Kyle Freeland represents TJ with a solid effort at the State Tournament. photo by Rebecca Holt.

After nearly two months, The Boys Golf season has come to an end; a satisfying end for Junior Kyle Freeland, who qualified for state and scored a total of 162 points during Monday and Tuesday’s competitions. Freeland shot a 79 in the first round and 81 in the second. TJ placed second in the Denver Prep League, and Freeland placed 51st in the state competition.  “I was pleased with my performance, and most of all it was a fun time competing with all the best golfers in the state.  I felt like I did really well, and it was just a great experience,” Said Freeland.

“One of the hard things with golf is that it’s a really quick season. It started August 10th, and now it’s October, and we’re done,” said Head Coach Stacey Fornstrom. Golf is a sport that takes a lot of effort; good golfers have to perfect their alignment, grip, and posture. Then the key element becomes focusing on consistency.

The last stretch of the season was pretty busy. “We headed to state, but before that, there was regionals. The original regionals day was about 38 degrees and raining, and there were 30 mile per hour winds. The guys went out and played three holes before it was canceled. Everybody was freezing and soaked. It was rescheduled for a week later. That was kinda crazy,” said Fornstrom.

Throughout the season the golf team worked hard. Placing 2nd in a DPS competition and 4th in a City Park match takes hard work. It takes dedication and preparedness. ”One of the big things is the golfers need to be ready to play when the season starts. They can’t round their way into form. In other words, they need to practice a lot before the season starts,” said Fornstrom. “You need to keep your skills sharp.”

With the end of another season, Fornstrom looks to the future of the program.  “We’re looking forward to next year because the heart of the team is juniors, sophomores, and a couple freshmen. We should do good next year,” he said.

photo by Rebecca Holt

TJ boys’ golf went to the Regional tournament on Tuesday, September 29th and came away with a respectable showing. “It’s been a good season. We have a young team, and there’s been a lot of improvement,” said Head Coach Stacey Fornstrom. “We’ve got a good group of kids, it’s fun to go to tournaments, it’s fun to see the guys improve. Those are the things I enjoy.”

Thomas Jefferson took 8th overall in the regional tournament. Unfortunately, the season is over for most of the Spartan Golfers, with the exception of Kyle Freeland. Kyle qualified for state in the regional tournament yesterday with a score of 77. “He’s been more consistent than he was last year. He’s had some better rounds than he had last year, but he’s also had some worse rounds. His next step is to work on having consistently really good rounds,”  said Coach Stacey Fornstrom.

“I just need to stay focused, because I know I’ll be going up against the state’s top players.  I’ll just try and do my best,” said Freeland about his first state appearance. Kyle will be playing in the state tournament on October 5th and 6th.

photo by Rebecca Holt

TJ Boys’ Golf swung the clubs well on Thursday, winning second place out of eight DPS schools at the match, being overtaken only by East High School. The Spartans scores were respectable, with Sophomore Cole Stewart shooting a personal best 85, and Junior Dylan Jennings playing a game of 86.  With a regional competition at Indian Peaks Lafayette on Monday the 14th, “The rest of the season is winding down quickly,” said the Head Coach, Stacey Fornstrom. “ We’ll be up against 20 teams.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get some state qualifiers,” he said.

Earlier in the season, the Spartan golfers came in 4th place at City Park and 2nd place at Kennedy in a DPS tournament.  Their best games should take the Spartan golfers to the City Tournament and State Tournament. Junior Kyle Freeland went to state last year, and perhaps another Spartan will accompany him this time around.

     “I’m very happy to be able to qualify for state, and I am really anxious to see how I rank among Colorado’s elite,” said Freeland. After a below average front nine holes, Freeland picked up his game and finished only one over par on the back nine giving him an overall score of +9, which was good enough for him to advance to the state competition. “At regionals, there were tough conditions.  The wind was very strong, but Kyle shot an awesome back-nine,” commented Head Coach Stacey Fornstrom.

    In TJ’s last match, the City Cup, the boys finished third behind only East and George Washington. Kyle Freeland shot a 78 on a par 71, finishing in second place individually. Sophomore Dylan Jennings shot well also, as he posted a score of 95. Sophomore Cody Smith and Freshman Cole Stewart ended the day with an even 100.

    Everyone will be cheering Kyle on as he tries to win the most prestigious award in high school golf, a state championship.

    The regional golf tournament Tuesday afternoon at Deer Creek Golf Course would be the last tournament of the season for the Thomas Jefferson golfers unless they were able to qualify for state.  In order to qualify for the state tournament, a golfer must finish in the top four at regionals, which is no easy task.  The task became even harder for the Spartans, as it didn’t take them long to realize how difficult the Deer Creek course was.  The course, covered with water and impenetrable rough, caused Spartan players headaches all day and resulted in 34 lost balls.  These costly mistakes left all of the TJ golfers with numerous penalty strokes and hindered the Spartans chances at qualifying for state.

    The Spartans best chance for a state qualifier came in junior Andrew Knoll who played consistently throughout the day and finished with a round of 91.  Knoll’s effort was about six shots off the pace of the final state qualifier, whose qualifying round in the mid-80’s demontrated the toughness of the Deer Creek course.  The leader of the Spartan team coming into today’s tournament was senior Tyler Thornton, who had averaged a score of 79 throughout the season.  However, Thornton could only manage a 94 on this challenging golf course.  Although Thornton was able to continue his solid iron game, and smash shots off the tee (such as his 380 yard drive on the 18th hole), costly mistakes plagued the senior leader all day.  Thornton would go on to lose 12 balls on the day, which would become the theme for the entire Thomas Jefferson squad.  The same errors followed senior golfers Colin Freeland and John Jennings, who posted rounds of 102 and 108.  Thornton explained these untimely errors by stating, "Thats just how golf goes some times, you have your good days and your bad days."

     As a team the day did not turn out too bad for the Spartans.  The scores of Thornton, Knoll, Freeland, and Jennings gave Thomas Jefferson a final score of 395.  This placed the Spartans in the middle of the field as a team in what is a very difficult regional pairing that includes schools such as Kent Denver and Mullen.  Even though nobody was able to qualify for state, the TJ golfers refused to hang their heads.  "Overall we did not play as well as we could have, but we were competiive, so the day was not a disappointment," said Freeland.  Look for the Spartans again next year, as the team’s top finisher in this years regionals, Andrew Knoll, will be back to lead the way for a whole new set of Spartans on the links.

By Matthew Mankoff

The smell of the freshly cut grass and the warm sunny sky at the City Park Golf Course could make any of the golfers at the City Cup smile.  However, that was not the only reason that Thomas Jefferson senior Tyler Thornton was grinning after his round on Tuesday.  Thornton shot a round of 80 to finish 2nd overall and spark a solid Spartan effort in the city championship.  "Of course I was a little dissapointed I didn’t win it, but overall I was happy with my effort," said Thornton, who came into the tournament averaging a score of 79 per round for the season and was ranked 1st in the city.

    Thornton finished a stroke behind Jesse Gaas from Denver East, but the shot of the day belonged to the Thomas Jefferson senior.  Thornton drove the green on the 14th hole, a 365 yard Par 4, and would eventually go on to make birdie.  Also having a good round for the Spartans was sophmore Andrew Knoll who shot an 83 for the day.  Following behind Knoll for the Spartans were brothers Colin and Kyle Freeland.  Kyle, a freshman, shot a 93 in the tournament while older brother Colin, a senior, shot a 97. 

     The Spartans look to build off this tournament as they head to regionals next week at Deer Creek Golf Course against the likes of perrenial powerhouses Kent Denver and Mullen.  "I love the Deer Creek course and so I am really excited for regionals," stated Thornton.  Clearly, this TJ team is just waiting for another beautiful day to display their golfing skills. 

Coaches

Head Coach: Stacey Fornstrom

Assistant Coach: Mark Smith

Assistant Coach: Rick Larson

Roster

 Coming Soon…