Not that many introductions will be needed Monday morning for the start of the Colorado schoolboy golf tournament.
They’re tight in the flights in Classes 5A-4A. Many in the dozens of significant players see each other plenty in the offseason, particularly during the summer.
No, Monday’s opening tee times will be more about getting reacquainted, as in, “Man, I haven’t seen you since July … How have you been?”
It’s ridiculous, really, the fact that today’s high school players have a tour as strong and deep as any in-state individual sport on record, but operate with scheduling that is weak and has turned hollow.
Where are the big-time invitationals for boys? Another regular season has come and gone without them.
An invitational with the best boys players should be a gimme, not a snowman.
Members of your local men’s club see more of each other every other weekend than do today’s prep players.
While it’s tough to be crowned schoolboy medalist, it can be tougher to go against anyone outside your league during regular-season play.
Consider the irony. In the spring, schoolgirl golfers probably face the worst weather and playing conditions of any of the 21 sanctioned sports, yet pull off invitationals full of the best players as well as – or better than – in cross country, track and wrestling.
Conversely, boys golfers have the most glorious weather and course conditions possible to tee it up in the Rockies, yet are locked into a monotonous array of league meets and offer no invitationals of any statewide consequence or interest.
Only the regionals, golf’s first elimination rounds of the season, come close, although prequalifying has drained a lot of the urgency in boys play.
How come the playing level has increased, but the administrative approach remains in another century?
To be fair, schoolboy golf does have its obstacles. It begins in early August, usually before most school districts begin a new school year, and some from the elite group are traveling nationally.
Having golfers miss class, particularly at the beginning of a school year, is increasingly frowned upon.
Costs are climbing, there are more players and golf course superintendents aren’t as eager to throw in free or discounted rounds, or offer a suitable time block, especially not at a peak time. It’s business, I’m told.
Commitments to league tournaments have turned into an all-time high and eat up most of the 198 holes allotted (it equates to a measly 11 rounds).
But so what?
Years ago, Greg Norman wanted to start a world tour.
I’ll settle for a prep state tour.
It would appear participants are ready for a change.
“Nobody would like it more than the players,” said Arvada West coach Mike Barrows, who has been at it since 1971.
Brian Brown, the head pro at Meadow Hills Golf Course in Aurora who every season sees his course host multiple league meets agreed: “Absolutely. It’s all about competition for the kids.”
Today’s high school golfers see no hazards in making the change.
“A couple of those would be awesome,” said defending 5A medalist Riley Andrews of ThunderRidge. As an example, he said, “you could get Durango, even though they are way out there on the Western Slope, but it would be just wonderful to get them all out, play together and see where your game ranks up in the state.”
While the lower ranks (junior varsity, sophomore and freshman teams) of prep golf have all but gone the way of real woods, there’s no reason to hold back open-minded players in a game for life eager to be challenged on the way to having fun while playing with classmates.
In 2000, Colorado’s golf committee stupidly opted for two classes.
The loudest bellowing in an attempt at justification – at least in their minds – was to take advantage of a game that was erupting and involve as many prep players as possible.
Fine.
But now that we have them and who knows how many more to come, why can’t we handle them accordingly?
Besides, the kids themselves know 5A-4A is bogus. Size of school is meaningless on the links.
“I would love to try and have more invitationals where the best 4A teams and the best 5A teams kind of meet to see who’s the best,” said Kent Denver’s Gunner Wiebe, son of PGA player Mark Wiebe. “It’s weird when you talk to people and they say, ‘Oh, well, they are just 4A.’ But in golf, that really doesn’t have any meaning whatsoever.”
This isn’t a case in which most of the leaders on the money list have packed it in for the season and relative nobodys are earning the big checks.
Unlike team sports such as football in which, say, Cherry Creek playing Idalia would be ludicrous, a kid from any corner, mountain or plain in Colorado has a chance to win against a tough field. Check the record – since East’s Frank Van Meter won back-to-back championships from 1947-48, the first years golf was sanctioned, only six others have won two titles, just four over consecutive seasons.
In golf, there’s no shame in not making the cut. It only comes in not trying.
“The only way you get better is to play better teams,” said Wiebe, who toils in 4A.
We have had Colorado prep players qualify for the U.S. Open, two former in-state schoolboys (Boulder’s Hale Irwin and Yuma’s Steve Jones) who have won it as adults.
Actually, we have it all – players who break par, flirt with it, and shoot in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 100s.
There should be no reason they can’t play together in high school.
Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-820-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
Jon E. Yunt contributed to this report.
