Silver Creek’s Erin Sargent attempts a par putt during the first day of the 4A girls golf state tournament. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
CARBONDALE — Kylee Sullivan’s last three holes of Thursday’s round may have been the boost Cheyenne Mountain needed.
She went one-under in those three, including a birdie on 18 to help the Indians to a five-stroke lead at the girls Class 4A state golf tournament.
Sullivan is also in contention for the individual title, sitting three strokes behind Jefferson Academy’s Jennifer Kupcho. As great as an individual title might be for Sullivan, she only has one focus for this weekend.
“The team,” she said without hesitation. “I definitely want another team title, I just think it’s big for the rest of them. An individual title would be great, but it would be fantastic to get another team title.”
Four straight groups on Thursday featured golfer from both Cheyenne Mountain and second-place Colorado Academy, which sits at 40-over as a team.
They were paced by Cassie Kneen who finished at 10-over for the day with eight pars. The important thing is that she didn’t let herself get into trouble and never scored higher than bogey.
Her teammate Kacey Godwin also placed in the top 15 for individuals and would’ve been higher save for taking a nine on the 17th hole, a hole that plagued many golfers during the day.
“They played well,” Mustangs coach Beth Folsom said. “We’re a young team and we were third last year and we were hoping we could improve on that a little bit.”
Folsom knows that her team has a lot of work to do in order to keep pace with the Indians. Cheyenne Mountain is the defending 4A champion so coach Bill Paulson has had his team in this position before. He’s confident that they can step up and make shots when they need to, even with a five-stroke lead.
Cheyenne Mountains Kylee Sullivan tees-off on the ninth hole at Red Valley Ranch Golf Club. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow)
The last thing Paulson wants is a weather issue to cut the tournament short and have the Indians declared championships without playing out the rest of the tournament.
“(Folsom) and I went to (CHSAA associate commissioner) Tom Robinson and asked what he thought about an 8 a.m. shotgun start to get everyone out there,” he said. “We’d have a better chance of getting it in, even if we have to pull them off early.”
For now, the tournament remains on as scheduled for its normal 8:30 a.m. start using a regular format.
Playing a second day would also help Sullivan, who trails Kupcho by three strokes. Kupcho birdied two of the last three holes to get to two-under par. She even came away with a birdie on 17, a hole that handed then leader Erin Sargent (Silver Creek) a triple-bogey.
“I fought back a lot today,” Kupcho said. “I had to doubles and a bogey and a lot of birdies. I was just trying to play the best I could after all the trouble I was getting into.”