Owen Castle is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley High School for AZPreps365.com

Consistency is the key to Paradise Valley senior Kylen Metzner’s campaign for the state tournament, and his outing Tuesday at Wildfire Golf Club needed to show that. 

Unfortunately for Metzner, his best golf was not on display this afternoon. With three bogeys and a triple bogey on the concluding hole, Metzner fired a 6-over-par 41. 

“I made bad decisions today and I didn’t leave myself enough room on my misses,” Metzner said.

Paradise Valley didn’t fare much better, finishing third in Tuesday’s match with a team score of 37-over. Brophy Prep won with a team score of 4-over par. Boulder Creek finished second at 20-over.

The mental aspect of Metzner’s game created a roadblock that he was unable to overcome, especially in the final two holes of the round, which he played 4-over-par.

“I tell them, golf is a tough sport, try to stay composed and don’t get too frustrated,” head coach Mark Macgowan said. “There were some prime examples out there today with some kids getting frustrated, and I just tell them to do the best they can.”

Metzner found himself in a fairway bunker off the first tee, but was able to scramble his way to a par. After starting with two straight pars, Metzner got into some trouble but was able to get up-and-down for a bogey after finding the hazard on the par-3 third hole. 

Metzner hit a beautiful drive on the par-4 eighth hole but found himself with a downhill shot over a bunker and came away with a frustrating three- putt bogey. 

“I hit OK wedges, and then there was one on hole eight where I don’t know what I was doing. On that shorter par 4, I should have been able to stick my gap wedge way closer and I just didn’t,” Metzner said.

The ninth hole for Metzner was just as upsetting, with his tee shot coming up short of the fairway and in the desert, he was forced to lay up and flared his approach shot into the right desert.

“To be honest my putting was really good up until the eighth hole,” Metzner said, “and then my mental [game] fell apart on the last two.”

Junior Nooa Riecks came in second on the team, finishing with a score of 43. “This is Nooa’s first year playing, and he came out here and played well today,” Macgowan said.

Sophomore Carter Bones began his round with a bogey on the third hole but was able to birdie the fifth hole to get back to even par. 

However back-to-back quadruple bogeys after unfortunate breaks on the sixth and seventh holes would derail his round, leading Bones to finish his round with a 10-over 45.

After becoming ill earlier in the week, Paradise Valley senior Alex Filipe was able to play in the match. Filipe started the round 3-over-par through two holes but couldn’t string together multiple good shots in a row. He finished his round at 13-over. 

“My short game was pretty good, and that’s really it,” Filipe said. “My iron shots were not good.” 

The Faldo Course proved a challenge for all players except match winner and Brophy senior Henry Dall, who posted a bogey-free, 3-under-par round.