finish just three shots off the pace of the tournament medalists Drew Jepson of Durango and Johnathon Smith of Pagosa Springs.
As the Demons and Pirates battled for the top spot as a team – with Durango (226) coming away with the nine-stroke victory – M-CHS found themselves in a battle of their own against 3A foes Alamosa and Delta, with the Mean Moose (248) clipping both Panthers teams, as M-CHS and Delta tied for seventh, just three shots behind Alamosa.
M-CHS sophomore Brooks Story came out red-hot to begin his round, parring five of his first seven holes and adding a birdie on his ninth hole of the day to open with a 38 on his way to an 87 overall – good for 34th in the field. Classmate Rylan Maloney checked in three shots behind, playing a steady round of bogey-golf with a scorecard of 44-46.
Junior Gavin Gill collected four pars on his way to a 95, and fellow junior Cash Rogers did likewise en route to a 99 for the varsity team. Sophomore Lucas Zufelt scored a 102, while freshmen Malachi Padilla and Sam Maloney posted scored of 105 and 108, respectively.
“It takes a few tournaments for the kids to fall into a groove,” said Watkins, “and our players are improving with every round.”
Tuesday’s home cooking proved to be a big lift for the Panthers, as M-CHS saw score improvements from their entire varsity crew – a 13-stroke improvement and team jump of nine places over their score from Durango (264, 16th place).
“Things slow down a bit over the next two weeks, and we’ll have a lot more time to practice,” added Watkins, as M-CHS welcomes some time away from competition to hone their game before they return to action on Sept. 5 in Monte Vista.
