'Stangs to tee it up in Fort Morgan

By Neil H. Devlin, Mullen Sports Information Director
Brady, Dino, Hawes and Johnson carry Mullen hopes in Class 4A postseason golf.
 
“This is all brand new,” Jerry Koehler said.

The Mullen boys golf coach was making a point. Historically, the Mustangs have been in the metropolitan-area Region 4 field in Class 4A. However, with a postseason realignment that basically placed the top eight teams in the classification over four groups, the Mustangs have been entered into Region 3.

Today (Sept. 22) Mullen will be in Fort Morgan – boyhood home of legendary big-band leader Glenn Miller, also a decorated defensive end for the football team in 1919, then known as the Maroons – and competing at Quail Dunes Golf Course for qualification into the 4A Colorado tournament.

Anticipation is high, even if Koehler and they Mustangs are unfamiliar with some of the schools in the field. They will enter two seniors and two juniors who fared well in a top-heavy, 5A-based Centennial League.

Twelth-graders Mario Dino and Rhett Johnson lead the way “and they both tied for fourth in the league standings,” Koehler said. “It was good because the competition was just so deep. Our team scoring average was 300 (including four players), so 75 per player, which is a record for us and we didn’t come close to Arapahoe (first place) and Cherry Creek (second).”

He added: “I think it will carry over for us. Rhett and Mario know this is their senior year and they’re going to go out and they want to do well. They want to win, for sure, and go to state.”

Juniors Andrew Brady and Ben Hawes will try to make it full qualification for Mullen into the 4A state tournament, to be held Oct. 5-6 at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Originally, the 4A state field was to play at one of the Eisenhower Courses before complications from the coronavirus (COVID-19) forced a move by the Air Force Academy.

Mullen will be going against players from Centaurus, Erie, Fort Morgan, Frederick, Greeley Central, Longmont, Mead, Mountain View, Niwot, Northridge, Riverdale Ridge, Roosevelt, Silver Creek, Skyline, Thompson, Valley, Vista PEAK and Windsor.

It will be an 18-hole, stroke-play event. In researching Quail Dunes, which was established in the early 1920s, Koehler said it was originally a nine-hole track, added nine more in the late 1960s, has little water, no bunkers and was designated as a National Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary in 1994.

It covers 165 acres and plays up to 6,600 yards to a par 72.

“Our guys are ready,” Koehler said.

Mustangs tee times: Dino, 10:20 a.m., Hole 1; Johnson, 10:30 a.m., Hole 1; Brady, 10:40, Hole 1; Hawes, 10:50 a.m., Hole 1.
 
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