AURORA | Three outstanding rounds of golf over two days put Michael Rosman in position win the Class 5A state championship, but one round prevented it.
The Grandview senior lit up the course at CommonGround G.C. on his final 27 holes — which he played at 9-under-par — however he came up just a stroke shy of Castle View’s Gavin Amella when the tournament ended Tuesday afternoon.
Rosman looked back at his frustrating front nine in the opening round as the key to how the state championship, which would have a first for the Grandview program, slipped away.
“On the front nine Monday, I missed about five putts from about six feet,” Rosman said. “They weren’t bad putts, I just couldn’t read greens. On the back nine, I started reading them a bit differently and shot 30 (5-under). Did it again today and played well, so I think if read the greens a bit differently I would have easily won.”
On the same course in which he had shot his second low career round of 64 — bettered by his 62 this season in Centennial League play at Aurora Hills G.C. — Rosman made birdies or better on 14 of the 36 holes he played with just seven bogeys.
Only one of his birdies, and two of his bogeys, came in his first nine holes, however. Rosman made the turn at plus-1, made an eagle on Hole No. 11 and finished the day at 4-under. That put him in a tie with Valor Christian’s Ian O’Fallon, one stroke behind Amella.
“He had some good looks on that front nine yesterday, just sometimes the putter is not hot and that was the difference,” Grandview coach Kurtis Bailey said.
One stroke would end up as the finishing margin as well as those three players battled it out in the last group of the final round.
Amella boosted his lead in the final round with five birdies on the front nine — as he got as low as 10-under — then let just one shot slip on the back nine. He made bogey on No. 17 and got into the rough on No. 18, but put himself in position for a short par putt that sealed the tight win.
Rosman was the only one in the final group to be on the green after two shots, but his eagle putt — which would have put the pressure on Amella and might have forced a playoff — ended up a bit wide and he made a short putt for birdie.
“Overall, Michael played great and did everything he need to do, Gavin just won the tournament,” Bailey said.
It was Grandview’s best individual finish since Devyn Solano took fourth in 2013 and may be the best in the program’s 25-plus year history.
Despite a massive improvement on his two previous trips to the state tournament — in which he tied for 15th as a junior and 62nd as a sophomore — Rosman couldn’t deny he was disappointed to fall just short.
“I’d be lying if I said I was thrilled with finishing as the runner-up by one shot,” Rosman said.
A major plus for Rosman, however, was the fact that he had a team with him for the first time at the state tournament.
The Wolves’ group of Rosman and fellow senior Andrew Sinar, sophomore Dominik Fedotov and freshman Sam Silver finished 13th on the opening day and shot 12 strokes better on the second day to finish 11th among 14 scoring teams.
“That was the best part,” Rosman said of having his team there. “This morning, we were all warming up on the range together and it was awesome. I think without that, it wouldn’t have been as fun for sure. I’m sure some of them will be back eventually.”
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
