It isn’t easy beating Wyndham Clark, who is now ranked 10th among all junior golfers in the country. But D’Evelyn High School seems to have struck upon the right formula.
Clark won the Class 4A state high school title last year, but he finished second in 2008 and again this season, and both times the only player to beat him was from D’Evelyn.
Two years after Brenden Beeg pulled off the feat, senior John Ahern followed suit this week. The left-hander rallied from a two-stroke deficit with a 3-under-par 33 on the back nine Tuesday at The Club at Flying Horse to overtake Clark and claim the 4A championship.
“It feels good to beat him,” Ahern said of Clark. “But I didn’t really think about that. I’ve known Wyndham since we were 7 or 8. He’s a great player; there’s no doubt about that.”
Tuesday’s victory certainly helps solidify Ahern (pictured, with Clark in the background) as one of the top handful of junior players in the state. Earlier this year, Ahern finished second in both the CGA Junior Match Play and the national PGA Junior Series event in Colorado Springs, and he also just missed qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur.
“This whole summer I’ve taken second time after time and it was really good to finally win one,” said Ahern, who called Tuesday’s win his biggest golf accomplishment. “I felt like all year I was right there but wasn’t quite finishing. It felt good to finally get one done.
“This feels awesome. You envision (winning important tournaments) all the time, but it’s crazy for it to actually happen.”
Ahern, who led by three going into the final day, found himself trailing Clark by two after posting a 4-over-par 40 on the front nine. But Ahern birdied four of the first seven holes on the back nine to retake the lead and held off Clark by one despite a three-putt bogey on the final hole. Ahern carded a 1-over-par 73, which was nine strokes higher than the competitive course-record 64 he posted Monday. Overall, he finished at 7-under-par 137.
Clark still led by one with four holes remaining, but he bogeyed twice down the stretch and ended up with a 71 on Tuesday. Cam Harrell of Air Academy took third place at 140 after a final-round 72. Valor Christian’s Spencer Sheets, a southpaw like Ahern, was just one out of the lead after nine holes Tuesday, but finished with his second straight 71 to claim fourth place at 142.
Clark, trying to become the ninth two-time Colorado state high school champion, looked to be headed for that distinction after making up five shots on Ahern on the front nine and taking the lead. But after being one up going into No. 15, Clark hit into four bunkers from holes 15 through 17 and made two bogeys in the process.
“It was very disappointing,” said Clark, who won the CGA Stroke Play Championship in August. “The last four holes just killed me. I just wasn’t hitting good shots. I kind of got out of rhythm and John started to play well.
“I look at it that I kind of gave it away but he also won it.”
Ahern (pictured at left) took the lead for good with an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th, then added to his margin with a routine par on No. 17. But Clark almost made up his two-shot deficit all at once when a wedge shot from 114 yards on No. 18 nearly went into the hole — twice. Clark’s ball landed within a foot of the flag and just missed the lip of the cup after it took a hop then spun back past the hole and off the green.
The junior settled for a par on the hole, and even a three-putt bogey by Ahern still secured the victory.
“It’s pretty disappointing to get second twice in this tournament,” Clark said. “If a few things go my way I could have had three (state high school titles) already. But it’s just a golf tournament, so I’m alright.”
Meanwhile, Ahern admits that after nine holes on Tuesday, he wasn’t sure if he could pull off the win. He had bogeyed four holes on the front side and hadn’t made a birdie.
“I had my doubts” when I was two down, Ahern said. “I just hit a couple shots a little off line and put myself in some really tough spots. It’s easy to make bogeys if you’re in the wrong spots here. But I felt like I was hitting it fine. I thought if I just kept doing what I was doing, it would come around, and it did.”
Though neither Ahern nor Clark has settled on where they plan to play college golf, it’s a good bet that the lessons from being in a back-and-forth battle at Flying Horse will serve them well in the future.
“It’s a good learning experience,” said Valor Christian coach Jason Preeo, who made the cut in this year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Wyndham “battled hard and played well. But John just played a little bit better this week. If Wyndham would have shot 3 over par, it would be a different story. But John went out and earned it on the back nine.”
Ahern and Clark actually play in the same league, the Jeffco, so they’ve competed plenty against one another.
“John is an awesome kid and I’m super happy for him,” Preeo said. “I’m sure deep down Wyndham is upset that he lost, but at the same time if he was going to get beat by somebody, that would be the person he would want to get beat by.”
Meanwhile, the day certainly wasn’t a total loss for Clark and Preeo. With two players among the top four individuals, Valor Christian claimed its second consecutive 4A team title, finishing with a 1-over-par 433 total, 15 strokes better than Cortez and D’Evelyn.
“It’s neat to win twice in two years,” said Preeo, who took over the program before last season. “We’ve had a lot of talent.”
CLASS 5A at Valley Country Club in Aurora — After three previous years of finishing no worse than seventh at the state high school meet, senior David Oraee of Greeley West claimed the 5A state title by one stroke on Tuesday.
Oraee, who moved up to Class 5A from 4A this season, shot an even-par 72 in the final round for a 2-under 142 total. That was one stroke better than Regis Jesuit’s Gus Lundquist, who closed with a 71.
Oraee trailed by one after a front-nine 39 that included a first-hole double bogey. But he rallied on the back side with a bogey-free 3-under 33.
Regis (435) won the team title by 11 strokes over Highlands Ranch.
CLASS 3A at Eaton Country Club — Ethan Freeman, a sophomore at Kent Denver, rolled to a three-stroke victory Tuesday in the 3A state tournament.
Freeman, who finished fourth last year, played his first 27 holes without a bogey and carded a 1-under-par 70 on Tuesday, good for a two-day total of 3-under 139. Jesse Beetham of Aspen (68 Tuesday) and Luke Condon of Monte Vista (69) shared second place at 142.
Kent Denver won its fifth consecutive state team title — the second-longest streak in state golf history behind ThunderRidge’s six from 2001 through 2006 — by overcoming host Eaton by 11 strokes. Kent won the 4A state championship in 2006 and 2007 and has captured the 3A crown every one of the three years that classification has been in existence.
