Consider it a Rocky Mountain Showdown, only with clubs.
There have been other CGA Match Play finals that have featured golfers from both the University of Colorado and Colorado State University — most recently in 2013, when CU’s David Oraee prevailed over CSU’s Parker Edens — but the current installment of the rivalry on the golf course will take place on Friday.
This time around, it will be Ross Macdonald from CU and the Country Club at Castle Pines taking on AJ Ott from CSU and Ptarmigan Country Club in a scheduled 36-hole final that will conclude the 118th CGA Match Play at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.
“I know AJ well,” Macdonald said. “I know he’s a Ram; that’s the only thing I don’t like. No, he’s a great friend — in golf and outside. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Both of the college players won two matches for the second straight day on Thursday, highlighted by the 530-yard par-5 14th hole Thursday afternoon. That’s where Ott (left) made a double eagle in his semifinal (4 iron from 220 yards) and Macdonald narrowly missed one of his own 10 minutes later, settling for a mere eagle there after a 7-iron from 178 yards finished 5 feet from the cup.
Ott didn’t see his shot turn into an albatross — his first in competition — but was elated nonetheless.
“I couldn’t do that out of another 500 balls,” he said. “It was a lucky bounce. But it was a good match.”
Said Macdonald, who was informed of the feat as he approached the 14th green: “I was a little rattled by it. That is incredible. To make it with that (front pin), that’s almost unheard of.”
That hole gave Ott a 2-up lead and helped lift him to a 3 and 1 semifinal victory over 28-year-old Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club, the 2012 champion and the last mid-am remaining in the bracket. And Macdonald’s eagle squared up his match after he was 3 down through eight to Josh Hill of the Omni Interlocken Resort, who was 5 under through his first seven holes.
Macdonald (left), who had 2014 champion and current Ravenna assistant pro Cody Kent caddying for him in the afternoon, went 1 up on 15 when Hill lost his ball on his tee shot and Macdonald made a conceded birdie. The CU golfer went on to prevail 1 up when Hill narrowly missed a 7-foot birdie attempt on the final hole. In the semis, Ott played his final six holes in 6 under par, while Macdonald was 5 under for his final 18 after being 3 under in the quarterfinals.
In those quarterfinals, Macdonald ended the nine-match win streak of defending champion Chris Korte in this event. The CU junior-to-be beat the recent University of Denver graduate 1 up by getting up and down from a bunker from 60 yards to halve the 18th hole.
“I shot 68 in the morning and 66 in the afternoon and made one bogey all day,” noted Macdonald. “I played really solid and didn’t do anything stupid.
“I didn’t have a great range session this morning so I wasn’t quite sure. I told myself to stay in it, one hole at a time. That’s what my assistant coach (at CU, Pat Grady) told me and he’s won this before (in 2005). He said eliminate the dumb stuff. If you don’t have a chance to look at a pin, then (hit it to) 30 feet and put the pressure on them to make a putt. I kind of did that all day, and it was good enough.”
In his quarterfinal, Ott defeated former Colorado State-Pueblo golfer Jake Ice 5 and 4.
“It’s awesome” to make the final, Ott said. “It’s been a lot of golf (six rounds from Monday through Thursday), that’s for sure. I didn’t have my best stuff in a few of my earlier matches, but I played nice this morning and played good this afternoon. Now I’ll just rest up and get ready for another 36.”
For Ott, it wasn’t like his double eagle on No. 14 in the afternoon was an isolated good shot. In fact, right after his albatross, Dorfman put the pressure on by hitting his approach on 15 to within a foot. After conceding that birdie, Ott proceeded to hit his to 4 feet and halve the hole with a birdie.
“He threw a great shot in there,” Ott said of Dorfman. “I had to sack up and hit a good one. It felt good to make birdie there, especially after making two on the last hole.”
Macdonald (left, with Kent) and Ott are certainly no strangers, having played plenty of junior and college golf together over the last seven or eight years. Both are former male junior players of the year in the state (Macdonald in 2014 and Ott in 2016). In college, Macdonald finished second in this year’s Pac-12 Championships and Ott was fifth in the Mountain West Conference tournament. Both players will be juniors, eligibility-wise, in 2018-19. Ott is 20 years old and Macdonald 21.
Asked what it would mean to prevail on Friday and earn the trophy, Ott said, “It would be awesome. It’s going to be fun. I’ve never made it even close to this far in the match play. So it would mean a lot.”
CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
QUARTERFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Chris Korte, CGA Club, 1 up
Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 19 holes
Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, def. Jackson Solem, The Fox Hill Club, 5 and 3
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Jake Ice, Walking Stick GC, 5 and 4
SEMIFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, 1 up
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, 3 and 1
FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, vs. AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, 7 a.m.
To view the brackets from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.
