There’s no two ways about it: AJ Ott was Ram tough on Friday.

There are examples of greater margins of victory in the finals of the CGA Match Play than the one the Colorado State University golfer dealt out this week, but not many.

When the player from Ptarmigan Country Club beat University of Colorado golfer Ross Macdonald, from the Country Club at Castle Pines, for the title in the CGA’s oldest championship on Friday, it was by a formidable 9-and-8 score.

In the 118-year history of the tournament, that made it into the top five in terms of most lopsided results in scheduled 36-hole finals for this event.

The only ones higher on that list are:

— 12 and 11: Brandt Jobe over Bill Fowler in 1985.

— 12 and 11: Harold Fisher over D.B. Ellis in 1909.

— 10 and 9: Zen Brown over Tom Glissmeyer in 2007.

— 10 and 9: N.C. “Tub” Morris over E.A. Campbell in 1927.

And there are two other finals that matched the 9-and-8 score from Friday at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.

But suffice it to say that Ott’s performance was a rarity. In a matchup of two friends who happen to play at rival college programs in Colorado, the Fort Collins resident never trailed and ended up playing the 28 holes of the match in 8 under par, with a few concessions thrown in that might have lessened that total slightly.

It’s the first CGA championship for Ott (left and above), who was the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s male player of the year in 2016.

“Ross is a year older than me and I’ve looked up to him since I was 9 or 10 years old. He’s one of my really good friends,” Ott said. “Just to be able to play him in the final was an honor. I know he probably didn’t have his best game today, but a match like that can go either way any time. But he’s been a role model to me, honestly, for 10 or 12 years, so it was cool to be able to play him.

“With the CU-CSU thing, we honestly just embrace it and have more state pride, so that was really cool. We both play in a lot of the same (college) tournaments, so it’s cool to be able to have a match against one another like this. We loved it.”

Macdonald will second that.

“To make it to finals and to play AJ, there’s no one I’d really rather lose to,” said the 21-year-old. “He’s an amazing player. It was fun playing one of your best friends.”

Ott, a junior-to-be at CSU, birdied six of the first seven holes of the match — with a bogey on No. 3 — to grab a 5-up lead. From there on, Macdonald got no closer than 4 down.

The 20-year-old Ott shot a 4-under-par 67 in the first 18 and led 7 up. He earned a conceded eagle from 12 feet on the par-4 seventh hole in the afternoon to go 9 up, then halved the final three holes. Had Ott made a 4-foot par putt on the 28th hole, he would have won 10 and 8, but he lipped it out, settling for a 9-and-8 margin.

“I didn’t think about the margin the whole round because I knew I was playing such a great player,” Ott said of Macdonald, winner of two Colorado Junior Amateurs. “I had to leave every hole behind me and focus on my next shot.”

Ott said he chatted on Thursday night with CSU teammate Jake Staiano, the 2017 CGA Player of the Year, about what to expect in the finals.

“Jake has been in a few of these matches, so I asked him if he had any advice on 36-hole matches,” Ott said. “He gave me some good input. He said to stay patient, and that was the mindset all day. That really helped.”

Macdonald (above and below), a former Colorado junior player of the year himself (in 2014), couldn’t continue his strong play from Thursday, when he was a combined 8 under par for two matches. On Friday, the 2018 Pac-12 Conference runner-up was 5 over par for the 28 holes.

“I couldn’t really get it going the whole day. It’s a long week,” Macdonald said. “AJ and I were both tired and fatigued after playing the Southwestern Amateur (in Scottsdale, Ariz.) last week, then the Match Play.

“Getting off to a slow start, especially against AJ, I knew it was going to be tough. I didn’t have my best stuff. I tried to fight, but I was just so far back. It was asking a lot. And he wasn’t going to stop (playing well). I was just in a hole and I was trying to dig myself out.”

Each of the two finalists played eight rounds of golf in five days at Ravenna, including six rounds in the last three days. To add to that, Ott was driving back and forth each day to his home in Fort Collins, often with tee times in the 7 a.m. range.

“It’s been a really long week,” he said. “We were both just exhausted all day today. I got up at 3:45 this morning and drove down at 4:30. But I was so excited. It was fun.”
 

CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton

THURSDAY’S QUARTERFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Chris Korte, CGA Club, 1 up
Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 19 holes
Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, def. Jackson Solem, The Fox Hill Club, 5 and 3
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Jake Ice, Walking Stick GC, 5 and 4

THURSDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, 1 up
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, 3 and 1

FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, 9 and 8

To view the brackets from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.

Consider it a Rocky Mountain Showdown, only with clubs.

There have been other CGA Match Play finals that have featured golfers from both the University of Colorado and Colorado State University — most recently in 2013, when CU’s David Oraee prevailed over CSU’s Parker Edens — but the current installment of the rivalry on the golf course will take place on Friday.

This time around, it will be Ross Macdonald from CU and the Country Club at Castle Pines taking on AJ Ott from CSU and Ptarmigan Country Club in a scheduled 36-hole final that will conclude the 118th CGA Match Play at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.

“I know AJ well,” Macdonald said. “I know he’s a Ram; that’s the only thing I don’t like. No, he’s a great friend — in golf and outside. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Both of the college players won two matches for the second straight day on Thursday, highlighted by the 530-yard par-5 14th hole Thursday afternoon. That’s where Ott (left) made a double eagle in his semifinal (4 iron from 220 yards) and Macdonald narrowly missed one of his own 10 minutes later, settling for a mere eagle there after a 7-iron from 178 yards finished 5 feet from the cup.

Ott didn’t see his shot turn into an albatross — his first in competition — but was elated nonetheless.

“I couldn’t do that out of another 500 balls,” he said. “It was a lucky bounce. But it was a good match.”

Said Macdonald, who was informed of the feat as he approached the 14th green: “I was a little rattled by it. That is incredible. To make it with that (front pin), that’s almost unheard of.”

That hole gave Ott a 2-up lead and helped lift him to a 3 and 1 semifinal victory over 28-year-old Brian Dorfman of Cherry Creek Country Club, the 2012 champion and the last mid-am remaining in the bracket. And Macdonald’s eagle squared up his match after he was 3 down through eight to Josh Hill of the Omni Interlocken Resort, who was 5 under through his first seven holes.

Macdonald (left), who had 2014 champion and current Ravenna assistant pro Cody Kent caddying for him in the afternoon, went 1 up on 15 when Hill lost his ball on his tee shot and Macdonald made a conceded birdie. The CU golfer went on to prevail 1 up when Hill narrowly missed a 7-foot birdie attempt on the final hole. In the semis, Ott played his final six holes in 6 under par, while Macdonald was 5 under for his final 18 after being 3 under in the quarterfinals.

In those quarterfinals, Macdonald ended the nine-match win streak of defending champion Chris Korte in this event. The CU junior-to-be beat the recent University of Denver graduate 1 up by getting up and down from a bunker from 60 yards to halve the 18th hole.

“I shot 68 in the morning and 66 in the afternoon and made one bogey all day,” noted Macdonald. “I played really solid and didn’t do anything stupid.

“I didn’t have a great range session this morning so I wasn’t quite sure. I told myself to stay in it, one hole at a time. That’s what my assistant coach (at CU, Pat Grady) told me and he’s won this before (in 2005). He said eliminate the dumb stuff. If you don’t have a chance to look at a pin, then (hit it to) 30 feet and put the pressure on them to make a putt. I kind of did that all day, and it was good enough.”

In his quarterfinal, Ott defeated former Colorado State-Pueblo golfer Jake Ice 5 and 4.

“It’s awesome” to make the final, Ott said. “It’s been a lot of golf (six rounds from Monday through Thursday), that’s for sure. I didn’t have my best stuff in a few of my earlier matches, but I played nice this morning and played good this afternoon. Now I’ll just rest up and get ready for another 36.”

For Ott, it wasn’t like his double eagle on No. 14 in the afternoon was an isolated good shot. In fact, right after his albatross, Dorfman put the pressure on by hitting his approach on 15 to within a foot. After conceding that birdie, Ott proceeded to hit his to 4 feet and halve the hole with a birdie.

“He threw a great shot in there,” Ott said of Dorfman. “I had to sack up and hit a good one. It felt good to make birdie there, especially after making two on the last hole.”

Macdonald (left, with Kent) and Ott are certainly no strangers, having played plenty of junior and college golf together over the last seven or eight years. Both are former male junior players of the year in the state (Macdonald in 2014 and Ott in 2016). In college, Macdonald finished second in this year’s Pac-12 Championships and Ott was fifth in the Mountain West Conference tournament. Both players will be juniors, eligibility-wise, in 2018-19. Ott is 20 years old and Macdonald 21.

Asked what it would mean to prevail on Friday and earn the trophy, Ott said, “It would be awesome. It’s going to be fun. I’ve never made it even close to this far in the match play. So it would mean a lot.”
 

CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
QUARTERFINALS

Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Chris Korte, CGA Club, 1 up
Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 19 holes
Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, def. Jackson Solem, The Fox Hill Club, 5 and 3
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Jake Ice, Walking Stick GC, 5 and 4

SEMIFINALS
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, def. Josh Hill, Omni Interlocken Resort, 1 up
AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, def. Brian Dorfman, Cherry Creek CC, 3 and 1

FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Ross Macdonald, CC at Castle Pines, vs. AJ Ott, Ptarmigan CC, 7 a.m.

To view the brackets from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.

For a day that ended on such a high note, Friday certainly didn’t start very well for University of Denver golfer Chris Korte.
   
The 20-year-old from Lone Tree Golf Club has been experiencing upper-stomach-area pain periodically in recent years, to the point that it caused him to withdraw from two college tournaments in 2017. And on Friday, when Korte played Kyle Pearson of Meridian Golf Club in the scheduled 36-hole final of the 117th CGA Match Play, the pain re-emerged.
   
The situation wasn’t helped by starting out the match in rain, wind and in temperatures in the 40s at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.
   
But if all’s well that ends well, that’s why Korte was smiling as he walked off the golf course. Despite his abdominal pain, Korte built a 6-up lead through 14 holes and kept the advantage to emerge with a 5-and-3 victory, earning him the Richard C. Campbell Trophy.
   
Having won the CGA Amateur Championship in 2015, Korte became just the fourth player since 1990 to claim titles in both the Match Play and the Amateur, joining David Oraee, Steve Ziegler (who won both events in 2009), and Pat Grady. Others among the 21 people who have captured both championships are longtime PGA Tour players Hale Irwin, Steve Jones and Brandt Jobe — all members of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
 
“It’s huge” to join them, said Korte (left and above), who had reason to jump for joy on Friday. “To add myself to that list is such a blessing. I’ve had a decent amount of OK play in college golf, but to be able to bring my ‘A’ game pretty much the whole week this week, I just feel really lucky to be here.”
   
Despite a big lead on Friday, it all could have gone awry if Korte’s stomach issues had become more acute during the match.
   
“I just try to focus on not thinking about the pain, just trying to get through it,” he said. “I was praying about it and it actually started feeling a little better — not to the point of being unbearable, which it has been in the past.
   
“It’s just a really sharp pain in the upper stomach area. Some doctors told me I should get my gall bladder out pretty soon, but we’re still getting some opinions and scans and things. It’s about 10 hours of just excruciating pain. I’m really happy it didn’t get to that point today.
   
“Late in the first round and early in the second round is where it got pretty bad. I was just trying to breathe through it. I ended up doing it pretty well and Kyle made a couple mistakes here and there and I was able to capitalize on them or halve him on a couple of holes I didn’t play too great.”

Korte never trailed against Pearson (left), the 2016 5A state high school champion who was playing in the Match Play for the first time. Korte, accompanied by his instructor for the last 5 1/2 years — Doug Wherry, the founder of Jake’s Academy — as his caddie, was 1 up through eight holes. But he won five of the next six holes — three with pars and two with birdies — to build a commanding 6-up advantage.

“The conditions at the beginning were not very good,” said Pearson, a recent Highlands Ranch High School graduate who had beaten three NCAA Division I college players to get to the finals. “I noticed a few (shots) where my hand slipped because the grip was a little wet. But obviously Chris figured out how to play through that, so that’s something I have to work on. You have to play in the rain in golf; they don’t cancel play because it’s raining outside. It’s just a learning curve, I guess.”

Pearson played much better in the second round when there was no rain and the wind subsided, going 1 over par for the 15 holes. The future Colorado Mesa University golfer was 7 down overall through 26 holes, but won three of the next six holes, all with pars, to cut the deficit to 4 down with four to play. But Pearson missed a 4-foot par putt on No. 15 to end the match.

Where his putter had rescued him in other matches, Pearson could manage just three birdies in 33 holes on Friday. In the last five holes, for instance, he missed four putts inside of 10 feet.

“I’m disappointed I didn’t win, but I learned a lot about my golf game this week,” Pearson said. “We counted this week — I played 136 holes in five days. I’ve never done that before. You’re not playing that many holes if your golf game is not good. I’m disappointed — I would have liked to win — but I’m still proud of how I played this week.

“The putter just kind of let me down today. It was a tough start, but I had a chance to come back on the back nine of the last 18. I had a few good birdie looks. I just couldn’t get them to fall. Chris is a good competitor. You’ve got to make birdies to catch up to him. I just couldn’t get any birdies in.”

Meanwhile, the title capped an impressive week at Ravenna for Korte (left). He shot a 6-under-par 65 in the stroke-play qualifying to earn the No. 2 seed, then won his matches 2 and 1, 4 and 3, 6 and 5, 3 and 2, 3 and 1, and 5 and 3. With the weather being what it was, he wasn’t quite as sharp on Friday as he was earlier in the week, but he did what it took to win.

“It was definitely a grind pretty much all day for me,” he said. “Playing in the rain hasn’t always been my forte — and there was also a lot of wind this morning. But college golf in general has prepared me really for these type of conditions. You don’t get perfect conditions in college golf. That’s been a blessing too — playing a lot of golf in these type of conditions, having your hands kind of numb.

“I just needed to stay patient because you’re not going to go out there and make a ton of birdies with the conditions the way they were. I made a lot of great pars and Kyle missed a couple of par putts that allowed me to win a few holes.

“The other thing that was huge for me was having my parents and my coach, Doug Wherry, who caddied for me today, by my side, providing me with dry towels, food, really anything I needed. And Doug knows me like almost no one else, so that helped a lot.”

CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton

THURSDAY’S QUARTERFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Jake Kelley, Columbine CC, 3 and 2
Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, def. Brittain Walton, Collindale GC, 1 up
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jack Cummings, Omni Interlocken Resort, 3 and 2
Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, def. Roy Carlsen, Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, 2 and 1

THURSDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, 21 holes
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 3 and 1

FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, 5 and 3

For complete results, CLICK HERE.
 

Kyle Pearson is fresh out of high school, but you’d never know it by the way he’s toppling NCAA Division I golfers from Colorado this week at the 117th CGA Match Play Championship.

The 18-year-old from Meridian Golf Club, competing in the Match Play for the first time, has prevailed over Ross Macdonald (University of Colorado) in the round of 16, stroke-play medalist Jake Kelley (University of Denver) in Thursday’s quarterfinals, and 2016 CGA Player of the Year Kyler Dunkle (University of Utah) in the semifinals.

That puts the 2016 5A state high school champion in line for one more matchup against a DI opponent — DU senior-to-be Chris Korte in Friday’s 36-hole title match at The Club at Ravenna in Littleton.

“Yesterday, I beat Ross Macdonald, who’s a good player as well,” Pearson (pictured) noted on Thursday evening. “So I knew going up against college players, I can hang with them. I’m doing good if I can beat them. It just helps to add to my confidence that I’m just as good as these guys.

“It’s amazing. It’s my first year playing in this. Going in, I didn’t have too high of expectations. I was hoping to maybe win a match or two, but to get this far is amazing. And hopefully I can get it done tomorrow.”

Korte (left), of course, has other ideas. On Friday, he’ll be attempting to complete a career sweep of the CGA’s top championships, having won the CGA Amateur in 2015.

“It would mean so much for me to win this,” Korte noted.

On Thursday, both players won twice for the second consecutive day to land a spot in the final match.

Pearson, who just graduated from Highlands Ranch High School and will play college golf at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, took down Kelley — a DU teammate of Korte — 3 and 2 in Thursday morning’s quarterfinals, three days after Kelley set a Ravenna course record for the gold/black tees by shooting an 8-under-par 63. Then in the semifinals, Pearson never led until a par on the 21st hole of the longest match of the championship landed him the win. Dunkle, himself a former 5A state high school champion, missed the green on the par-3. Following a very delicate pitch, he couldn’t sink a 10-foot par putt that would have extended the match further. Pearson, meanwhile, two-putted from 40 feet, advancing thanks to a 4-foot par putt.

Dunkle, who made it to the round of 16 at last year’s U.S. Amateur, had made a birdie on 16 and took a 1-up lead into the par-5 18th. He seemed to have a big advantage in the middle of the fairway in two, with Pearson on the side of a steep hill in native grass (pictured at top). But Dunkle’s approach bounced right into a greenside bunker, and Pearson hit a stellar shot to 6 feet from the cup and he sank the birdie putt to push the match to extra holes.

“You can’t really beat a hole-in-one (which Pearson had en route to his 5A victory), but to keep a match going, I’d say that’s one of the best shots I’ve hit,” he said.

Pearson has now twice this week won matches that went at least 20 holes.

As for Korte, he has yet to have to play the 18th hole in any of his five matches. After beating Jack Cummings of the Omni Interlocken Resort 3 and 2 in the quarterfinals on Thursday, he faced a formidable test with Colorado State University golfer Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club, who made match play at the U.S. Amateur two years ago. An eagle on the second hole by Staiano put him 1 up, but Korte was ahead most of the match. A 10-foot downhill birdie on the 14th hole and a par on the 15th put him 3 up with three to play. Staiano extended things with a big-breaking 12-foot birdie on 16, but Korte closed out the match, 3 and 1, on No. 17 with a conceded 4-foot birdie.

Also along the way to the final, Korte defeated 2015 Match Play champion Nick Nosewicz 6 and 5 in the round of 16 on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’ve been a groove,” said Korte, 20. “Obviously the 65 in the stroke-play round gave me a lot of confidence. I’ve made a couple of equipment changes and I’ve been feeling great with the swing and working with my coach pretty diligently. So I just had a ton of confidence coming into the week. I’m hoping to get it done tomorrow.”

So far this week, Korte has certainly been getting it done at Ravenna. By his best estimate, including the stroke-play qualifying round on Monday, he’s 17 under par for the week.

“Lately I’ve been trying to fight back and have the expectation that I need to make birdies and I need to play right out of the block,” he said. “I’ve been a lot under par this week, so that’s been really nice.

“My game has never felt better, so I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Speaking of Friday, Korte could be cutting it a little close, schedule-wise, as he has a 6:30 p.m. flight out of DIA headed for the North & South Amateur Championship that will begin on Monday in Pinehurst, N.C.

Friday’s 36-hole final will begin at 7 a.m.
 

CGA Match Play
At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton
QUARTERFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Jake Kelley, Columbine CC, 3 and 2
Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, def. Brittain Walton, Collindale GC, 1 up
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jack Cummings, Omni Interlocken Resort, 3 and 2
Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, def. Roy Carlsen, Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, 2 and 1
SEMIFINALS
Kyle Pearson, Meridian GC, def. Kyler Dunkle, Club at Pradera, 21 holes
Chris Korte, Lone Tree GC, def. Jake Staiano, Glenmoor CC, 3 and 1
FRIDAY’S 36-HOLE FINAL
Pearson vs. Korte, 7 a.m.

For complete results, CLICK HERE.