Fort Collins – There is an old adage in golf that reads: “Drive for show, putt for dough.”
The good ones have a great blend of both. Fairview’s Brennan Dolan can hit the ball farther than most of us can dream of, and he has a silky-smooth touch on and around the greens.
Both facets of the junior’s game were working for 16 holes Monday at the Class 5A state golf championships at Collindale Golf Course as he stood at 4-under-par. A bogey on the 17th and a double-bogey on the 18th dampened what could have been a special day, but that still leaves him just a shot back of leader Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek after the first round.
“I would have felt a lot better not going bogey, double at the end,” said Dolan, who made four consecutive birdies from Nos. 11-14. “It was a grind all day, my putter was on and I was getting the driver in play when I needed to.
“But as soon as we go home, I’ll get away from it for a little bit and realize what happened and feel a little bit better.”
It was a grand first day for Cherry Creek. The Bruins, who have a share of the team lead with Arapahoe at 220, had two of the three players to shoot under-par rounds, as Dorfman’s teammate Alex Gutesha joined Dolan at 1-under. Arapahoe’s Steven Moore fired an even-par 71 and will play alongside Dorfman and Dolan in the final group.
Three more players – Pomona’s Zahkai Brown, Chatfield’s Robert Quick and Fort Collins’ Chris Shaw – are only three shots back.
The narrow tree-lined fairways of Collindale place an emphasis on keeping it in the short grass. Dolan, who was routinely upwards of 330 yards-plus off the tees, was unafraid to pull out the driver, stating, “I’d rather be in the trees 50 yards from the green rather than 150 yards back.”
The strategy paid off, especially on the short dogleg par-4s at No. 7 and 14, where a big drive flew the corners and left just a chip and a putt.
Dorfman’s strategy was a little more mannered, opting to keep it in the fairway with 3-wood.
“I think I only pulled my driver out four times today,” he said.
Dorfman also had a run of birdies, making three straight from No. 12-14.
“This course suits me really well, simply because I can hit my 3-wood really far and really straight,” said Dorfman, who missed just one fairway. “My number-one goal was to just keep it in play, and stick with my game plan of hitting fairways and greens.”
The shot of the day belonged to Littleton’s Charlie Lucasiewicz, who carded his first career hole-in-one on the 160-yard par-3 eighth hole.
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
