Didier dominance

Basalt sophomore Griffin Didier, left, and senior Jackson Stewart high five at the 3A boys golf state championship at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo on Tuesday. Didier finished second overall in the tournament, the best finish by a Longhorns golfer since Tristan Rohrbaugh won the school’s first individual championship in 2013. An off-day at regionals for Basalt sophomore Griffin Didier meant he only made it to the state championship on the strength of his teammates.

On Monday and Tuesday in Pueblo, he repaid the favor. Didier finished second overall in the 3A state championship on Tuesday, going 5-under-par across 36 holes of golf at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, just over a week after his team helped him get into the competition. Led by his efforts, Basalt finished third overall as a team.



“Felt good, hit the ball well. It was fun,” Didier said via phone on Tuesday. “If I hit a bad shot I’d move on, wouldn’t get frustrated with it, take it as a challenge.

“It’s a good way to end the season for sure ...

overall I think we accomplished (what we wanted to). Third isn’t bad at states, we’ll take it,” he continued. “We’re pretty excited.

We’ll sleep well tonight.” Playing on the 7,100-yard Pueblo course, dodging tarantulas as they migrate across southeast Colorado, Didier shot only three bogeys across two days. After opening the first day with a bogey on hole 1, he got back to par after the front nine and went 3-under on the back nine, with three birdies in the first five holes.

He ended the second round with three birdies in the last six holes to go from 1-over to 2-under on the day. The only golfer that could keep Didier from the gold was Evergreen senior Tyler Long, who shot 9-under across the two days, without a single over-par hole in either of his two rounds. Evergreen, according to iWanamaker data, became the only 3A state champion to shoot under par as a team in the last decade, finishing with 420 team strokes, or 12-under.

As for Didier, it was the best finish for a Basalt golfer since Tristan Rohrbaugh in 2013, when he won the school’s first ever individual championship. There was a point during the regional championships at Snowmass Club on Sept. 30 where even getting Didier to state seemed unlikely, despite a strong season to that point.

About midway through the round, Didier was sitting outside the individual cut and the team wasn’t in position to qualify automatically. However, as scores started to roll in, it became evident that Basalt would finish second in regionals behind Aspen, earning a full automatic team bid. Didier wound up finishing 26th at regional — without the strong play of his team, he would not have qualified for state.

“I was just playing bad, I was out of it, but thankfully my team came in and saved me,” Didier said. Aspen senior Ryan Rigney lines up a putt at the 3A boys golf state championship at Walking Stick Golf Club in Pueblo. Rigney finished 15th in the tournament.

Behind Didier at state, senior Jackson Stewart tied for 10th and sophomore Hudson Arnold finished 38th to round out the team’s scorers, while freshman Parker Strelecki finished 59th to help Basalt to a third-place finish, the team’s highest finish that head coach Travis Stewart could recall. According to iWanamaker — which only goes back to 2014 — Basalt’s best finish in the past decade was sixth in 2018. With Didier and Stewart, Basalt was one of three schools with two representatives in the top 10 scorers — all four of Evergreen’s players scored within the top seven, and Resurrection Christian saw players in ties for fifth and seventh place.

“In my recollection, the teams I’ve been around and just before us, I think this is about as good as we’ve been in a while,” Basalt head coach Travis Stewart said via phone. “The preparation this year was solid. I think our boys were into it.

It’s a team where everyone kind of clicks and works together really well.” Basalt will graduate Jackson Stewart ahead of next season — and his dad Travis will step aside as coach as well — but will return one of the state’s top golfers (Didier) and gain his father Jeff as head coach, promoting him from assistant. They’ll also return Arnold and Strelecki with some more talent coming up behind them.

“We’re going to be a great team next year,” Didier said. “Got some young people. It’ll be fun.

” After winning the regional championship, Aspen High took a respectable sixth place at state, 24 strokes above par and just 10 behind Basalt. Senior Ryan Rigney led the way with a 15th place finish and five strokes over par, shooting a net-even day two after a plus-5 struggle on day one. It was Rigney’s highest individual finish at state after placing 42nd as a sophomore and 34th as a junior.

Right behind him was junior and regional champion Houston Benvenuto, who shot 7-over across the two days. Junior Leo Roennau shot a plus-12 to place 29th and sophomore Oliver Pullis finished 69th. “What a great four years it’s been with Ryan Rigney, and Leo, Houston and Oliver gained a lot of experience as first-time state participants,” Aspen head coach Mary Woulfe said.

“My goal was top five and we fell just short of that, but I still think it was a respectable finish. It could have been better, we gave up some strokes here and there and we knew it could have been better than that. But hey, we’ll be back.

” It marked the eighth straight year that the Skiers placed within the top 10 at state. Next year, Aspen is gunning to host the state championship, potentially at Snowmass Club. Woulfe said the club is interested, but there are factors like weather contingencies that have to be weighed.

“We’re hopeful that that might happen if all the cards fall in the right place,” Woulfe said..