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
 

Pos	Team	Total
1	Fossil Ridge	204
2	Rock Canyon	211
3	Cherry Creek	217
3	Pine Creek	217
5	Arapahoe	219
6	Highlands Ranch	220
7	Eaglecrest	221
7	Mountain Vista	221
8	Heritage	222
9	Castle View	224
10	Ralston Valley	227
10	ThunderRidge	227
10	Valor Christian	227
13	Boulder	228
14	Regis Jesuit	241

 

Pos	TM	Player	Grade	R1
1	Fossil Ridge	Austin Barry	SO	64
2	Rock Canyon	Charlie Tucker	JR	68
3	Monarch	Caleb Michaels	SR	69
3	Fossil Ridge	Landon Houska	FR	69
3	Pine Creek	Wesley Erling	SR	69
6	Mountain Vista	Brayden Scheich	JR	70
6	Heritage	Gavin Crowley	SR	70
6	Fort Collins	Ian Hunn	SR	70
6	Boulder	Luke Blankinship	SR	70
6	Legend	Spencer Schlagel	JR	70
11	Fossil Ridge	Grant Samuelson	SR	71
11	Eaglecrest	Gregory White	FR	71
11	Douglas County	Hunter Glasser	SR	71
11	Brighton	Kyle Leydon	SR	71
11	Fairview	Sawyer Sales	JR	71
11	Rock Canyon	Trey Kahrhoff	JR	71
11	Cherry Creek	Wyatt Isgrig	SO	71
18	Cherry Creek	Andre Dumonteil	SO	72
18	Mountain Vista	Conner  Scheich	SO	72
18	Valor Christian	Ethan Rainey	JR	72
18	Castle View	Luke Cushman	SR	72
18	Rock Canyon	Mason Conrad	JR	72
18	Eaglecrest	Noah Bennett	JR	72
24	Highlands Ranch	Aiden Krusoe	SR	73
24	Columbine	Alex  Lest	SO	73
24	Highlands Ranch	Billy Verstraate	FR	73
24	Valor Christian	Campbell McFadden	FR	73
24	Arapahoe	Grant Juergens	SR	73
24	Arapahoe	Mac Buckley	FR	73
24	Arapahoe	Max Zadvorny	SR	73
31	Legacy	Ben Cerretani	SR	74
31	Horizon	Cooper (moose) Brennan	FR	74
31	Castle View	Gavin Amella	FR	74
31	Highlands Ranch	Jack Bakken	SR	74
31	Ralston Valley	Jordan McCaslin	SR	74
31	Arvada West	Luke Landskov	SR	74
31	Pine Creek	Luke Wright	SO	74
31	Ralston Valley	Makian Maydew	JR	74
31	Cherry Creek	Pratham Parmar	JR	74
31	Pine Creek	Rylen Caldwell	SR	74
31	Heritage	Sebastian  Hein	SO	74
31	Monarch	Talan Gover	JR	74
43	ThunderRidge	Austin Hunt	FR	75
43	ThunderRidge	Dylan Everett	SR	75
43	Regis Jesuit	Jake Irvine	SR	75
43	Arapahoe	Joe  Hickey	SR	75
43	Columbine	Matai Naqica	JR	75
43	Arvada West	Yusuke Ogi	SR	75
49	Boulder	Doug Holleman	JR	76
49	Chatfield	Jesse Hand	SO	76
49	Fossil Ridge	Kaden Devenport	SO	76
49	Prairie View	Payton Crawford	SR	76
49	Regis Jesuit	Roland Thornton	SO	76
54	ThunderRidge	Ben Mackert	SR	77
54	Westminster	Bielly Phasay	SR	77
54	Grandview	Michael Rosman	JR	77
54	Douglas County	Talen Turnbaugh	JR	77
54	Legend	Trevor Seeley	SR	77
59	Eaglecrest	Andrew White	SR	78
59	Heritage	Brody Mackey	SR	78
59	Castle View	Kade Bracken	SR	78
59	Poudre	Max Meland	SR	78
59	Fairview	Miles Kuhl	FR	78
64	Cherokee Trail	Christopher  O’Donnell	SO	79
64	Ralston Valley	Deacon Colwell	SR	79
64	Castle View	Enzo Chung	SR	79
64	Mountain Vista	Luke Duffy	JR	79
64	Legacy	Luke Tourault	SO	79
64	ThunderRidge	Ryan Oro	SR	79
70	Cherokee Trail	Brayden Forte	FR	80
70	Cherry Creek	Charlie Flaxbeard	SR	80
70	Brighton	Coby Puzio	JR	80
70	Eaglecrest	Preston Unrein	SR	80
74	Highlands Ranch	Nas Kim	SR	81
74	Denver East	Oliver Gottesfeld	SR	81
76	Valor Christian	Dylan Bundy	SR	82
76	Poudre	Jack Chambers	SR	82
76	Valor Christian	Maxwell Eide	JR	82
76	Boulder	Siadhal Sweeney	SR	82
80	Pine Creek	Bentley Barnett	SR	83
80	Denver East	Elijah  Johnson	FR	83
82	Boulder	Eamon Sweeney	SR	87
83	Regis Jesuit	Eli Handler	SR	90
DQ	Regis Jesuit	Cole Dewey	SR	DQ