PUEBLO — When Connor Mellott was battling to keep his tee shots in position, he knew he could always count on his short game.
Mellott, a Monte Vista senior, won the Class 2A boys golf state championship with a par on the second hole of a sudden-victory playoff over Cedaredge junior Ashton Park on Tuesday at Pueblo Country Club.
Mellott and Park finished regulation tied at 8-over 150, two shots clear of Telluride sophomore Banks O’Brien at 10-over 152. Vail Christian cruised to the team championship with a 45-over-par two-day total, well clear of runner-up Rye at 71 over.
After bombing his drive down the center-right of the fairway on the 328-yard par-4 second playoff hole, Mellott had just 75 yards remaining. He flighted his approach, spun it within 12 feet and two-putted to cap his senior year with the first individual state golf title in school history.
A tricky up-and-down from behind the green and over a ridge on No. 1 saved par for Mellott and set up his final-hole dramatics.
“Being able to have the putter in my hand and the wedge in my hand is super important,” Mellott said. “It helps my game out a lot.”
Mellott slept on a one-shot lead that quickly grew to two after he birdied the 368-yard par-4 second. After Park posted bogeys on the second and third holes, O’Brien opened with three straight squares on his scorecard, Mellott had what turned out to be short-lived breathing room.
He bogeyed five of the final seven holes on the front nine — including four consecutive on Nos. 6 through 9 — while Park’s putter heated up with long birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 and O’Brien sandwiched a pair of tweets around the sixth hole, where he gave a shot back.
It’s a routine Pirates coach Anfernee Romero has seen from Mellott before.
“He puts himself in positions where you think, ‘oh no, here come an extra two strokes,’” Romero said. “But he figures his way out of it and stays calm and collected. He focuses everything he has on that shot, executes it and makes it happen.”
On the 10th, O’Brien drove the green, but the ball ricocheted beyond a boundary fence and over the 11th tee box and was ruled out of bounds via a local rule. He went on to make double bogey, followed by a 6 on the par-5 11th.
But Park stayed steady throughout and ripped off birdies on Nos. 11 and 14 to open a two-shot lead.
“It felt great,” Park said. “I was hitting my line great and had great distance control. They were just dropping.”
Mellott avoided the big number all day. Despite bogeys on Nos. 11, 14 and 15, he poured in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 350-yard par-4 16th after hitting the flagstick with his approach. Park recorded a double-bogey 6, pulling Mellott within one shot of the lead.
“When I hit the flagstick on 16 and was only down one,” Mellott said. “I knew going into 17 and 18 it was all me.”
When Park’s approach on 18 spun back off the green, he chose to putt from the fringe to an uphill pin 40 feet away. The attempt came up short, and he carded a two-putt bogey to Mellott’s par to send everyone back to the first hole.
A slightly uphill birdie look on the first playoff hole from 10 feet was left short by Park.
“My hands were pretty shaky there,” Park said. “I had the line, I just left it short.”
With water from a celebratory dousing beading on his navy blue hat, Vail Christian coach Chad Hansen said the Saints overcame a slow start to grind out a runaway victory.
The Saints got a third-place finish from senior Cian Courtney (10 over) and a fifth-place showing from Wyatt Hansen (11 over).
“We built a little lead yesterday … but golf is a funny game,” Chad Hansen said. “I told the boys we needed to sprint through the finish line and stay focused. It was probably going to be one of the toughest rounds of golf we played because we had one hand on the trophy.”
