Durango High School student-athletes are used to traveling four or more hours to away events. Luckily for the Durango boys golf team, the Demons didn’t have to travel far for their two tournaments early this week.
The Demons traveled down to Farmington on Monday to play in The Farmington Fall Fling at Piñon Hills Golf Course. Then on Tuesday, Durango hosted the Durango Dalton Ranch Invitational at Dalton Ranch Golf Club.
It was a successful first tournament for the Demons on Monday, winning The Farmington Fall Fling as a team. Durango sophomore golfer Drew Jepson won the tournament.
“Piñon has been the toughest course that we played all year, until we played Dalton yesterday,” Durango boys golf head coach Kirk Rawles said. “So it actually indexed as far as maybe not the total score, but given the difficulty in what the guys shot, it's one of our better performances on the year.”
Rawles said Piñon Hills is a tough course because if a player misses the fairway they’re likely in the native area of dirt and rocks. Plus if a player were to lose their ball, it can be more challenging to figure out where to drop the ball.
A lot of the greens at Piñon Hills are tiered, which means that have up to three different levels. Rawles said if a player isn’t on the right tier, they’ll have to lag put exceptionally well.
Durango won the tournament with a team score of 321 or +33 over par. The team score takes each team’s top four players’ scores and combines them. Farmington came in second with a team score of 352. Piedra Vista was third with a 404.
Jepson finished with a +4 over par 76. He had seven pars on the front nine. Jepson bogeyed the par 4 fifth hole and he bogeyed the par 4 seventh hole. On the back nine, Jepson double-bogeyed the par 4 10th, bogeyed the par 4 11th and bogeyed the par 3 12th hole. He then turned things around with birdies on the par 5 13th and the par 4 14th. Jepson then pared in.
“All I’ve to go say is I grinded,” Jepson said. “I did not play my best stuff. I hit it in the trap on the outside of the fairways seven times I'd say in the hazard stuff.”
Behind Jepson was junior Nolan Pace and senior Owen Muraro who tied for second with an +8 over par 80. Pace’s highlight was a birdie on the par 5 13th hole. He had nine bogeys and six pars
Muraro had a birdie on the par 5 17th hole. He finished with nine bogeys and eight pars.
Rawles noted the New Mexico schools only started on Sept. 1 so those teams may not be fully up to speed.
On Tuesday, Grand Junction showed why it has one of the top golf programs in 4A. The Tigers took care of business at Dalton Ranch by finishing as the top team and Grand Junction’s Ky Korte won the tournament with a -1 under par 71.
The Tigers shot 220 as a team to finish +4 over par. The top three players from each team were counted at Dalton Ranch.
Behind Grand Junction was Montezuma Cortez at 232 and Durango finished third at 236.
“We weren't real happy with that,” Rawles said about the Demons’ performance at Dalton Ranch. “I know that Ben and Owen weren't happy with how they played and you have to take three scores there … It's really good for us to see Grand Junction. Their top three guys are really good players. The more we play with them, the more comfortable we're going to get with them and maybe we can get closer to them by the time we get to state.”
Jepson finished second behind Korte with a +2 over par 74. Jepson started out on fire with three birdies in the first four holes but then went bogey, double bogey and bogey on holes 5-7. He was even par on the 18th tee but had a double bogey to finish his round.
The star sophomore said he missed too many greens and found some water at Dalton Ranch which led to him struggling at times.
Behind Jepson for Durango was junior Carter Hansen who shot a 79 for the third Durango team and finished ninth. Rawles was happy to see Hansen do well and said he’s one of the Demons golfers who will be battling for a spot on the regionals team.
Durango junior Nolan Pace finished 11th with a 79. Senior Owen Muraro shot an 83 for 16th place. He had two birdies but had a nine on the par 4 ninth hole.
Next up for the Demons boys golf team is the Grand Junction Tournament on Monday at Tira Rado Golf Course.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
