Steamboat Springs – Talk about coming from out of nowhere.
All Zach Zaremba wanted to do was post a score that would make those in the lead groups behind him Tuesday at Haymaker Golf Course think.
Mission accomplished.
The Pueblo West senior blistered Haymaker to the tune of a course record-setting 7-under-par 65 and erased what was a seven-shot deficit to start the day and win by three shots over four golfers at the Class 4A state tournament.
“It’s huge bragging rights,” said Zaremba, whose bogey-free round bested Rick DeWitt’s back-to-back 67s at the 2000 Colorado Mid-Amateur Championship. “My dad has always told me, no one can ever take a state championship away from you. And that’s exactly how I feel.”
Zaremba, whose father Mike is the head professional at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo and is the director of golf in the city, becomes just the third individual champion from the Steel City and the first since Pueblo County’s John Buffalo in 1998.
Zaremba’s score helped draw him and his Cyclones teammates into second place in the team race. Pueblo West leapfrogged Greeley Central and Cheyenne Mountain, but fell nine shots short of Kent Denver’s total of 428. The Sun Devils’ first state-title team, consisting of Gunner Wiebe, Matt Schovee, Beau Schoolcraft and Matt Riggs, finished at 4-under par as a team.
“I am so proud of these kids, and I just can’t tell you how happy I am,” Kent Denver coach Bob Austin said. “They are all just tournament tough, and as stressful as it is on me to watch, I’m just so proud.”
Zaremba went out in 33, taking full advantage of the par 5s. On his inward nine he continued his assault, with birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. The round, in which Zaremba didn’t miss a fairway and hit 17 greens in regulation, was capped with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18.
“I played smart, but when I knew I could fire at some pins, I definitely did,” said Zaremba, who this season fired a 64 at Walking Stick. “I just kept telling myself, ‘You’ve got a chance,’ and I just kept saying it after I made birdie putts. I knew I had a chance, I just didn’t know how close I would be.
“I just didn’t worry about anything else and kept my mind on one shot at a time.”
Defending champion and first-day leader Nick Umholtz of Greeley Central held onto the lead until the seventh hole, when he was undone by Haymaker’s hay. A wayward tee shot on the par-5 seventh hole resulted in the first of two double bogeys on the day.
Umholtz finished four shots back.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
