Drew Jepson knew he was going to have to make some sacrifices when he gave up baseball and opted to play golf in high school instead, but the commitment he made three years ago paid off in a big way when he finished in the top ten at the Colorado State Golf Championships in Grand Junction on October 7-8.
“He’s the third-ranked sophomore in the state of Colorado, and took ninth at state overall, which gave him All-State honors,” Demons coach Kirk Rawles reported.
Jepson shot a 77 (+6) on the first day of competition at the Tiara Rado Golf Course, and stepped it up a notch on day two to card a 75 (+4) and cement his position in the top ten.
It was a fitting finish for the 1st team All-League selection for the Southwest Conference. Jepson won three tournaments this fall, including a title at Hillcrest where he shot his best score of the year (69). He was also the medalist in tournaments at Delta and Pinon Hills in Farmington.
“If he wasn’t first, he had a lot of second place finishes,” Rawles said.
The sophomore from Bayfield was the acknowledged leader of a deep and talented DHS program that boasted a total of 67 golfers on the roster this year, and qualified for the state championship as a team for the first time in six years.
“It was really a great group of guys. We were pretty competitive this year for sure,” Rawles said. “Drew led our team, and we had seven tournament wins this year. I had a balanced attack, and we had five or six guys who played well.”
Jepson teamed up with Durango golfers Owen Muraro, Ben Ogden and Nolan Pace to take fourth place at the season finale, and while he is pleased with how he and the team performed he thinks the best is still to come.
“I’m really not satisfied at all. Hitting the top ten as a sophomore is impressive, but I’m not happy with the way I played overall,” Jepson said.
He set a goal of finishing in the top 20 at State after failing to qualify at Regionals as a freshman, and after exceeding those expectations Drew has set an even loftier objective for his final two years of high school golf.
“My goal the next two years is to win state,” said Jepson, who hopes to continue on to play golf at the college and professional levels when his prep career concludes.
After watching him progress over the past couple of years, his coach thinks those expectations are realistic.
“He’s a lot taller and generates more speed in his golf swing these days, and golf is his primary sport now. He spends a lot of time on the golf course and looks to try to improve. He has moved to that next level as far as consistency goes,” Rawles said.
He noted that Jepson averaged a score of 73.6 over the 13 rounds he shot during the high school season, and his best round of 69 was only eight strokes better than his high round of 77 on the first day of State.
“He hit another level this year, and as he continues to keep working hard and improving on the little things, hopefully he goes to the next level,” Rawles said.
Two members of the DHS foursome that competed at State this month will be lost to graduation, but Pace will return for another campaign next fall and Jepson said he and his teammate will push each other to improve.
“Right now I’m taking a small break after State, but during the winter I will get in the simulator and play in some tournaments in Arizona and Texas so I can stay in that tournament mode. We can definitely be in the top five the next two years,” Jepson reasoned. “Usually I like to hone my own game, but I get out with Nolan and we like to compete with each other. I like to get out with the other boys for sure.”
Despite the fact his hometown doesn’t boast a golf course, Drew had a couple of playing partners from Bayfield, Brendan Heydinger and Hayes Malone joined him on the DHS team this year, and helped him make the 20-mile trip to Durango for practice.
“I had three Bayfield kids, and they all made an effort to get in here. I think they kind of car-pooled a little bit,” Rawles said.
“It’s definitely pretty hard because I’m still young and I don’t have my license yet,” Jepson confirmed, noting that Heydinger drove him and Malone to Hillcrest for practice this fall. He and his sister both worked at the golf course in the summer, so he hitched rides with her before the season began.
Bayfield kids may have to overcome some obstacles to compete in high school golf, but Jepson is glad that he has the opportunity to play the sport he loves most.
“I played baseball my whole life on a travel team called the Yard Dogs, so I was super busy during the summers and never got to golf. The summer before eighth grade, I decided I was sick of not being able to golf, so I ended up quitting baseball and playing in tournaments that summer,” he said.
His first tournament was a Junior PGA event at Hillcrest, and the best high school golfer in LaPlata County knew right away that he had made the right decision.
“I’ve been athletic my whole life and liked sports, and that got me used to playing in tournaments and stuff. It got me into the mindset that I know I can compete and do well in a sport,” Jepson described. “I just picked up golf naturally, so going into high school I had confidence that I would be on varsity and I played as the number one (on the team) my freshman year.”
That’s quite an accomplishment for a kid who has never lived in a town with a golf course, and it is probably due in part to the fact that Jepson did get some early exposure to the game. He first picked up a club when he was only four-years old and his father taught him to golf at Hunter’s Run in Oxford, but the nine-hole course near Ignacio closed in 2018. Fortunately, Drew was still able to pursue his golf dreams because Southwest Colorado school districts are willing to work together to make opportunities available for all of their students.
“If we don’t have a sport, a kid can play that sport at another school, and we’ve had a few kids participate in golf in Durango in the past,” Bayfield High School Activities & Athletic Director Andrew Duffy explained. “It is hard for us to have golf when we don’t have a golf course in town, so it is good that kids who like golf are able to play in Durango.”
The students are responsible for getting to practices and events and doing the other things required to participate on a team from a different school, but families have been happy to take advantage of the options that are available to pursue sports their children love.
“I think we work really well with other districts to provide opportunities for the kids in our entire community,” Duffy said. “In the past, we’ve also had girls play softball in Durango, although we don’t currently. We also have some boys soccer players from Ignacio who play on our team. It is the same with academic opportunities too. We have kids who take welding in Ignacio, and we have kids from Ignacio taking health science classes here.”
Jepson was pleased to have the opportunity to compete — and excel — for DHS, but after traveling several times a week over the past several months to hone his skills on the golf course, Drew is looking forward to competing in purple again and spending the winter months closer to home.
“I’ve played basketball my whole life also,” Jepson said. “That season is about to start up again, and I’m going to play."
(Photos courtesy of Kirk Rawles, Durango High School)