WINDSOR – Peak to Peak junior Om Mathur admits he had trouble sleeping Monday night and he had every reason to be a little restless.
Mathur had just been the only golfer at the Class 3A state tournament at RainDance National to shoot under par and had a two-stroke lead going into Tuesday’s final round.
His second round wasn’t as good as his first, but his 5-over-par 77 was good enough to hold off the field and give him the individual state championship with a combined score of 147, two strokes better than second place co-finishers Stewie Bruce of Vail Mountain and Jack Carter of Resurrection Christian, who both finished with a 149.
“I was exhausted, but I didn’t sleep until 11:30,” Mathur said. “I woke up at about 4:30 this morning and I was sitting there wide-awake in bed and my 7:20 alarm is set and I laid there for about an hour and a half trying to fall asleep, couldn’t do it.”
Mathur only picked up golf a couple of years ago, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he played over two days on the challenging RainDance course.
He went into Tuesday’s second round clinging to a small lead and shot even-par over the first nine holes to maintain his advantage.
And while his back nine wasn’t perfect, it was enough to hold off Bruce and Carter. A double-bogey on 13, another on 17 allowed those chasing him to creep closer, but even a bogey on 18 didn’t derail his championship.
He walked off the 18th green to cheers from teammates, fans and family, the latter of which he made sure to acknowledge after his victory.
“Honestly, I was thinking, ‘I can sleep good tonight,’ because I didn’t get any sleep the last two nights,” he said. “My wrist is all jacked up so I’ve been taping it throughout both rounds. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to contend at state.
“The first thing that I thought was, ‘This win is for my parents,’ because of the amount of sacrifices and how much they support me is unreal.”
Resurrection won the team title and that race wasn’t close as the Cougars won the program’s first state championship by 19 strokes over runner-up Peak to Peak.
The Cougars shot a two-day total of 456 to the Pumas’ 475. Last year’s champion, Vail Mountain, was third with a 488.
Resurrection Christian had three golfers finish in the top five. In addition to Carter tying for second place, Graham Riggs was fourth with a 153 and Clint Summers was fifth with a 154.
The Cougars, who finished second by one stroke last year, surged to this year’s championship by turning an 8-stroke lead after the first day into the 19-stroke runaway they finished with.
“Emotional, definitely emotional,” Resurrection Christian coach Rick Meis said. “I had all the confidence in the world, but you don’t realize it until it happens. When it happens, the reality sets in and I’m just so proud of those kids.”
