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Steamboat Springs — It was the best three-putt of Steamboat Springs High School golfer Alan Capistron's career.

The tap-in for double bogey, on the first playoff hole Tuesday at Aspen, gave the sophomore his first career victory and helped pace Steamboat to a team score of 237, good enough for a tie for first with Battle Mountain.

"I played pretty consistent," said Capistron, who broke a string of shooting 79 with his best round of the year Tuesday. "I had no doubles until the playoff, but no birdies either. I just had a lot of pars."

Tuesday's tournament in Aspen gave the Sailors their first look at where the regional tournament will be played Sept. 23. While the scores were a little higher, Steamboat was able to beat its main competition in Montrose and Cortez.

"They both had off days, but so did we," Steamboat coach Steve Dodson said. "I like where we are. We made a statement today of, 'don't count us out.' I like that position."

Dodson said the Aspen course presents several challenges. While the course is relatively flat, Dodson said the greens challenged players.

Most of the greens are large but are raised and crowned. They also have subtle breaks and are very fast, Dodson said.

"I think the short game is going to be crucial at regionals," Dodson said. "Whoever is able to get it up and down and save several pars - that's going to prove to be the difference. We'll continue to work on our short game and distance control on downhill slippery putts."

Also scoring for Steamboat on Tuesday were Ben VonThaden (78), Scott Ptach (82), Jace Hvambsal (83) and Kaelen Gunderson (86).

VonThaden had an up-and-down type of round. He started struggling on the front nine and the first few holes of the back nine, before his putter began to show signs of life.

"I hunkered down," said VonThaden, who had 32 putts on his round. "I made some pars a birdie and bogey to finish."

Dodson was happy with the performance of all his golfers, but said the tournament served even better as research for the regional tournament. Now the Sailors have a better feel of what to do, what they need to work on and what it will take to qualify as a team for the state tournament.

"It's nothing but positives out of this trip," Dodson said. "We'll review our notes and take a solid game plan going into regionals."

Steamboat's next tournament is Sept. 17 at Rangely.

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com