Rock Canyon’s Romano wins 5A girls golf in playoff
LITTLETON — If you were looking for excitement at the Class 5A girls state golf championship, you could hardly have asked for a better finish.
It came down to a one-hole playoff between a pair of seniors. In the end, the Rock Canyon senior, Michelle Romano, got the top nod.
Romano parred the first playoff hole to take the individual title Tuesday at Raccoon Creek Golf Club.
For a while, it looked like Jaylee Tait’s tournament to win.
The Columbine senior, playing on her home course, began the day tied with Grandview’s Morgan Suhm at 3-over-par. Denver East’s Sarah Hunt was a stroke back. Tait took the lead with a birdie on No. 2 while Hunt began what was for her a long day with a double bogey on the same hole.
Playing two groups ahead, defending champion Calli Ringsby of Cherry Creek, who began the day two strokes back of the leaders, chipped in for eagle on the second hole and was tied for the lead, but she bogeyed the next three holes.
Tait was riding high until the final three holes on the front nine, which she played three over.
Meanwhile, the other two players in Ringsby’s group, Romano and Hannah Wood of Arapahoe, both played the front nine 1-under and made the turn one stroke ahead of Tait.
Tait used her knowledge of the back nine to her advantage and quickly got back in rhythm. She had a one-shot lead after 14 but just missed par putts on 15 and 16 to fall back into a tie with Romano.
Then came the lightning and hail, which chased everyone from the course and delayed completion for more than an hour and 15 minutes.
When play resumed, Romano was on the 17th green. She missed her par putt to fall a stroke back.
Two groups later, Tait also bogeyed the hole.
Wood was only a stroke behind and knew she had to make her move.
“I knew there were a lot of bogeys out there,” Wood said. “It was my last round of high school; I wanted to make it memorable.
She did, with a birdie. Romano bogeyed the hole and the two were tied at 153, with Tait still yet to finish and one stroke up.
Tait put her approach shot on the 18th in the right bunker, then chipped long. Her putt for par and bogey both slid past the hole and she dropped out of contention.
“I wasn’t going to leave it short,” Tait said of her par putt attempt.
Romano wasn’t sure where she stood until someone told her she should hit the practice green to prepare for the playoff.
Throughout the day, she wasn’t sure of her place on the leaderboard.
“I actually don’t want to know,” she said.
Romano and Wood headed out for the playoff. They were even after their tee shots and both below the hole on their approaches.
Wood left her birdie putt four feet short, then had her par putt lip out.
Romano’s birdie try came within tap-in distance as she took the victory. Even after the awards ceremony, it hadn’t quite hit her.
“When my dad started crying, that was the moment,” she said.
Tait finished third at 154 along with Anna Kennedy of Legend and Jaclyn Merchant of Cherry Creek.
Regis Jesuit broke a three-way tie for first in the team race, winning by five shots over Rock Canyon with a two-day 485. Arapahoe was third at 493.
