Durango boys golf head coach Kirk Rawles looks like he’ll have incredible depth this season. It’s a good problem to have as the Demons will likely take around five or six golfers to each match this season. Rawles has over a dozen golfers who could compete in matches and around 65 golfers in the program.
Luckily, Rawles was able to take 14 players to play at Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Thursday for the first match of the season.
The Demons had 14 players in three teams. Rawles said a lot of teams weren’t ready to travel so early in the season so Montezuma-Cortez and Conquistador allowed Durango to bring three teams.
Sophomore golfer Drew Jepson shot a +1 over par 73 to lead the top Durango team to a win. Jepson finished second overall behind Pagosa Springs’ Johnathon Smith who won with a 72.
“He played a lot of golf this last summer and he played a lot of golf with the kid that won,” Rawles said about Jepson. “When you play golf with somebody who might be perceptually, a little bit better than you, you play better. He's created some good competition around himself through the summer. That always helps. He's a year older, he's playing a lot, so he's naturally better with that. He and Johnny (Smith) played quite a bit of golf in the summertime, so that camaraderie and rivalry, it's going to help push both of them which you love to see in our corner of the state.”
The top Durango team finished with a score of 228 or a combined +12 over par. Jepson’s 73 combined with senior Owen Muraro’s 75 and senior Ben Ogden’s 80. Montezuma-Cortez finished second with a 238. The second Durango team finished third with a 242 and the third Durango team finished fourth with a 249. Alamosa was fifth with a 269.
Rawles said Muraro’s pairing wasn’t as elite as Jepson’s so Muraro found a comfort zone and focused like he was by himself.
Junior Alex Elias was the top player on the second Durango team with a 77. Rawles said Elias was mentally in a good spot despite shooting a 42 for nine holes in the Demons’ team qualifying round earlier in the week.
“He's one of the guys that's worked really hard this summer,” Rawles said. “So he was disappointed with shooting a 42 for nine holes. He really wanted to show the work he put in this summer. I was really excited for him to see that was starting to come through.”
Rawles said the conditions were pleasant with hardly any wind and it was sunny. Rawles said he’s very proud of the group that went to Conquistador. He’s excited to see the players on his squad battle for position. All 14 of the players who went shot between 36 and 42 for nine holes in the wind and rain at Hillcrest earlier in the week.
Now it’s all about finding the right combination. Rawles thinks there could be five golfers who could shoot below 80 which would make the team pretty formidable.
“That's my hope,” Rawles said. “They keep pushing each other. They all have to step up. Through all of our process, just due to the sheer fact that we have a lot of really good golfers on this team, they're going to make each other that much better.”
Durango boys golf is back in action on Thursday at Delta.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
