{"id":25939,"date":"2024-08-28T15:33:49","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-golf-depth-bodes-well-for-home-stretch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:30:44","slug":"panthers-golf-depth-bodes-well-for-home-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-golf-depth-bodes-well-for-home-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers\u2019 golf depth bodes well for home stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Vince Lopez watches his tee shot on the opening hole of the Panther Invitational. Lopez won with a score of 70, and the Panthers finished second with a team score of 227. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A team score in the 220s will tend to fare well in any tournament across the state, regardless of classification.<\/p>\n

To shoot that well requires multiple golfers to fire near even-par rounds \u2013 yet it\u2019s something that the Panthers have done with incredible consistency.<\/p>\n

In their second home invitational of the season, the Panthers overcame early struggles to surge to a score of 227, good for second place behind 4A Durango (223).<\/p>\n

The event served as the final home tournament before the 3A Region 1 competition visits Conquistador in late September, with the Panthers\u2019 depth again providing the backdrop for a full team effort. Senior Vince Lopez rallied from behind to take home medalist honors with a two-under round of 70 to lead the way for M-CHS.<\/p>\n

Lopez birdied the final two holes of the day to complete his comeback against Johnathon Smith of Pagosa Springs. After Lopez fell behind Smith by a stroke on the opening hole in the day\u2019s final grouping, he found himself three strokes off the pace heading to the ninth hole.<\/p>\n

Lopez pulled back a stroke with a birdie before the turn, only to watch Smith birdie both par-fives on the back nine to sustain his lead heading to the 17th hole. It was there that Lopez flipped the script, pulling level with Smith with a birdie, then sealing the win with a birdie-three on the final hole to win by a single shot.<\/p>\n

Durango sophomore Drew Jepson bore witness to the final group drama, while finishing just two strokes off the winning total with an even-par 72.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez freshman Zye Kuenzler watches his approach shot on the fourth hole in the Panther Invitational. Kuenzler finished with a score of 77. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Gavin Frost finishes a tee shot in the Panther Invitational. Frost finished the tournament with a score of 80. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Frankey Montoya finished the Panther Invitational with a score of 87. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While the drama of the final group capped the day, the Panthers posted plenty of excitement in the earlier groups, with freshman Zye Kuenzler playing holes 3 through 16 at an even par clip while posting a round of 77 that earned him a tie for sixth.<\/p>\n

Senior Gavin Frost steadied the ship after a shaky start to fire a round of 80, finishing with 12 pars on the afternoon. Freshman Brooks Story added a round of 86 with a front nine 41 \u2013 good for 20th, while senior Frankey Montoya eagled the 15th hole on his way to an 87 and a tied for 23rd.<\/p>\n

Senior Robert Smith finished a couple strokes back with an 89, while classmate Cole Nicholson posted a round of 110, Colby Lewis added a 115, and sophomore Gavin Gill fired a 121 to round out the Panthers\u2019 efforts.<\/p>\n

The round of 227 (+11) was no anomaly for the Panthers \u2013 M-CHS fired an eye-popping 218 at Black Canyon Golf Course in Montrose on Aug. 21 to finish just five shots over par as a team. Frost led the way that day with a +1 round of 71, with Lopez and Kuenzler just one shot behind.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Panthers added a victory in Alamosa at Cattails GC on Aug. 16 with a round of 228, matching their score from their second-place effort at Aspen four days earlier. All told, it\u2019s a M-CHS squad that appears to be ready for the deeper 3A field that awaits at both the regional and state levels later this fall.<\/p>\n

Durango won the invite with four golfers in the top six individuals, including Jepson (72), Owen Muraro (74), Carter Hansen (76), and Benjamin Ogden (77).<\/p>\n

M-CHS has some strong tests ahead, including a visit on Sept. 6 to the 3A state championship course at Walking Stick GC in Pueblo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

birdies late for Panther Invitational victory, team finishes second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79161,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25939\/revisions\/79161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}