AMES — Dennis Dirks has seen no shortage of talent come through the Grundy Center boys golf program.

The long-time Spartan boys golf coach hasn’t seen anything like what freshman Judd Jirovsky did on the first day of the Class 2A state golf tournament on Monday.

Jirovsky shot an 8-under 63 to lead the Spartans to the top of the team leaderboard after the first 18 holes of the 36-hole tournament at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames.

The Spartans scored a 296 team score for the day one lead. Dyersville Beckman sits at 306 and Hudson, last year’s champs, scored a 307.

Jirovsky leads the individual leaderboard, eight strokes ahead of Beckman junior Luke Harwick who came in with a 71. East Marshall freshman Cody Weaver sits in a 10-way tie for fourth at 4-over 75.

“I don’t know if I’ve had a player as special as Judd in all these years,” Dirks said. “Niel Doak, who was one of my best golfers that came through Grundy Center, followed him around and he was just amazed.”

Jirovsky had seven birdies, one eagle, and a single bogey on No. 17 that followed a trio of consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16. He stroked an eye-popping 30 on the front nine, including that eagle on the par-5 No. 3.

“My putting was really good today,” Jirovsky said. “There were some putts where I didn’t even think I had them on the right line, and they’d go in. When it’s your day, it’s your day.”

While Jirovsky played the course a few times growing up, and shot in the low 70s in a couple practice rounds before state, he said this is far and away his best performance on the course.

“I was just worried about minimizing mistakes to give myself a ton of putts at it,” Jirovsky said. “And that’s what I was able to do today and why I think I was so low.”

Dirks added, “He’s just really, really special. His swing is so smooth, he manages the ball around the golf course so well, and his knowledge of the game is superior for a freshman. So calm and collected on the course, which puts him in position to give him some chance.”

Eli Wegmann and Ben Wegmann came in with matching 77 scorecards and Preston Martens was the final scorer at 79. Sully Dirks and Tate Jirovsky added non-counting 85s.

“We’re really balanced one through six, that’s what makes us really dangerous,” Judd Jirovsky said. “We can have our number six come in, we’re picking each other up if someone has an off day.”

Ben Wegmann and Martens were part of last year’s Spartans team that finished with a two-day total of 641, which stands for now as the second-lowest two-day total in Spartan history and yet was only good enough for seventh out of eight teams.

Dirks expects a similarly close battle this year.

“That’s a painful experience where it’s not us, but just that the other teams were so strong last year,” Dirks said. “I’m really pulling for Ben, our only senior. He’s done a great job of leading this team, and he shot a nice round today, and I’m hopeful he can put it back to back tomorrow.”

Starting on the back nine, Weaver shot 3-over for the first nine holes and then turned around a 1-over effort on the front.

“I felt pretty good coming into this, just missed a couple crucial shots and it just cost me,” Weaver said. “Putting was all right, hit the driver well, just keeping it in play helped off the tee.”

After two bogeys, one double bogey and a birdie on the back, Weaver had three bogeys and two birdies on the back, including ending the round with a nice putt on No. 9.

“The greens are hard to read,” Weaver said. “I rolled some good putts, not a lot of them dropped, and the approach to the greens kinda messes with your head, but other than that I thought I did alright. … Just gotta make some more birdies and hit a couple better wedge shots.”

Grundy Center will tee off from No. 1 starting at 9:54 a.m., with Judd Jirovsky scheduled to tee off at 10:39 a.m.; East Marshall’s Weaver will tee off from No. 10 at 10:03 a.m.