BROOMFIELD | Audrey Whitmore admits she didn’t invest a lot of energy in golf in her freshman year at Regis Jesuit High School.
Now a junior, Whitmore’s dedication to the sport has grown by leaps and bounds, and it has taken her game to new levels.
In her third trip to the Class 5A girls golf state tournament, Whitmore surged all of the way up the leaderboard and earned herself a medal as a top-10 finisher at the end of two days of play at The Broadlands Golf Course in Broomfield.
“Freshman year, I wasn’t super committed. I was doing two varsity sports, but when sophomore year came around I really wanted to commit myself to golf, and I started to put in six hours a day,” Whitmore said.
“I’m feeling proud of how much I’ve improved. I’m feeling good about where my game is, and I only have up to go.”
As a freshman, she shot state rounds 97 and 87 to tie for 45th, which improved to rounds of 83 and 81 as a sophomore that put her 18th.
Even though is seemed like hardly any putts fell this season, Whitmore said her pre-shot routine made a big difference, and it helped her card rounds of 75 and 77 to tie with Bella Eide of 5A team champion Valor Christian in eighth place.
“Audrey basically started three years ago, and she was just playing (low-level) golf,” Regis Jesuit coach Charlie Rutenbeck said. “To go from basically shooting 90 to 80 to 75 in two-and-a-half years, that’s phenomenal.”
Whitmore could battle for an even higher place next year, but she’ll face the same competition, as none of the players who finished in the top 10 will graduate.
Grandview senior Caroline Ryan was the most experienced of Aurora’s contingent of nine 5A state qualifiers, as she made it for a fourth time and posted her second straight top-20 finish in her final season.
The University of Wyoming signee had difficulty with Nos. 17 and 18 on both days and it brought her in with scores of 80 on the first day and 81 on the second day to put her 20th. Ryan’s career-best finish came as a junior when she tied for 17th, though her two-day total of 163 in that tournament was two strokes higher than this season.
The only team score for an Aurora program came from Regis Jesuit, which had Whitmore and junior Paige Furgason back with state experience in addition to newcomers in sophomore Natalie Furgason and freshman Molly Amann.
The Raiders had hopes of a top-10 team finish, but put themselves in a difficult position with a tough first round. They collectively improved by 12 strokes in the second round to finish 11th, four strokes ahead of 12th-place Brighton.
Natalie Furgason showed a six-stroke improvement between rounds and finished in a tie for 57th, while Paige Furgason and Amann were eight and seven strokes, respectively, better in the second round as they placed 63rd and 64th.
Grandview had potential for a team score when senior Ella Wheeler and sophomore Jean Lim were late adds to the tournament, but only Ryan and Lim completed the tournament.
Lim shot rounds of 92 and 91 to finish 52nd for coach Kurtis Bailey’s Wolves, who did not get a team score as Wheeler withdrew after the first round, in which she shot 109.
Cherokee Trail graduated one of state qualifiers (Bead Boonta) from a season ago, and another (Kaleigh Babineaux) moved out of state, which changed the look of the team.
Freshmen Brinnon Cook and Kaylee Saul qualified for coach Justin Jajczyk’s team and finished within a stroke of each other. Cook’s best round came in the first round (a 97) and Saul’s came in the second (a 93), as they finished 65th and 66th, respectively.
VISTA PEAK PREP’S CAPUA FINISHES IN 26TH PLACE AT 4A STATE TOURNAMENT
For the second straight season, Vista PEAK Prep sophomore Sophia Capua played in the Class 4A girls golf state tournament, which concluded May 21 at the Country Club of Colorado.Capua tied for ninth place as a freshman but found the tournament more challenging this time and finished tied for 26th. She shot 89 in the first round and followed that with a 93 in the second round, which she ended with a birdie.
GATEWAY’S MADDIE DOSSEY PLAYS ONE ROUND AT 3A STATE TOURNAMENT
Senior Maddie Dossey — Gateway’s first girls golf state qualifier since 2014 — played one round of the Class 3A tournament on May 20, before she withdrew from the final round. Dossey shot 122 in the opening round at The Olde Course in Loveland, but she could not complete the tournament due to Gateway’s graduation ceremony May 21.
