{"id":867826,"date":"2026-08-25T12:02:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867826\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:02:28","slug":"panthers-golf-firing-low-rounds-to-start-promising-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867826\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers golf firing low rounds to start promising season"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Rylan Maloney tracks his tee shot in the Panther Invitational at Conquistador GC on Aug. 18. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Junior-led M-CHS team has visions of returning team to state championships<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 When CHSAA shifted its state qualification format last year away from a single qualifying regional event to a season-long scoring average, the whole state paid attention.<\/p>\n

No longer would one really good day or one poor round make or break one\u2019s state chances \u2013 it would be the summation of the full body of work. Nearing the halfway point to the season, an experienced Montezuma-Cortez High School boys golf team has made sure that consistency wins out over the long haul.<\/p>\n

With the three juniors, a sophomore and one senior filling out the varsity crew all capable of scoring low on any given day for second-year head coach Jarrett Watkins, the Panthers have several players already in the mix for the 84 spots in the 3A state tournament field.<\/p>\n

Junior Zye Kuenzler returns as the lone Panther with state experience, having qualified during his previous two seasons for the orange-and-black, including a 27th place finish at last year\u2019s 3A championships. Five tournaments into the season, he\u2019s posted rounds in the 70s in each, including a 75 on his home course (sixth individually) Aug. 18 to lead M-CHS to a ninth-place team finish against a field of virtually every golf program on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

M-CHS junior Zye Kuenzler follows through on his tee shot in the Panther Invitational at Conquistador GC on Aug. 18. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kuenzler took medalist honors at Cattails GC in Alamosa \u2013 the site of the 3A state championships this year \u2013 posting a round of 74, a score that matched his season-opening round in Montrose. He then bested his low mark with a 72 at Cobble Creek on Aug. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to see what our veteran players can accomplish, especially with state being held at a course that they\u2019re very familiar with,\u201d Watkins said.<\/p>\n

Classmate Brooks Story seeks his first trip to the state championships, and fired statement rounds to begin the season that placed his name well inside the top 84 in the early season rankings.<\/p>\n

His 75 at Black Canyon in Montrose to open the season accompanied a round of 77 in Alamosa, earning 12th and third respectively in those outings. He and Kuenzler\u2019s top-three finishes led the Panthers to their best team scores (233 and 240, respectively) and their best placement of the young campaign \u2013 second place to host Alamosa in the tournament.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

M-CHS junior Brooks Story watches his putt track toward the hole in the Panther Invitational at Conquistador GC on Aug. 18. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sophomore Malachi Padilla has made a major jump in his second year with the program, tallying matching 84s on Conquistador and Black Canyon, an 86 at Cobble Creek, to go along with a pair of 89s in Alamosa and Durango.<\/p>\n

Junior Rylan Maloney and senior Gavin Gill have proven their ability to break 90, with Maloney finishing as the third Panther on Tuesday with a round of 86, while Gill fired a 90 to match his score from Hillcrest\u2019s Durango Invitational from a day earlier. Junior Lucas Zufelt sits right on their tail after a 92 in M-CHS\u2019 first of two home invitationals this fall.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

M-CHS sophomore Malachi Padilla drills his tee shot in the Panther Invitational at Conquistador GC on Aug. 18. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 18 golfers turning out for the season \u2013 nearly half freshmen \u2013 the future of this program is promising,\u201d Watkins said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m excited to see how our younger athletes will contribute this season, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Junction won the Panther Invitational with a team score of 224, edging out runner-up Durango by five strokes. Monte Vista\u2019s Connor Mellott fired the lone under-par round on the afternoon, collecting five birdies on his way to a 69. Durango\u2019s Drew Jepson led the Demons with a 73 for a tie for second individually.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

M-CHS boys golf team members (L to R) Brooks Story, Zye Kuenzler, Gavin Gill, and Malachi Padilla celebrate a runner-up finish at Alamosa\u2019s Cattails GC earlier this season. Photo courtesy of Jarrett Watkins<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Panthers have another chance on their home course to post strong scores on the final day in August, before gearing up for tournament action in Gunnison at Dos Rios GC on Sept. 8 and Pagosa Springs on Sept. 9. M-CHS then plays at The Bridges in Montrose on Sept. 14 and Monte Vista on Sept. 15 before their IML tournament and regular season finale at Cattails on Sept. 24. The 3A state championships are lined up for Oct. 5 and 6 in Alamosa for the 36-hole tournament.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Copy article link\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Rylan Maloney tracks his tee shot in the Panther Invitational at Conquistador GC on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-867826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}