Durango High School boys golf head coach Kirk Rawles knows all about the pressure of sending a first-time Demon to the state championship tournament. This season, he’ll send three, including two freshmen, to the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Class 4A tournament to be held Monday and Tuesday at Flying Horse Golf Club in Colorado Springs.
The Demons barely missed out on qualifying as a team at the regional meet two weeks ago but played well enough to qualify a trio: freshmen Anthony Flint and Levi Tichi along with junior Ethan Whidden. All three will make their first state appearance.
“I think a good goal would be to get six rounds in the 70s or average in the 70s out of those six rounds,” Rawles said. “I think that’s a realistic expectation. If we go out the first day and they exceed that, then maybe we will look at something else.”
At the state tournament, there is nothing to leave to chance. Tichi, who has been the No. 1 golfer all season for Durango, saw that first-hand last season, as his older brother Luke went to state.
“I wish I could trade spots with him. I’d rather him go than me go,” Tichi said of Luke, a junior who missed qualifying by two strokes. “It’s just the way it is, I guess. I saw him do it last year, and I said to myself, ‘I want to be like that next year,’ and I worked hard and it paid off for me. I expected to qualify based off of the way I was playing, and it’s good, and now that I saw what my brother did last year, I just want to do well at state.”
Tichi, who is paired up with two NCAA Division I golf-bound seniors, Chazz Vigil of Pueblo Centennial and Andrew Merz of Coronado, said that in order for a successful 36 holes, he will have to focus on himself rather than his opponents.
“My expectation is to try and stick with them, and, if I can, beat them,” Tichi said. “I have to keep focused and not give up, ever.”
DHS junior Ethan Whidden, who will tee off against Kenny Decker from Pueblo Centennial and Noah Keller from Coronado, said last Monday’s tournament at Piñon Hills Golf Course in Farmington was the perfect way to gear up for the tournament, as the Demons played stress free en route to a second-place score.
“It was a good way to de-stress,” Whidden said. “That was kind of a fun round for us because regionals was so serious and stressful. It was a good competition, and it wasn’t in our state, so it was a fun way to just play 18 holes with everybody and hopefully it’ll pay off.”
Anthony Flint, who will tee off against Jack Cintron of Coronado and Rick Lane of Pueblo Centennial, was among the final players at the regional to make the cut for state, as he shot a 14-over-par 86. He called his trip to state “icing on the cake” to a strong season.
“I can’t wait to get the experience and to play kind of freely with no worries,” Flint said. “After I finished my regional round, I didn’t expect to qualify for state just because I didn’t play very well. But after I qualified, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, I can relax now and just play my game.’ It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, but now that I’ve made it, I can play my game.”
Now that the pressure is off about getting to the state tournament, Rawles said he wants his trio to stay loose, from the bus ride to the final hole.
“I just want them to be relaxed and play,” Rawles said. “The toughest day was regionals. That was stressful, and now they’ll get to play golf. And they’ll find that this field is actually, probably, isn’t as tough as the regional field to get into state. So, they just have to play their game, make some smart decisions and enjoy being there.”
Rawles added that regardless of what happens at the state tournament, he knows that Durango will be a fierce contender for a while with so much youth.
“I thought that this year was really healthy for competition,” Rawles said. “There was that little bit of pressure with six of them vying for four spots that helped all of them, but they did it in a really fun, encouraging way of trying to beat each other, but I want your best game and I want to beat it. So, I think it was a healthy environment this year, and it was fun first and foremost. If we work off of that, we’ll end up with results as we finish out this year.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
