After six rounds of golf in six days at the Patty Jewett Golf Course in Colorado Springs, Kermitt Barrett emerged as the 2022 Pikes Peak Amateur senior flight champion on Saturday.
“It’s satisfying to win; I played good opponents and played good golf for several days,” Barrett said.
The first two days of the tournament Monday and Tuesday were stroke play and were used to seed the match play bracket the following days.
Barrett, an eight-time Hillcrest Golf Course club champion, shot a 71 and a 69 to earn the No. 1 seed and was also named the senior medalist after winning the stroke play portion of the tournament.
In match play, Barrett beat four golfers head to head to win the title.
“I drove the ball real good, and I went one stretch in the middle where I had no bogeys in like 30 holes,” he said.
His bogey-free streak began during his stroke play round on Tuesday and extended into Thursday.
Barrett also said he went about 21 holes in a row without missing a green.
During match play, Barrett’s toughest match came in the semifinals against Tim Long. Barrett had a two-hole lead, but Long sank birdies on holes 15 and 16 to tie the match.
The golfers eventually went into extra holes. On No. 20, Barrett said he had a “terrible drive,” but managed to salvage a par to advance to the finals.
“I had to hack one out to the green, then I had to make a chip,” he said. “I chipped to 8 feet, then sunk an 8-footer for par.”
In the finals, Barrett squared off with Thomas Jaron and took a quick lead after he made an eagle on the first hole. After a Jaron bogey, Barrett made a birdie to take a three-hole lead.
“I got up three early, and it stayed pretty much there,” Barrett said.
Barrett sunk a two-foot putt for a birdie on hole No. 15. Jaron responded with a couple birdies, but he was unable to erase Barrett’s three-hole lead. Barrett won the championship match after hole 17 by a score of 2 and 1, meaning he had a two-hole lead with one hole left.
The win was also Barrett’s first at the Pikes Peak Amateur, though he said it had been five or six years since he last competed in it.
“It’s just a fun tournament,” he said. “You get to play a lot of golf, and it’s head to head, so you know where you are.”
He also said he enjoyed playing six days in a row and on a different course. The Patty Jewett Golf Course was built in 1898 and is the third-oldest public course west of the Mississippi River.
“It’s an old course with some really cool old cottonwood trees,” he said. “There are some fun holes and some tough ones, some you can drive right to the front of the green, and the par 5s are reachable.”
Barrett’s next competition will likely be the Hillcrest Golf Course club championship Aug. 6-7.
“We’ll see if I can make it nine,” he said.
Barrett is also an assistant coach for the Durango High School boys and girls golf teams and will start working with the boys on Monday.
