Cougar golfers pick up steam heading into regionals

The Niwot boys golf team learned some painful lessons about their short games at the final Longs Peak League event of the 2020 season, held at Thornton's Todd Creek Golf Course on Sept. 17. Bedeviled by lightning-fast greens and what were described as "challenging pin placements," the Cougars often gave up strokes where they normally don't, and that was reflected in their higher than average final scores. Luckily, it didn't seem to be a handicap for Niwot alone, and the Cougars ended up finishing third in the team standings, with junior Christopher Gunlikson taking second overall.

For fifth-year head coach Ed Weaver, it was a good reminder for his team about playing the entire hole, not just the fairway. "They didn't adjust to the greens as quickly as they could have," he said of his team's performance in the final regular season tournament of the year. "The goal and the challenge is to adapt to whatever course you play. Tee to green, it's not a very difficult course-the challenge comes on the greens and around the greens. Having said that, you have to play more conservative a tee shot, so you can set up your second shot, so you can get the shot you want into the hole."

Apparently this was news to the younger players in Weaver's squad, and took most of the front nine to sink in. But, to be fair, even good shots onto the expansive greens were hard to putt-out in the heat of a late summer afternoon, and more than a few Niwot pars turned into bogeys-or worse- after sailing past their targets at least once. Play improved after the turn, but scores for freshman Emmett Shell (90), senior Luc Blondeau (93), and sophomore Carlos Kipkorir (94) dropped into the 90s, after a steady streak of rounds ending in the mid-80s.

As for Gunlikson, even he was prone to misjudging the slope and speed of the deceptive greens, notably on the par-3 seventh hole, which resulted in one of his few bogeys on the day. He ended up carding a 77 for the round, which was five strokes over par and four off the lead.

"I was happy with Christopher's score," Weaver said. "Emmett, Luc, and Carlos, they all left some strokes out there that they shouldn't have."

Todd Creek was also a bit of a let down for Weaver after the team's strong round two days earlier at the combination league event/invitational held at Boomerang golf course in Greeley. With four birdies and an even-par second place finish, Gunlikson led Niwot to first place among league teams, and second overall in the invitational field, their best performance of the year, by far. Shell took 18th overall with an 85, followed by Kipkorir in 19th with 86.

Weaver isn't despairing about the setback, however, and said the Cougars will be ready to contend at the Class 4A region 3 tournament on Sept. 22 at Quail Dunes in Fort Morgan. Niwot opened the season there back on Aug. 7, finishing fifth as a team behind Gunlikson's 75 (+3), which was good for third individually. Weaver said he expected to see much better scores this time around, provided the Cougars remember to shoot straight and don't disturb the snakes, "I think they have to understand that that's a golf course where you really have to keep it in the fairway. If you get out in the native grasses you're probably going to lose a stroke pretty quickly and there's a lot of native out there."

Players on the first and second place teams will earn an automatic bid to the Class 4A state championships, slated for Oct. 5-6 at Country Club of Colorado, and up to 13 players can earn an at-large berth. Difficult in any year, it's going to be especially tough in 2020, Weaver said, as Region 3 was expanded to 18 teams, including top-ranked Mullen, which is likely to make the qualifying score lower than usual and the state berths harder to come by.

"Everybody's asking me what they think the cut will be, so I went back and looked at what the cut was the last time we played a regional there and it was 81. I've been telling the team 82, but then I realized Mullen is in our group so that might drop it back down. That just knocked a couple of kids out of the state tournament by having them there."

Nonetheless, Weaver is optimistic about Niwot's chances to get at least one player qualified, and maybe even the entire team. The Cougars clinched third overall in the Longs Peak regular season standings, exceeding his expectations by a wide margin. He's also been heartened by their play over the last week, and thinks it could mean good things at Quail Dunes.

"I just think we're starting to hit a little bit of our stride...We are just getting to that part of the season where the guys are starting to understand their games a little better and starting to play better."