ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
For the first time since 2018, both Aspen and Basalt have clinche automatic, full-team berths to the high school boys golf state championship. The teams won first and second places, respectively, in the 3A Region 4 championship at Snowmass Club on Monday.
The Skiers clinched their first regional championship since 2021 — the last time they won a state title, as well — on the strength of a dominant solo performance by junior Houston Benvenuto and a rare hole-in-one by senior captain Ryan Rigney. Just four strokes behind them in the team standings, downvalley frenemies from Basalt are sending their full team as well, as the top four individual spots on Monday alternated red and purple.
It’s an added bonus for the teams that are extremely close: Many have played golf together since their youth, or play other sports together, and have been paired together time and time again during the high school season. Rigney and Basalt senior Jackson Stewart have played together countless times over the past three seasons.
“The fact we get to go as one team, but we essentially feel like we’re together almost,” Rigney said of both teams sending a full squad to Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo next week. “It’s a group effort for the valley because it’s fun to see the valley teams go beat some of those Front Range teams. Even if one of them wins it, we know we can hang with them and we were right there with them and that’s someone from our valley that’s representing our image. That’s great, it’s awesome for our community.”
The top two teams out of each regional competition earn an automatic bid to state, with all four players eligible to play. The top 13 individual finishers outside of those teams also earn bids. If three or four of a team’s players fall in that range, they can score as a team at state, which has applied to the local teams.
In 2022 at River Valley Ranch in Carbondale, Basalt earned an automatic bid with a second-place finish, and all four Aspen players qualified individually. In 2021, Aspen won the regional and state championship. Basalt finished third in the regional but sent three golfers to state and finished 11th.
But Monday marked the first regional since 2018 when both local clubs took top spots in the regional leaderboard. Aspen won that regional in Gunnison by 23 strokes and just one stroke over par as a team, with Basalt taking second place.
The two-day state championship will be played on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Aspen is seeking its third state championship, Basalt is seeking its first.
“I said to (Basalt head coach Travis Stewart) we need to work together to show the people on the Front Range that we’re a force to be reckoned with,” Aspen head coach Mary Woulfe said. “I think that Western Colorado has great golfers and great golf and you’re going to see some good numbers posted from some kids from other schools. Watch out Front Range, we’re coming.”
It’s hard to upstage a hole-in-one, but Houston Benvenuto did just that for the Aspen Skiers on Monday.
Benvenuto, the 23rd ranked player in 3A based on his six best rounds this season, according to iWanamaker.com, saw a lot of up and down. But — as Aspen golf teams tend to do — he’s peaking at the right time.
The junior handedly won Monday’s regional as the only under-par player, doing so by three strokes. Basalt’s Jackson Stewart took second place with a 4-over score.
After being 2-over on the front nine, he made the decision to not look at the leaderboard on the back nine. Even after going 5-under on the back, he was shocked to learn just how far ahead of the competition he was.
“Not looking at the leaderboard, I thought it was going to be neck-and-neck,” Benvenuto said. “I was hitting it well the entire day. … I was just not worrying about any of the leaderboard stuff and just focusing on executing every shot and every putt, that definitely helped me win today.”
Not too shabby for a guy who as a freshman, according to Woulfe, was struggling to break 100.
“He decided that he really wanted to take golf seriously and he was at Aspen Junior Golf hitting into a net almost every morning last year during the winter months,” Woulfe said. “He lives, breathes, talks golf all the time. He’s got a great mentality for golf.”
Woulfe also credited assistant Tom Doyle, who has been by Benvenuto’s side through every shot for most of the season.
On Monday, Benvenuto hit seven birdies, including three in a row and five in seven holes on the back nine.
The rest of the Skiers helped out as well. Rigney’s hole-in-one ended up being a big difference maker on the leaderboard.
On the 230-yard, par-3 eighth hole, Rigney took a 6-iron and thought he missed entirely. It wasn’t until a large crowd around the green started yelling that he — or any of the players in his group — knew it went in. The pin was obstructed, and Rigney said “I didn’t even think I hit the green.” But he caught the edge of the bowl and it funneled into the hole.
“He hits a shot like 20 yards right and we’re like, ‘Oh, I mean it’ll be a good shot,’ because it kicks down,” Stewart, who was playing with Rigney, said. “And then we just go crazy.”
It was Rigney’s first hole-in-one, coming at his place of employment in what will be his last high school golf tournament in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“I couldn’t have pictured a better environment, especially regionals, home course,” Rigney said. “I had five or 10 members that I’ve met working here coming out to support. Both my parents were at the green to watch it. I had my buddies, my spotter Tyler literally watching it. I had everyone I could have imagined watching it — except me.”
Junior Leo Roennau and sophomore Oliver Pullis each shot an 83 to round out the scoring for Aspen. Roennau has shot as low as 70 this season, while Pullis has proved to be a solid fourth player, averaging 81 strokes a round heading into the regional.
“Just practicing every day and competing every day,” Benvenuto said. “We have a really good team this year and we’re always competing with each other. Like Leo says, ‘Any day, anyone can win.’”
For the second year in a row, a top Basalt golfer had an off day at the worst possible time.
Sophomore Griffin Didier shot an 88 to place 26th overall and outside the individual cutline after entering the competition as the No. 18 ranked golfer in all of 3A. Previously, his season high was 83, but outside of that hadn’t shot above a 77. On Sept. 10 in Steamboat, he shot a 67, which Travis Stewart said could be a course-low for the program.
But unlike last year, when top 10 golfer Garrett Exelbert had a “that’s golf” round, Didier’s team rallied to pick him up and give him a second chance at state.
“I think that the special part about high school and college golf is that it’s such an individualistic sport but at these levels you play as a team and you can rely on your teammates,” Travis Stewart said. “It’s one of the first things (Didier) said when he came off the green, he thanked his teammates. And they thanked him a lot this year, because he’s played some great rounds. One round doesn’t define who you are. He’ll be great.”
A chance to send one of the classification’s best golfers to state was on the line when Jackson Stewart was making his last putt on 18 to save a par — even if he didn’t know it.
Stewart, ranked No. 12 in 3A, sank a tough putt that was one of the strokes that helped Basalt maintain a two-stroke edge over Mullen for the second-place spot on the leaderboard. Two more strokes here and there and Stewart — who finished second on the individual leaderboard — and teammates sophomore Hudson Arnold and freshman Parker Strelecki — who finished tied for third and 10th, respectively — would still have their tickets punched to Pueblo. But Didier wouldn’t be joining them.
“I knew I had a good chance of qualifying, but I wanted the whole team to go,” Jackson Stewart said. “It just feels really good to get the team going there, just because it’s a young team this year. It’s harder for us.”
Now, three young players will get their first crack at the state tournament. And they’ll get to compete with some of their buddies up the valley.
“That’s what I originally wanted, both us and Aspen to go,” Jackson Stewart said. “We’re kind of rivals, but we also cheer each other on.”