More photos. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
EAGLE — Sam Taylor entered Tuesday final round of the Class 3A boys state golf tournament tied for the individual lead, while his Peak to Peak Pumas held a 10-stroke lead in the hunt for the team championship.
He erased any threat of not winning either category by opening his final round with a 5-under 31 on the front nine, leading to a 3-under 69 on the day to win the individual state championship while helping the Pumas capture the team title. Taylor shot 141 for the entire tournament.
The Pumas shot a total of 453 for the team title, nine strokes ahead of runner-up Kent Denver. (Find full results here.)
“I was struggling with my tee shots on the range so I told myself get it in the fairway and I’d have some chances,” Taylor said. “I was hitting some wedges off some slopes and they were getting close and making birdie putts.”
Entering the round, Taylor was tied with teammate Nishant Datta going into Tuesday’s round. After seeing where they landed in the scoreboard after Monday, Taylor said he would obviously be cheering for Datta but that the guy who played the best deserves to win.
It was Taylor who followed up with that statement.
He started his round with birdies on four of his first five holes, capping that run off with a difficult downhill putt on the par 3 fifth hole putting him on top of the leaderboard by three strokes.
“Last year I had an experience where I was nine back with nine to play,” Taylor said. “So I told myself in this tournament I wouldn’t look at the leaderboard at all.”
By the time he made the turn, he was seven strokes ahead of Basalt’s Linc Kleager who was in second place.
Although Datta had fallen back into the pack, the overall team score wasn’t affected too much and by the Pumas had all but wrapped up the win by the time he and Taylor made the turn.
An individual title would was certainly the hope for Datta but he was thrilled that he didn’t come away empty handed.
“It feels great, especially after a round like (Tuesday), to have positives to look back on,” Datta said. “(It helps) knowing that my round yesterday contributed a lot and helped give us that cushion that we had today to just play our games rather than just stress out about it.”
Taylor did show to be somewhat human as he bogeyed 14 and 15, but quickly bounced back with consecutive pars to wrap up the title.
He made the casual stroll to the 18th tee box holding on to a seven-stroke lead, but that didn’t change mindset.
“It’s just a hole at a time,” Taylor said. “That up-and-down on 17 from the hazard was a decisive moment. It was just a couple of bad shots, but I knew my game was still great.”
Taylor, only a junior, will have a chance to defend his championship in 2016. But for now he’s going to enjoy the feeling of bringing the first boys golf title to Peak to Peak.
“Coming in our goal was to play at our season stroke averages,” Pumas coach John Thornbury said. “Sam just really hit the accelerator on the from nine and blew the rest of the field away.”
More photos. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)