{"id":38914,"date":"2022-08-13T02:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-panthers-tee-off-their-seasons\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:47:11","slug":"demons-panthers-tee-off-their-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/demons-panthers-tee-off-their-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Demons, Panthers tee off their seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Zach
Zach Griswold of Durango High School tees off at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Friday during the MCHS Boys Golf Tournament. Griswold shot a 77 to lead DHS. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango High School boys golf team joined Montezuma-Cortez and seven other squads Friday at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Putting gave a lot of the golfers trouble, but Jonathon Smith of Pagosa Springs played solid on the greens to win the tournament by three strokes with a 2-under 70.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good score,\u201d said M-CHS head coach Todd Plewe. \u201cHe made his putts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayer Plewe of Cortez and JT Timmers of Colorado Academy tied for second at 73.<\/p>\n

\"Thayer
Thayer Plewe of Montezuma-Cortez High School chips onto the green at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Friday during the MCHS Boys Golf Tournament. Plewe tied for second after shooting a 73. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI feel like I didn\u2019t make a ton of putts, but that\u2019s how it goes sometimes. It\u2019s all about grinding,\u201d Thayer said. \u201cIf I tighten that up, it will lead to better scores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vince Lopez, meanwhile, shot an 81 for M-CHS, Kaden Huff shot an 82, and Airoughn VanGrandt shot his best score at a high school tournament, an 88.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made some changes at practice last night and that helped me a lot,\u201d Huff said. \u201cMy short game was really good \u2014 I made some putts, and I hit some chips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t make my putts,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled on the first nine holes, then I started to connect shots and started to think more clearly,\u201d VanGrandt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they played OK,\u201d coach Plewe said. \u201cThis course played pretty tough today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Griswold, meanwhile, shot a 77 to lead Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely our No. 1 golfer, and he\u2019s a great leader for our team,\u201d said DHS sophomore Owen Muraro. \u201cHis attitude for the game is uplifting for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Owen
Owen Muraro of Durango High School tries to sink a long putt at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Friday during the MCHS Boys Golf Tournament. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Muraro and Nick Best both shot 85s to round out DHS\u2019 team score at 247.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy putts weren\u2019t rolling the way I wanted; I couldn\u2019t get the speed,\u201d Muraro said.<\/p>\n

Bailey Burke and Emmett Arias also played varsity for DHS and both shot 86s.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome played pretty good and pretty steady,\u201d said DHS head coach Kirk Rawles. \u201cBailey was pretty steady \u2013he shot a 39 on the front nine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eli Holden, who was playing JV for DHS, made birdies on his final two holes to shoot a 79. Rawles said it was \u201chuge\u201d for him to break 80.<\/p>\n

Muraro, who\u2019s best round in a high school is an 80, said one of his goals is to break that mark this season.<\/p>\n

\"Bailey
Bailey Burke of Durango High School tries to sink a putt at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Friday during the MCHS Boys Golf Tournament. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado Academy, meanwhile, had five golfers shoot 79 or better to win the tournament with a 222 team score. Timmers, Corbin Bank (74) and TJ Giordano (75) scored for CA.<\/p>\n

Cortez and Montrose tied for second at 236. Gunnison finished fourth with a 241. Durango and Pagosa Springs finished tied for fifth at 247, followed by Telluride (250), Palisade (256) and Alamosa (322).<\/p>\n

Durango will be back in action Monday and Tuesday, competing in a two-day tournament at the Bridges golf course in Montrose and then Battlement Mesa in Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toughest part for me is figuring out which four to take to the next tournament; seven or eight are all pretty close,\u201d Rawles said. \u201cThe big thing as a coach is how to keep it equitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team has 46 golfers out, and Rawles said he really likes the team\u2019s vibe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re all excited, even if they don\u2019t travel, they\u2019re all having fun,\u201d Rawles said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great place for them to go, creating their own contests and competing with their buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun with a lot of guys \u2013 there\u2019s more competition and you\u2019re spot is never guaranteed,\u201d Muraro said. \u201cThe pressure is on to compete every week at your highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cortez, meanwhile, has eight golfers out this year. \u201cOur numbers are a little down, but the boys out are working hard,\u201d coach Plewe said. \u201cI\u2019m pleased, especially with our top four. They have put a lot of work in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayer said his personal goal is to win a state title this year after coming close the past few years. Over the summer, he finished tied for 36th out of 158 golfers in the PGA Junior Nationals at Cog Hill in Illinois. He made the first cut down to 60 golfers after two rounds, but missed the second cut by just two strokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome, the atmosphere felt like a professional tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pressure was like nothing else. Figuring out how to deal with pressure is a lot of what I did this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

His teammates also want to make some noise at state this year. \u201cWe want to be contenders,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n

Griswold was Durango\u2019s only state qualifier last year, and Muraro said the team is hoping to have a couple more qualify this year.<\/p>\n

With state scheduled for Oct. 2, Cortez will play seven tournaments in August to get ready while the Demons will also be busy preparing for the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your swing feels good and you\u2019re ready to go, you\u2019ll have a good season,\u201d Muraro said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not feeling it right away, it\u2019s hard to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vince
Vince Lopez of Montezuma-Cortez High School sinks a putt at the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez on Friday during the MCHS Boys Golf Tournament. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for second to lead MCHS on home course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[592,2261,36,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-high-school","tag-golf","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38914","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=38914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84170,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38914\/revisions\/84170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38914"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}