It’s safe to say that, these days, Reiley Waldo is in the zone.
The comfort zone.
“I think Reiley has found a pretty good comfort zone of playing in the mid-80s,” Kirk Rawles, Durango High School girls golf coach, said after Waldo finished second in a six-team tournament Monday at San Juan Country Club in Farmington.
The DHS senior was at the heart of that comfort zone Monday, firing a 12-over 85 on the par-73 course.
Jacque Galloway of team champion Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was medalist with a 2-over 75.
“That’s a really good score on that course,” Rawles said.
DHS took only three players so wasn’t eligible for the team competition. Also playing Monday were Katrina Chandler, who carded a 110, and Lauren Biery, who shot a 121.
“She hit some real quality shots,” Rawles said of Waldo. “I think her irons are a strength for her. She just never got the speed of the greens down. She never got it going on the greens and never one-putted when she had a chance for birdie or anything like that.”
While Waldo has consistently scored in the mid-80s this season, she’s also making a habit of second-place finishes – Monday was her fourth runner-up finish of the season, Rawles said.
“I called her a bride’s maid. I don’t know if she knew what that meant ... but she’s been really playing some pretty consistent golf,” Rawles said. “San Juan is a really tight course. There’s out-of-bounds or water on every hole. It’s lined with white stakes or red stakes or yellow stakes (marking out-of-bounds and hazards) everywhere. And she didn’t have one penalty stroke.”
Up next for Waldo and DHS is the regional tournament Tuesday at Cobble Creek Golf Course in Montrose, with the top team and “typically nine or 10 individuals after that” qualifying for the state tournament.
Waldo has a certain comfort level at Cobble Creek, too.
“Reiley has played it well,” Rawles said of the course, which DHS has played twice this season – once in a tournament and another time in a practice round on the way back from a tournament in Grand Junction. “She’s pretty comfortable on that course. And she’s played it every year since she’s been in school.”
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
