As members of her group rummaged through their bags to find short irons for the 18th hole during the opening round of the 4A state golf tournament in Broomfield in May, Landry Frost grabbed her driver.

Broadlands Golf Course’s final hole features a water hazard and a pair of bunkers near the green that the Air Academy freshman wanted to avoid.

So, Frost, this year’s girls golf Gazette Peak Performer, made a chess move and hit her ball to the neighboring 10th hole. On purpose.

“A girl in my group said, ‘I think you’ll be OK,’” Frost said. “She thought I missed it but then I told her, ‘I meant to hit it over there.’”

Frost, an appropriate name for a golfer with ice in her veins, displayed chutzpah that required years to develop and paved the way for a stellar first season at Air Academy. Frost shot par on the hole and broke a tie with Windsor’s Macy Kleve to take a two-stroke lead into the finale.

The eventual state champion, who finished the two-round tournament at 6-over par 151 (73-78) found those nerves in her early years on the course.

“When she was younger, she wasn’t winning a lot and she still had a lot of flaws in her swing,” her father Bowie Landry said. “She could chip and putt, but that kept her hanging around. … About two years ago, she had a lot of nerves and anxiety when she would golf. Nerves are good, but anxiety is not what you want when you’re playing golf. We got her with a sports psychologist and emphasized that, ‘Nothing you’re doing right now is saving lives. We’re here to play a game and have fun.’”

That assistance and those words from her family helped Frost shift her focus from the results to the process. Scores began to improve, swings became crisper. Most importantly Frost’s passion for golf blossomed. That grew further after visiting a “prominent D-I school.”

“She got to go to a college camp and be around college coaches and that was one of her dreams,” Bowie said. “The college coach obviously couldn’t recruit her, but he did let her know she was doing the right things. That was when the flame got lit.”

Frost began waking up at 5 a.m. to complete workouts and hit golf balls. In the winter, Frost would head to her parents’ garage, turn on a space heater and take practice shots.

As an eighth grader, she qualified for the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National in Georgia in April 2024 where she earned first place in the 14–15-year-old division’s chipping category. Frost also finished seventh in driving and eighth in putting.

Thousands of golf fans watched the event in person and thousands more viewed the spectacle on the Golf Channel. Bowie asked if that many eyeballs made Landry nervous. She said “No.”

“That was a testament to her mental toughness,” Bowie said. “She said that she loved every minute of it.”

This is the competitor Air Academy girls golf coach Jason Catron inherited. Catron knew Frost suited up for the Kadets’ girls basketball team and recognized she was a respectable golfer.

Then Catron witnessed her swing clubs at practice and said, “Oh, OK. She’s going to be just fine.” In her first preps tournament, Frost finished 1-under-par 73 to earn first place at the Lady Titan Invite.

In late April at the Pueblo West Lady Cyclone Invite, Frost shot a 5-under-par 67 to win the event and finished seven strokes better than second place.

“I knew this was going to be pretty special,” Catron said. “At the beginning of the season I didn’t realize how truly special it could be. But the first tournament she played in, she won. You never knew throughout the season how special and how great she was going to be. She lived up to every expectation a coach could dream of. … We’ve had great golfers in the past, don’t get me wrong. But she was elite as far as ability goes.”

Catron said Bowie and Frost preview golf courses prior to tournaments. Through YouTube videos where some courses provide drone shots of each hole’s layout, Frost will mentally play each shot before arrival.

That leaves room for a mellow approach with each shot or, at the state tournament, allows for the gambit played on the 18th.

“She trusts that process that she works on,” Catron said. “Coming down those final holes, we were smiling and laughing and cracking jokes. I knew she was at ease and we had some good conversations. She didn’t know her score coming down those final four or five holes and she never asked me.

“I knew where the numbers were. But I didn’t want to force anything that made her feel uncomfortable. On those final holes, I always felt like she was in control. Her mental approach to things is amazing. Especially for a freshman.”

With a victory at her first state tournament, Frost could add another three titles to her mantle in her Kadets golf career. But she remains ecstatic about winning her first championship.

“I considered it, but I wasn’t sure this could happen,” Frost said. “I wanted to have a good year and it was definitely a goal. But it was crazy when it became a reality. I can see all of my work paying off and this is inspiring me to keep working.”