GRAND JUNCTION - Bookcliff Country Club didn’t put up much of a fight against some of Colorado’s best golfers Tuesday, as the field largely tore it up in an epic final round.
When the dust settled on a long, picturesque day on the Western Slope course, 15 players shot under par in the final round of the Class 5A boys state tournament with Fairview senior Miles Kuhl claiming individual medalist honors and Cherokee Trail taking the team crown in dramatic fashion.
Kuhl edged sophomore teammate Ash Edwards by one stroke to win with a blazing total of 9-under-par over two days to complete a title quest that he’d come up just short on in the previous two seasons as he tied for second in 2023 and took third last season.
“This is the overall goal, most definitely,” Kuhl said. “Me and Ash had always talked about going 1-2 at state no matter who it was (winning) and we accomplished our goals. I just wish we could have had a team to win as well."
Kuhl will head off to San Diego State next season with the championship thanks to his performance in which he shot rounds of 5-under 66 and 4-under 67. He bogeyed just two of the 36 holes in two days, which he more than countered with 11 birdies.
A confident birdie putt from about four feet away on Hole No. 18 ended up as the winner for Kuhl when Edwards — who had a one-stroke lead after the opening day — could not forge a tie and force an individual playoff, which Kuhl said the two had agreed to decline should the situation come about.
“We agreed at dinner last night that we were going to take the tie and walk away,” he said.
A tie could not take place for the team championship, which had to be decided by playoff as Cherokee Trail and Denver East dueled it out to the end of the second round and beyond.
The Cougars and Angels separated themselves from the pack as the round progressed and continued to leapfrog each other down the stretch with clutch shot after clutch shot.
Cherokee Trail senior Brayden Forte came up with an epic eagle on Hole No. 18 to vault his team from a stroke down to a stroke lead, but Denver East senior Elijah Johnson cooly birdied No. 18 to move himself into seventh individually and force a team playoff, which took place on Hole No. 10.
The Angels’ three-man team of Johnson, senior Alexander Kukreja and junior Murphy Rowen — who tried to win Denver East’s first state championship since 1952 and what would have been its fifth overall in boys golf — couldn’t match the performance of the Cougars’ foursome of Forte, senior Dalton Sisneros (who finished 8th individually and sealed the program’s first-ever win with a putt that whirled around the edge of the cup before it fell), freshman Jeffrey Chen and senior Braydon O’Neill.
“We prepared well, we executed our shots on the playoff hole and now we’re here with the trophy,” said Forte, who is headed to San Diego State with Kuhl.
The rest of the top 10 individuals (which ended up being 14 in all) included a tie for fourth that included Castle View senior Gavin Amella (last season’s state champion), junior Nick Clinton of Arapahoe (the team leader after the first round) and Valor Christian senior Campbell McFadden, plus a five-way tie for ninth place that included Kukreja in addition to Eaglecrest senior Gregory White, Columbine sophomore Connor Young, Chatfield senior Wyatt Montoya and Fruita Monument senior Collin Black.