GRAND JUNCTION – When Cheyenne Mountain’s Charlie Doyle hit his shot off the No. 1 tee in the first round of the 2023 4A boys’ golf state tournament, chaos ensued.

He struck the ball with the club face on his driver wide open. So he had to reload. And the same thing happened. Then it happened a third time.

Now the No. 1 player on the team and a year after helping the Red-Tailed Hawks claim a team title, he had emptied a quick sleeve of balls of the first tee.

It wasn’t an ideal start.

“It was definitely nerves,” Doyle said. “I’ve played in some pretty big tournaments and that takes the No. 1 spot for nerves.”

There was a lot of weight on Doyle’s shoulders a year ago as a junior. He was the only Cheyenne Mountain player to return from that state title team. The three seniors were gone and 75% of the team that made it to the Bridges in Montrose had never experienced a state tournament before.

If the Hawks were going to contend, Doyle was going to have to set the tone.

A year makes all the difference in the world. Brayden Distefano and Ethan Ivany joined Doyle at state a year ago. No longer are they strangers to the competitive environment of the state tournament.

This team consisting of seniors Doyle and Ivany, along with sophomores Distefano and Fenn Mullins might just be better than the 2022 Cheyenne Mountain team that won state at Pelican Lakes. It’s certainly better than last year’s team that fought through nerves as it took fifth at The Bridges.

“We have more experience,” coach John Carricato said. “We turned over our roster [last year] and with Thomas [Herholtz], Kale [Parthen] and Carter [Surofchek] coming off that team and having one returner. We knew we that we were good enough to make a run last year, but that state tournament hits different.”

The Red-Tailed Hawks will begin their quest for their second title in three years and third title since 2020 when they tee off at Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction on Monday.

In their favor is the fact that Distefano, the No. 2 seed on the team, is the top overall 4A player according to the iWanamaker rankings.

He claimed the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference individual championship and shot a 3-over-par 74 in windy conditions to win the Region 1 championship at the Country Club of Colorado. The entire Cheyenne Mountain team finished within two strokes of each other as Doyle carded a 75 while Ivany and Mullins each shot 76.

They cleared the team field by 11 shots, with Air Academy taking second to also qualify its team for state.

With the Hawks eyeing their fourth boys golf title overall, and 115th total team championship as a school, results from earlier this season would suggest this team is hunting gold.

As a team, they shot 17-under at Murphy Creek on Aug. 14, 4-under at Aurora Hills on Aug. 22 and 10-under at Overland Park on Aug. 26. They won each of those tournaments handily. But that won’t make them complacent. They know that nothing is a given regardless of some of the amazing rounds they’ve put together.

“We can’t take that for granted,” Distefano said. “Grand Junction just shot 7-under as a team, so they’re still up there and they’re really good this year too.”

The Tigers will be playing on home ground, but no team has hit more fairways or drained more putts than the Red-Tailed Hawks.

It might just be as simple as getting off the first tee, something that Doyle isn’t worried about this time around.

“We’ve been working a lot on tee shots at practice this last month,” Doyle said. “I’ve gotten really comfortable over first tee balls.”

That’s something that has come from the help of Carricato, along with assistant coaches such as Colorado Golf Hall of Fame member Anne Finke, U.S. Open qualifier Colin Prater and Herholtz, a member of the Hawks’ 2022 state title team.

“We have the best coaching staff in the whole state,” Doyle said. “They’re on a different level and I see that during tournaments.”

As the lone senior on the team, Doyle has one last chance to reward the coaches who have helped him by leading the Hawks to the 4A state title. And this year, it won’t start with hitting a quick sleeve off the first tee.