In a game as mentally challenging as golf, one bad hole can make or break a player’s tournament. A series of great shots, on the other hand, can piece together into something beautiful.

Such was the case for Holy Family junior Peyton Mraz who, just two years after picking up golf, helped pace the Tigers to a Class 3A state championship. She overcame incredibly difficult conditions with strong winds to place third overall at last month’s 3A state tournament at Boomerang Golf Links in Greeley, carding a 155 over two days.

Her accomplishment didn’t quite hit her until the very last hole.

“The 18th hole, I thought I had gone into the water because on my drive, I kind of sliced a little bit,” Mraz explained. “We got up there and it was barely on the edge, and it wasn’t very close. I had to use a 6-iron and I was like, ‘OK, you got this. Just trust your swing. This is the last shot.’ At this point, I knew I obviously wasn’t going to win, but I was still holding on to trying to place well. I got over the shot and I really just relaxed.“I hit a really really good 6-iron and it rolled up just on the left side of the green. I had to chip, and my chipping all day had been hit-or-miss, so it was really scary. The water was long, so if I bladed it, I was in big trouble. … I hit a really good chip to like 4 feet, made the putt, and I didn’t even realize how clutch that par was until we got in the clubhouse. I realized third and fourth were (a one-stroke difference). It was really exciting.”

Her stellar finish at state earned her the Daily Camera player of the year honor, but her true achievement lies in the strides she’s made since she first picked up an iron. Mraz was a volleyball player by trade, but she knew that her 5-foot-2 frame wouldn’t hold out in that sport for long. She switched to the sport her father always wanted to get her into the summer before her freshman year.

It turned out to be a perfect match.

“The atmosphere is great,” Mraz said. “The people are great. It’s nice to be outside. The outfits are really cute. I think I just fell in love with the sport the more I played, and the challenge that it was for me — I love a challenge, so it just made sense for me to play golf.”

Back then, she was averaging around 100 strokes per round, and she dropped that number to the high 70s and low 80s this year. She missed out on the state tournament cut by one stroke last season, so she made sure to put herself in better position for that not to repeat this spring.

She got a job at Saddleback Golf Course in Firestone so she could practice every day. It paid dividends not just in her own state round, but in helping lift the entire Holy Family squad toward victory. Her teammates, junior Steffi Heitz (fifth, 157) and sophomore Acadia Curtis (seventh, 164), joined her in the top 10.

Mraz simply added another weapon in their already-stacked arsenal. She maintained her spot near the top of the leaderboard after the first day at Boomerang and never lost steam. Only Timath’s Cheyanne Schrick (150 strokes) and Littleton’s Zoe Bar-Or (152) managed to beat her out in the end.

“Anytime you are leading the tournament after one round, and you’ve never been in that position, there’s going to be anxiety and nervous energy,” Holy Family head coach Heikke Nielsen said. “Never being in that spot, and for her to compete for the entire 18 holes on a difficult day and still come out in third place — I’ve seen a lot of players, myself included, being in that position and totally fall off the pace quickly and never recover. She never did that. She didn’t win, but she went toe-to-toe with two of the best players in the state and came out in third place. I think that is an incredible accomplishment.”