Durango plays on Monday and Tuesday on Broadlands Golf Course
The Durango High School girls golf team poses for a picture at the Warrior Tournament at Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction on May 6. From left to right: Coach Kirk Rawles, Jayden Craig, Ellie White, Dylan Livingston, Raimee Brant and Riley Harms. (Herald file)
All of the work on the driving range, putting green, practice rounds and previous tournaments all come down to two rounds of golf for the Durango High School girls golf team.
The Demons are traveling up to Broadlands Golf Course in Broomfield to compete in the 4A state championship on Monday and Tuesday. If things go well after 36 holes, Durango could capture its first girls golf team state championship in history.
Durango has been well-balanced all year with senior Ellie White, junior Jayden Craig, sophomore Dylan Livingston and senior Raimee Brant. Any of those Demons can lead the team and pick up the slack when one struggles. Craig is ranked 10th in 4A, White is 12th, Livingston is 14th and Brant is 20th. Durango is the only team in 4A with four players in the top 20.
“I like our chances, because when you look at a lot of those teams have two really good players and then their third and fourth player might struggle a little bit,” Durango head coach Kirk Rawles said. “So if we stay balanced and get three out of the four scores we need each day, we’re going to be able to contend.”
Broadlands Golf Course is expected to play around 5,700 yards for the girls in both 18-hole rounds on Monday and Tuesday. Rawles said Broadlands reminds him of The Meadows course at Pagosa Springs Golf Club. The fairways are pretty generous, wide-open and the greens are pretty big. It’s a pretty flat course but a lot of the greens have water surrounding them.
Rawles has made a point of telling the girls that things won’t go perfectly. They can make 10-14 mistakes a round and shoot in the low 80s. As long as the Demons take it shot-by-shot, they’ll be fine.
Durango is ranked first in 4A with a team average of 33.74 strokes above par. Pueblo West is second at 36.42, Windsor is third at 37.20, Riverdale Ridge is fourth at 37.88 and Ponderosa is fifth at 38.61. Rawles believes any of these teams can capture the team title.
The Demons and the rest of the teams have more time than usual to prepare for Broadlands. At almost every other tournament this season, Durango has shown up on the day of the tournament and played without any practice rounds. The Demons plan on playing on Saturday and Sunday to get comfortable with the course. The weather might throw a curveball at the golfers with wind and rain expected on Monday.
Rawles thinks if the girls can shoot six rounds of 82 over the two days, then the Demons should be really close to the top.
“I’m optimistic; I don’t think they’ve played their best golf yet,” Rawles said. “We have a real opportunity here. We’ll just see what the course is, what we can take from it, where we just minimize and don’t compound mistakes … We’ll get some of the nerves out of the way, because we get to see it today and putt on the greens. The biggest thing is get on the greens and see how they’re rolling … so we’ll get up there and break it into two days and we’ll be pretty comfortable by the time we tee it up Monday morning.”
White is excited to tee it up at state as Durango’s most experienced golfer. She wasn’t feeling well at regionals and had to battle through a sickness. She’s feeling better now and feels good about the Demons’ chances.
This Durango team reminds White of her sophomore team in 2023; that team finished second at state. She’s happy with how her putting is and her approach shots.
White hopes to finish in the top 10 individually at state; she said she’ll need to shoot around the high 70s and low 80s to accomplish that.
Her experience of playing 36 holes at state in the past should give her an advantage over some of her inexperienced competitors.
“It’s tiring on the second day,” White said. “But the push is Tuesday because it is a mental game, but it’s also tiring because it’s a lot of walking.”
Craig is entering the state tournament in great form after winning her first high school tournament at regionals. Although she’s feeling a little under the weather, she’s confident she can continue her momentum from regionals into state. Her putting saved her at times at regionals and she thinks that can be a strength of her game.
Shooting in the 70s has been Craig’s goal since her freshman year and she’s been so close to achieving that with seven rounds between 80-83 this year. That’s one of her goals for state and she wants to finish in the top 10 individually.
Along with White, Brant has a good amount of experience as a senior and is feeling good about her game. She’s been driving the ball very accurately and her irons have been more consistent as the season has progressed.
It would mean a lot for Brant if the Demons win state because she remembers the Demons not playing very well last year and finishing sixth at state. She hopes to finish inside the top 20 to finish her high school golf career.
Livingston learned a lot at state last year as a freshman. She knows not to beat herself up after a bad hole and not to take the hero shot and play smart.
She’s excited to play better this year with her iron game on point and she’s feeling good about her short game around the green.
Regardless of how things finish for the Demons, Livingston will have good memories from this year.
“It’s just such an amazing year,” Livingston said. “We’ve done so well throughout; we’ve won a lot of our tournaments this year. The team culture is so amazing and everybody is so close with everybody … We’re all capable of shooting low 80s, high 70s and that’s really awesome going into state, that we have the chance to possibly win it.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
