LAKEWOOD — Evergreen senior Tyler Long and his Cougar teammates plan on duplicating what they accomplished Monday at Fox Hollow Golf Course next week in Pueblo.
Long cruised to the Class 3A Region 2 medalist title firing a bogey-free 7-under-par, 64. Despite the impressive round, there was no fist pumping as Long dominated the course.
“I try to stay pretty even-keeled no matter if I make a six or a hole-in-one,” said Long, who had an eagle and five birdies. “I try not to get too high or too low. Just try to focus on the next hole.”
Evergreen easily won the regional team title with a 213, a 24-shot margin better than second-place Discovery Canyon.
Evergreen will be the favorite to win the 3A team title during the 2-day tournament Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 7 and 8) at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo. The Cougars return their entire team that won the 4A team title a year ago.
“We would probably be a little disappointed,” Long said if the Cougars don’t come back from Pueblo with another team state title. “We don’t want to think too far ahead.”
Long was laser focused as he has been all-season long at Fox Hollow. The senior won his fourth-straight Jeffco League medalist title a few weeks ago, he was tearing up his front-nine on the canyon course Monday morning.
“It was feeling good,” Long said of being 5-under-par through his first five holes. “My putter just went kind of cold on me. I couldn’t make anything from there on out.”
While Long couldn’t make a run at going after a sub-60 round, he grabbed a couple of birdies on the meadows course on his back-nine to finish with a 64. Senior teammate Liam Houlihan and Discovery Canyon sophomore Alex Doyle finished tied for second-place with rounds of 73, a full nine shots behind Long.
“I just wanted to hit some good shots, make some putts. I felt like I did that for the most part,” Long said when asked if he had any specific goals coming into his regional round.
Long did describe his driving as a ‘little sketchy’ at times.
“We have to get the driver right,” Long said heading into the state tournament next week at Walking Stick Golf Course. “Other than that, we are feeling good.”
Evergreen seniors Lincoln MacKay (76) and Luke Sabina (78) finished fifth and tied for sixth at the regional. All four Evergreen seniors were on the team that finished the 4A state tournament with a 440 team score to edge out Grand Junction by six strokes at The Bridges in Montrose.
Long and Houlihan finished tied for second in the individual standings.
“There might be a little more pressure being defeating (state champs),” Houlihan said. “We are going to go in with the same mentality of playing our best golf. We’ll see what happens.”
The Cougars aren’t taking anything for granted heading to Pueblo next week.
“We still have to prepare normally and play very well to have a chance out there,” Houlihan said of attempting to go back-to-back as state champions.
Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Public Schools
