It’s early in the season, but the Montezuma-Cortez High School golf team already has three meets under its belt.
After opening the 2016 season at Devil’s Thumb Golf Club in Delta last Friday, the Panthers played at Battlement Mesa Golf Club in Parachute on Monday and Black Canyon Golf Club on Tuesday.
Head coach Micah Rudosky was excited for his team to take on the though course at Battlement Mesa, and it lived up to the hype.
“It’s a difficult course,” he said. “The greens are angulated and fast and all those things, but it was a nice round for Cristoffer and Blake. Forrest didn’t play his best, but he’s not used to playing that type of course where if you hit if off-line you’re probably not finding it. And the same with Luke, but he certainly came back for that one, so that was nice to see.”
Cristoffer Rudosky led the Panthers with a 76, freshman Blake Keetch shot an 83 and Luke Gross and Forrest Gomez finished at 108 and 109 respectively.
After the challenge at Battlement Mesa, the Panthers were confident heading into Tuesday’s 10-team tournament at Black Canyon.
“All the kids feel like they should just tear that course up,” said Rudosky. “But it’s narrow, the greens are small and you’ve got to hit a lot of good shots there.”
Still, three of the four Panthers improved on their play from the day prior.
Rudosky shot another 76 and Keetch knocked off seven strokes from his last round to tie with Rudosky for 10th place with a 76 of his own. And then, Gomez improved his play significantly to finish with a 90 and Gross rounded out the group with a 99.
“At Black Canyon our star was Blake,” Rudosky said. “He shot a 76 as just a freshman. It was a nice course for him and the kid just really stepped up.”
“I know Cris felt like that wasn’t a good round for him,” Rudosky continued. “But if you’re not playing a good round and you’re shooting a 76, you know what, that isn’t too bad. So if that’s a bad round for him, that’s great.”
The Panthers will add a fifth golfer, Jens Jorgensen this week as they open Intermountain League play on Friday at Cattails Golf Course in Alamosa.