Boys golf preview: Safety concerns remain ahead of 2020 season

Amid the hubbub about the return to play plans for high school sports such as football and cross country, the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) quietly gave boys golf the green light to start its season as scheduled during the first week of August. In an announcement dated July 25, CHSAA stated that golf is "able to be played under the current national, state, county and CHSAA health guidelines as they pertain to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," and, as such, plans for the 2020 season would not be subject to review by the Governor Jared Polis' COVID-19 Response team.

That was good news and bad news for Niwot head golf coach Ed Weaver, who has been semi-patiently awaiting the return of high school golf for five months. Weaver said he is "excited" for the 2020 campaign and expects a much-improved performance from his youthful boys team, after a 2019 season that didn't see much success. At the same time, he harbors serious concerns about the safe conduct of league tournaments and invitationals this season, and has called on state and local officials to institute more stringent measures for competition.

"I think there should be more guidelines or restrictions, if you want to call it that," he said. "If CHSAA is going to do that, if they're going to say golf is a minimal risk sport, and we can play, then tell us how-how do you want us to do this? As far as I know, there's nothing....At least let's talk about it."

To be clear, CHSAA has released COVID-19 guidelines for the upcoming 2020 boys golf season, as outlined in this year's Bulletin. They include "general requirements and mandates'' that apply to all sanctioned sports and activities, such as daily temperature screening and 6-foot social distancing, as well as golf-specific guidelines that spell out restrictions on players' off-course movements, rules for electronic scoring, and what to do in the event a coach or player tests positive for the virus at some point in season. Other than that, league events and invitationals are to be conducted more or less as usual, and that is the source of Weaver's concern.

"Think about it this way: we are hosting a tournament next Tuesday. The way it's set up now, I've got 45 kids coming from nine different schools. They're all going to ride together, and they're all going to show up together, and they're all going to get on the range, and they're all going to be putting, and then I'm going to put them in tee times and send them out. To me, the chances for contact with someone with COVID-19 are extremely high."

Weaver has proposed limiting tournament teams to four golfers and having teams play as a foursome, instead of players from four schools. He would also like to see more guidance on pre-round practice sessions to discourage players from different schools from congregating on the driving range or putting green.

"You have to limit contact," he said. "You drive together as a team, you practice as a team, you play together as a team, and you leave together as a team, so at least you're limiting it."

Weaver and his recommendations have found a supporter in Cougar athletic director Joe Brown, who initially thought that golf season would be the least of his athletic concerns during a pandemic.

"The thing about golf is, on the surface, it seems like one of the easiest things to do-sure you can socially distance in golf, it's no big deal, we'll just go about it," Brown said. "But then you start looking into the fine print of it. Typically, high schools have done shotgun starts. But with a shotgun start, you typically have a lot of people in a small area. So, should you then do tee times? There have been recommendations, but there's not a requirement."

Adding another wrinkle are the competing jurisdictions and their separate COVID-19 guidelines, and what to do in case of a conflict. The Niwot boys golf 2020 league schedule has the team traveling to five different counties and playing against players from seven different school districts, not to mention the individual golf courses and their rules.

"We're hoping to get something on the books that allows for a little bit more consistency in our league events," Brown said. "When you bring in so many different teams from so many different areas, we just want to show an abundance of caution by putting those parameters in place."

Brown is working with other league coaches and athletic directors on doing just that, and is confident the season will kick off safely for the Cougars and their competitors on Aug. 7.

"The last thing we want to do is have a free-for-all and get the opportunities that we've been given taken away, so we're going to make sure that we do our due diligence," he said. 'That's one of the problems that arise when you're finding out at the last minute what those guidelines might look like. There are some details that you have to tweak and figure out, but we will figure them out."

As for the golfing part of the 2020 season, Weaver has only positive things to say about his Niwot prospects.

"I think we're going to be very competitive in our new league," he said, referring to the 10-team Longs Peak League, which formed when the Class 4A Tri-Valley and Northern Leagues were reconfigured. Other members are Berthoud, Frederick, Fort Morgan, Mountain View, Northridge, Riverdale Ridge, Roosevelt, Severance, and Thompson Valley. "We'll also contend for the title at regionals and should qualify for the state tournament in Colorado Springs."

That would be a clear improvement over 2019, when Niwot finished seventh out of eight teams in their league and 10th at the regional tournament. However, Weaver said that the 2020 team has something that last year's team didn't-another year of experience."

"Our young guys played in a lot of tournaments last year, even if they didn't always play great. That should help them this year and I think we'll see it in their scores."

Leading the Cougars back to glory will be third-year veteran Christopher Gunlikson, the only Niwot golfer with postseason experience. As a sophomore, he finished fourth overall in the Northern League and placed 45th overall at the 2019 Class 4A championships in Montrose. He has been working hard ever since, and is looking to make a big leap in the standings in 2020.

"I've been working on ball striking, because I didn't hit a whole lot of fairways last year, so I've been working on my driver. " Gunlikson said. "My putting's a lot better than last year, too, and I'm happy about that."

Like his coach, the junior is also happy about the resumption of high school golf, and is optimistic about Niwot's outlook for the season.

"I'm just happy to be playing golf and helping the team this year," he said. "We have a lot of new freshmen coming in who are pretty good, actually, and we already have a good bond."

For his part, Weaver is impressed with the junior's new focus and projects he will be among the top-10 finishers at this year's state championships.

"Christopher is going to be good," the coach said. "He's been working hard, and he's gained some strength."

Rounding out the 2020 squad are senior and four-year veterans Luc Blondeau and Jesse Horn, junior Ian Turner, sophomores Carlos Kipkorir, Ryan Lady, and Rowan Nechvatal, and freshmen Emmett Schell, Merrick Blondeau, Noah Beltran, Simon Thomas and Aidan Ellwood. Weaver will be assisted by third-year junior varsity coach Chad Richart.

The Cougars open their season with the inaugural Longs Peak League event, at Quail Dunes golf course in Fort Morgan on Aug. 7. On Aug. 11, Niwot will host league event #2 at Twin Peaks GC in Longmont.