Fourth and unhappy
Mustangs disappointed wiht first-day showing, but still in it.
It didn’t go the way they had envisioned, at least not the type of rounds of which they are capable.
However, the good news is there are additional rounds on Tuesday, they didn’t play themselves out of the team chase and they still have a chance to contend.
In a nutshell, the above describes Mullen’s first day in the Class 4A Championship held at The Club at Flying Horse in Colorado Springs.
The Mustangs combined to shoot 23-over par on Monday at the par-72, 6.981-yard layout. It put them 18 shots behind class-leading Montrose in fourth place.
Mustangs head coach Jerry Koehler watched and listened as his guys struggled and worried about their performances, but planned to set them straight at the team dinner later Monday evening.
“Yeah, they sure were,” he said of Mustangs lamenting their performances. “It was such a tough day out there, but we’re not in as bad of shape as what they think. I mean, we’re playing four guys and scoring three. As a team, we’re 18 behind (221-239). It can happen.”
Tops for Mullen was sophomore Rhett Johnson, who shot 4-over 76. Next were: Mario Dino, 79; Thomas Hicks, 84; and Cole Reister, 85.
Again, not their best, but certainly enough to keep them in contention.
Johnson opened in 3-over 39, mostly due to a double bogey-6 on the 408-yard No. 9, but shot a level 36 coming home thanks to two birdies.
And he was the only Mustang who actually felt good about how he played.
“I played the best I could today,” Johnson said. “That’s all I could do. I missed a few shots and lost my focus, but recovered for most of it. I had the one bad hole.”
Dino, another sophomore, had three birdies on the front to make the turn at 1-under, but had his wheels come off unannounced down the stretch with a double bogey and six bogeys in stumbling to a back-nine 44.
“It was great until (No.) 10, then it went down the drain,” Dino said. “I don’t know … my shots weren’t working on the back side. I played angry and I shouldn’t have.”
First-day individual leader Micah Strangebye of Montrose was thorough and has a four-stroke lead..
“(The Indians’) No. 1 guy played lights out,” Koehler said. “But even he came back to the field. At one point, he was at 4-under, I believe.”
One of the invaluable things about protecting leads in golf or trying to catch someone is that it doesn’t necessarily matter only what you do; the other players can either catch you or come back to you.
“Absolutely,” Koehler said. “It’s not as big of a doomsday as they think. I have confidence in the guys (Tuesday) will be much-different day.”
Said Johnson: “I came out and did better than last year and that’s all I can wish for, to keep getting better. I think we struggled a little bit. We’ll come back (Tuesday) and shoot well. It is still possible if we all go shoot low numbers that we have a chance at taking it.”
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