5A boys golf: Barry, Fossil Ridge on title tracks after first day of 5A state tournament

DENVER – With the spectacular Denver skyline at his back, Austin Barry lined up on the 18th green at City Park G.C. to finish off a spectacular day Monday in the opening round of the Class 5A boys state golf tournament.

The Fossil Ridge sophomore coolly sank his final putt to make par and close out a clean round that included only birdies and pars.

Barry — an individual qualifier — made six birdies in all to put himself in the driver’s seat in the chase for the individual state title as he carded a 6-under-par 64, while his effort also contributed to his team’s seven-stroke lead in the team standings going into the final day.

“It feels great,” Barry said. “My putting was really good today, I hit a bunch of good wedges in there and I just played pretty solid all day. I was really focusing on lag putting and having no three-putts. I had no three-putts today and I definitely sunk some, so that was good.”

Barry put a disappointing 25th-place finish in 2021 behind him with a strong round that saw him shoot 4-under on the back nine, which included a run of birdies on Nos. 11, 12 and par-5 No. 13. He also made birdies on Nos. 3, 7 as well as 17, which brought him to the 6-under mark that gives him a four-stroke lead going into the final day.

Fossil Ridge coach Jamie Menefee was pleased to see the performance of Barry, who finished in a tie for 20th at the Southern Region tournament, which got him one of the last individual qualifying spots in state.

“We’ve got three or four players who are capable of shooting under par on any given day, but Austin probably has the best potential to go low like he did today,” Menefee said. “For him to play bogey free on a state-caliber course is pretty incredible. Watching him, obviously making the birdies is fantastic. But I think I watched him make four or five par putts that were in that four-, five-, six-foot range, and those are every bit as important for keeping momentum as birdies are.”

It was a memorable day overall for Fossil Ridge, the third-place team out of the Front Range League, which had to qualify all four of its players individually from a tough region.

Joining Barry in the top five after the opening round was freshman Landon Houska, who made three birdies himself in a round of 69 that puts him in a tie for third individually. Senior Grant Samuelson shot 71 for the third score for Fossil Ridge, which shot 204 as a team to lead Rock Canyon (211).
Cherry Creek and Pine Creek each shot 217 to tie for third place after one round.

“It was a really good day,” said Menefee, whose team placed fourth at state in 2021. “I’ve felt like we’ve played good golf all year and we were in a really good conference, and we competed and ended up getting third in our conference, which is fine but we felt like we hadn’t quite put together our absolute best. I don’t know if today was our absolute best, but it’s got to be really close. It’s golf, so I’m sure all the kids can think of shots that they want back, but it’s as good as we could have dreamt of.”

Despite the strong start, nothing is assured for Fossil Ridge after many players and teams navigated their way around the City Park G.C. course well on the opening day and a lot of adjustments generally take place going into the second round.

Five individuals finished under par — Rock Canyon’s Charlie Tucker sits second after a 2-under 68, while Houska is tied with Monarch’s Caleb Michaels and Pine Creek’s Wesley Erling (the 2021 runner-up) after the trio each shot 69. Tucker got as low as 3-under before he made a bogey on his final hole, par-5 No. 9.

Five more players shot even-par and seven more were just 1-over, including Tucker’s teammate Trey Kahrhoff, which helped the Jags stay within seven strokes.

The tournament concludes with the second round, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

FULL DAY 1 RESULTS