Durango High School golfers Kyle Pritchard and Luke Tichi couldn’t get a rhythm going at the CHSAA Class 4A Boys Golf Championships on Monday and Tuesday at a cold and dreary Raccoon Creek Golf Course in Littleton.
Pritchard, a senior at DHS, followed up Monday’s first-round score of 86 with a 96 on Tuesday while Tichi, a sophomore who takes his courses online, shot a 91 on Monday and a 92 Tuesday. Pritchard’s score of 38-over par placed him in a tie for 60th with Green Mountain’s Oliver Gibbons, one shot clear of Tichi in 62nd.
“The set up was kind of tough,” DHS head coach Kirk Rawles said of the course. “They had us playing from the tips, so it measured out to over 7,000 yards and (Monday) it was pretty cold and damp, and it probably played more like 8,000 yards. The club selections were a two-club difference and it played pretty tough, especially (Monday).”
Montrose won the team title with a 466. Montrose led wire-to-wire after shooting 233 in both rounds. Evergreen was second with a 472 and Valor Christian, which was one shot back of Montrose after Monday, placed third at 475.
Darren Edwards of Thompson Valley won the individual title after shooting 73 on both days. He finished three shots clear of Evergreen’s Bridger Tenney and Eagle Valley’s Barrett Jones.
Pritchard had an up-and-down round Monday. Starting on the back nine, he traded pars and bogeys through his first four holes before getting into trouble with a double bogey on No. 14 and triple bogey on the 16th. He made the turn at 9-over.
On his second nine, the course’s front nine, Pritchard bogeyed Nos. 1-3, but settled in and played the final six holes at 2-over with a birdie, his first of the round, on the 528-yard par-5 ninth.
“I think he was kind of optimistic going into today’s round, but he couldn’t really get anything going,” Rawles said of Pritchard. “Neither one of them could. They’d kind of get some momentum, then hit that shot or that putt that would derail them for a couple of holes. That was kind of the story for both days.”
He played the next four holes at 8-over before a birdie on the par-5 15th and a par on No. 16 slowed the damage. But those were the last holes that didn’t raise his round to par. He played the final 11 holes of the round with seven double bogeys and four bogeys to finish with a 96.
Pritchard finished the tournament with three birdies and six pars.
Tichi also struggled to string pars together in both rounds and had blow-up holes that ballooned his score.
On Monday, the sophomore started on No. 10 and was 3-over through two holes after a bogey on the 10th and a double on No. 11. From there he calmed down and played the next five holes 1-over. But he quadruple bogeyed No. 17, a 226-yard par 3, and made the turn at 8-over.
“It’s a really tough par 3 and they had the tee boxes set up so it was a 200-yard carry over the water. He hit one out into the water because we were going into the wind there,” Rawles said. “You have a hole like that and it kind of beats you down.”
Tichi made a couple pars on the next few holes before imploding on his final six holes of the round, which he played at 9-over after another quad on No. 6, the toughest hole on the course. He finished the 19-over round with seven pars.
Tichi didn’t card any quadruple bogeys on Tuesday, but still struggled to find pars and had two triple bogeys and three doubles on the day. He had five pars in the round. Rawles said Tichi struck the ball well and played better than the score indicated.
The duo struggled most during their back nine, Nos. 1-9, on Tuesday, and Tichi recorded the only par between the two during those holes.
“I think high school boys are like all of us. If we get to a certain point in the round and know we’re not going to break 80, you kind of throw your hands up in the air and kind of go, ‘It doesn’t matter if I shoot 85 or 90. I didn’t hit the score I wanted to,’” Rawles said. “Especially at the tail end of today.”
Montezuma-Cortez’ Cris Rudosky and Blake Keetch had strong showings at the 3A state golf tournament on Tuesday at Indian Peaks Golf Course in Lafayette.
Rudosky fired a 1-over-par 73 to tie with eight other players for fourth place while Keetch turned in a 77 to place 19th overall.
Rudosky started the round on the back nine and parred eight holes to make the turn at 1-over. He birdied his 13th hole, the par-5 fourth, to get back to even before he made bogey at No. 8.
Keetch, who also started on the back, carded three birdies and made the turn at 1-under, but couldn’t get off the bogey train on the front and finished with six bogeys on the final nine holes.
Peak to Peak’s Davis long won the individual title with a 3-under 69, one shot clear of Prospect Ridge’s Walker Franklin and Kent Denver’s Oliver Jack.
In the team portion, Kent Denver and Peak to Peak finished with 1-over 217s and went to a team playoff, which Peak to Peak won on the first hole of the playoff.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
