Caper Ryan Collins split the Class B Individual State Golf Championship on Saturday, shooting 74 alongside Oceanside’s Nick Mazurek. Men’s par on the Tomahawk course at Natanis in Vassalboro, where the tournament was held, is 72, so the boys each finished two over.
“It was really exciting,” Collins said of his victory, which he wasn’t initially expecting. “When I was walking in, I was thinking, ‘Oh, 74’s not low enough to win.’ Someone will have beaten me.”
“He wasn’t negative about it at all,” Cape head coach Chris Whitney said of Collins’s attitude when he thought he couldn’t have taken first. “He’s a great kid, a really smart kid.”
Collins is only a sophomore, but youth hasn’t stopped past Capers from winning. “Last year, I was playing with Reese McFarlane a bunch on the team,” Collins said, “and he won it when he was a sophomore. It was exciting to live up to somebody with his reputation.”
Collins played solid golf through his first 17 holes, managing to stay just one over par. He attributes his consistency to a sort of epiphany. “For some reason, when I got nervous, I took an extra step back and said, ‘Calm down, focus.’ I did that multiple times, which I’d never done in a round before.
“There was one hole where the wind was just whipping in my face, I think it was the 14th hole, and I wasn’t sure what club I wanted to hit. I was so nervous; ‘What if it goes in a bunker? What if it goes in the woods?’ And I was like, ‘You can’t hit a shot thinking this.’ So I stepped back, which, I never do that, and I stepped up to it again and hit a shot in the fairway.”
“Mentally he was there all the time,” said Whitney. “He had a game plan going in, and he kept right to it. Tee to fairway, fairway to green. He was locked in; he’s a really, really smart kid.”
Collins wavered on his last hole, a par three. He drove the green, but had a tough lie and eventually three-putted.
Collins described his tee shot and his time on the green. “The pin was in the back-left,” he said. “and I was in the front-right, so I had the longest putt possible. I had to go up a hill, and my putt was on a slant, so I aimed maybe 5 feet right of the hole, and that was not even close to enough.”
“It was a bunch of different factors,” he said, speaking of the misstep. “The length of the putt, and the break was tough. [And] definitely nerves. I started on the fifth hole, so when I got to the first hole, which was my 14th, I was like, ‘OK, I’m 1-over.’ You want to keep it out of your head, but it’s really hard to do that.”
Collins wasn’t the last athlete off the course, so after finishing his round, he could only wait to find out exactly where he might’ve placed. Rumors of other top contenders not having their best days reached his ears, and he did a little investigating as well.
“I was asking around all the kids who should be shooting well how they played,” he said. “None of them said they played well. So I was thinking I had the lead, but then I was watching the scoreboard and saw that [Nick Mazurek] also shot 74.”
Whitney noted that Collins’s finish qualifies him for the New England Championship in June. Similarly, teammate Lauren Schonewolf finished 11th in the girls tournament, shooting an 89, a score that also qualifies her for New Englands.
Collins and Schonewolf’s other teammates all posted laudable tallies as well – not surprising, considering the Capers won the team state crown last weekend. Bryce Hewitt shot an 80, good enough for a share of eighth; Austin Legge shot an 81, tying for 10th; and Max Altznauer shot an 83, tying for 14th. Mia Spencer shot 90, tying for 13th among girls.
MDI’s Kyle Lamson took second with a 76. Cole Daniels of Old Town, Eric Dugas of MCI and Tyler Walker of Lake Region tied for third at 77.
Collins (right) poses with teammates Mia Spencer (left) and Hope Campbell (center) after his Class B State Championship win on Saturday.
Ryan Collins (right) poses with his new hardware and his coach, Chris Whitney (left), after winning the Class B State Championship on Saturday.
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