Third time’s a charm.
Standing on the 18th green at the Pinehurst Country Club in Denver, Montezuma-Cortez High School senior Thayer Plewe put two close calls from 2020 and 2021 behind him.
Plewe stepped over his final putt, like he had thousands of times in his life. And like so many times before, the southpaw used a smooth stroke, and watched his putt drop in to the bottom of the cup.
This putt, however, meant a little bit more.
Thayer Plewe, in the final stroke of his high school career, can add the title of 2022 3A boys golf state champion, the lone accolade previously missing from an incredible M-CHS career.
For most of the Tuesday’s round, Plewe found himself threaded in the middle of a tight race with Round 1 leader Clint Summers of Resurrection Christian and Ryan Woodley of Liberty Common.
After entering the second round trailing by a single stroke, Plewe tied up Summers on the par-four seventh hole, the second of a back-to-back birdie stretch for Plewe. One hole later, Plewe took the lead for the first time – and he wouldn’t look back.
Plewe opened the back nine with a birdie on the par-four 10th, but the lead hovered at two strokes after Summers birdied 14 and 15 to keep applying pressure on the M-CHS senior.
In 2021, Plewe found himself chasing in the final few holes, only to watch his title dream slip away. This time, the Panther sat in the driver’s seat, and make the par-5 16th hole his decisive move.
Sitting on the fringe facing his third shot, Plewe pulled out his putter, traversing the green with a ranging putt that found the cup for an eagle. With that, the lead ballooned to four strokes, allowing Plewe to comfortably finish out the final two holes.
Plewe finished in style, birdieing the final two holes as well to shoot a scorching 29 on the back nine, and a 64 in Round 2. His combined score of 134 (-6) won the title by five strokes over Summers – the first Panther to win the crown since Shea Sena did 20 years ago.
In the decisive victory, Plewe also led the Panthers’ surge up the leaderboard on Tuesday, as all four M-CHS golfers improved their scores to post a team total of 226 in Round 2, which moved them from ninth to seventh in the final standings. Their Round 2 score proved to be the fourth-best team score on Tuesday, and only five strokes off the best single-day total for any team over the whole tournament.
Sophomore Vince Lopez improved from 25th as a freshman to a tie for 20th in his second state tournament, riding a back-nine 37 to finish with a Round 2 76 (+6). His two-day total of 155 included five birdies over the 36 holes, as he climbed the leaderboard 10 spots over his solid second round.
Junior Airoughn VanGrandt put together his best stretch of golf over the final seven holes on Tuesday, parring five to finish with an 86 – a five-stroke improvement over day one. Classmate Kaden Huff posted a 41 in his opening nine holes to also see an improvement, as he finished just two strokes behind VanGrandt in the overall standings with a total of 179. The duo finished 67th and 68th individually to round out the Panthers’ performances.
Vail Mountain (445) staved off Resurrection Christian (446) to go wire-to-wire for the team title, while M-CHS (466) edged past Basalt (467) and Holy Family (471) on day two to take their third consecutive top-eight finish at state.
