COLORADO SPRINGS — Logan Hale is just on another level right now.
All eyes were on the Class 4A defending champ on Monday at the Country Club of Colorado, and rightfully so.
The 5,650-yard difficult layout was playing that much tougher on the first day when the winds started to kick up early on and blew at a steady 25-30 miles per hour all day.
It was nothing she hadn’t seen before.
“I’ve played this course so many times. This was my old home course, so I’ve played hundreds of rounds on this course,” said Hale, who grew up in nearby Woodland Park and was a member at CCC before moving up to Erie. “This is where I learned to play and I used that as a comfort going into it, and even though I didn’t play great in the practice round and I wasn’t hitting the ball great, I just let it go and realized I knew exactly what I was doing on this course.”
You don’t say?
Hale went out in 4-under-par 32, had it to 5-under after 10 and ultimately finished with a round of 67. She was the only player to break par on Monday and will carry an eight-shot lead into Tuesday’s Round 2 over Pueblo Central’s Sofia Contreras.
Logan Hale, her sister Taylor (79) and 2022 state champion Hadley Ashton (82) combined to give Erie a combined team score of 228, that is good for a 33 shot lead over second place Steamboat Springs going into what the forcesters are saying is going to be a cold and wet Tuesday in the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain.
Logan Hale parred her first three holes of the day before the putter got hot. She took advantage of the short 389-yard par-5 No. 4 with a two-putt birdie and then birdied Nos. 6, 7 and 9 with relative ease.
“I know my swing and it is in a good place, I just kind of have to not think too hard and let go of all thoughts over the ball out there,” said Logan, who gave credit to her first teacher and CCC Director of Instruction Ann Finke. “The wind was definitely tricky, especially on the back nine, especially coming off the water.
“There were so many places where I knew where to put it, but it really came down to the soft calculations with the wind and the uphill. I just had a good process going into each shot.”
With such a commanding lead heading into the second round, Hale will have the advantage of varying her approach. She will know exactly when to be aggressive and when to dial back and just hit the middle of the green.
“I’m going to go in with a similar mindset and I know anything can happen, but I’m really trying to work on the player I want to be and hitting each shot based on the image of myself,” she said. “Recently I’ve been trying to be an aggressive and committed player, but also making smart decisions.
“I think with tomorrow, there are just so many holes where I can make a birdie and you should try to make a birdie versus last year where every hole I was going for it. This course forces you to pick and choose and I know I have some holes I can play better.”
Logan Hale will be paired with Contreras, who made three birdies in her final four holes to close out her round, and Battle Mountain’s Makenna Thayer — who shot an 8-over par 79.
