The Durango High School boys golf team went swimming on Tuesday at the Dalton Ranch Golf Club.
The team made an internal bet that if any player sank a hole-in-one, they all had to jump in the pond.
Heading into hole No. 14 at the Durango Dalton Ranch Invitational, Nicholas Best said he “wasn’t playing too hot.”
That changed in an instant.
Best lined up his gap wedge on the roughly 125-yard hole, hit the ball straight, and it bounced into the hole for his first-ever hole-in-one.
“It hit 2 feet in front of the hole and bounced right in,” Best said. “It was pretty sweet.”
Best and several of his teammates then celebrated by jumping into a pond on the 14th hole after the tournament.
“It was awesome,” the senior said.
Despite six penalty strokes, Best shot an 80 to tie for sixth place in the tournament.
Zach Griswold led Durango with a personal best round of 74, which was good enough for third on the day.
“My No. 1 goal was not to get one double bogey,” Griswold said. “I wanted to play the ball in front of me and not let it get out of hand.”
Griswold accomplished his goal and only had three bogeys on the day to go along with 14 pars and a birdie on No. 5.
“That’s a great round for Zach. A 74 at Dalton is awesome,” said DHS head coach Kirk Rawles. “He hit 13 greens in regulation.”
Bailey Burke shot an 83 to place ninth for Durango. Eli Holden had four birdies on the back nine and finished with an 84. Carter Hansen, Wynn Daniels and Owen Muraro tied for 19th at 88. Ethan James shot an 89 while Cole Ulrich and Luke Carlson both shot 90s.
As a team, Durango shot a 237 to finish second behind Montezuma-Cortez (222).
“As a team, I thought we all played good,” Griswold said.
“We did great,” said the tournament’s individual winner, Thayer Plewe of Montezuma-Cortez. “A six-over as a team at Dalton is really, really good. I’m proud of how we played and I can’t wait to keep it going.”
Vince Lopez shot in the 70s for the first time at Dalton and finished fourth with a 76 for M-CHS. Sean Curtis placed sixth with an 80 to round out Cortez’s team score while Gavin Frost (85), Airoughn VanGrandt (90) and Kaden Huff (103) also competed for the Panthers.
Fruita Monument placed third as a team with a 246. Kirtland Central, led by runner-up Skyler Wood’s 72, finished fourth with a 253, followed by Gunnison (259), Pagosa Springs (267), Alamosa (297) and Cedaredge (322).
Plewe hit 17 greens and made seven birdies to win the tournament with a 6-under, 66.
“When you hit the greens in regulation at Dalton, you’re going to have a good round,” Plewe said. “I love Dalton. It’s a fun course and extremely tough. To have a good round on it and win is extremely rewarding.”
The Demons and Panthers will next try and qualify for state at their regional championships on Tuesday. Durango will travel to Eagle Valley Ranch for its 4A regional while Cortez will host its 3A regional.
“We’re kind of underdogs going in, so we will have to keep moving forward like we did today,” Rawles said, noting Durango will be competing against Montrose, Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs for the two qualifying team spots.
“Individually, I just want to qualify; I don’t care what I shoot,” said Griswold, who was the only Demon that qualified for state last year. “As a team, I want to see at least another two qualify. That would be amazing.”
Cortez, meanwhile, is looking to get back to state as a team and Plewe is hoping to finish on top.
“Today was a good representation of what we’re taking into regionals,” Plewe said.
