HUNTINGTON BEACH – Edison coach Brendan Patch has a feeling that his boys golf team isn’t too happy with him right now.
When he showed up at SeaCliff Country Club on Monday, he decided the Chargers’ would play their match with Villa Park from the back tees, making the course some 200 yards longer. And to make it even worse, he didn’t give them any time to warm up.
The scores reflected the challenge as the Chargers edged the Spartans by one stroke, 215-216. It was the highest score of the season for both teams in a nine-hole match.
“It is the first time that we have played the tips all year since a practice round,” Patch said. “This score is not indicative of the team we have. We are doing all right.”
The Chargers (12-5) are deep as seven different players have medaled this spring. Kevin Steinfeld leads the team with six after carding a 4-over-par 40 on Monday to lead Edison. It was a result that surprised Patch a bit.
Steinfield got back from the Stagecoach country music festival in the Coachella Valley about an hour before the start of the match, and he hadn’t touch a club for six days.
Chris Adnams led the Spartans with a 40 and shared medalist honors with the Edison senior.
About the middle of last season, Patch said Steinfeld started to get serious about golf, hoping to land a college scholarship. Soon after, he got a job working in the cart barn and bag room at Mesa Verde Country Club, and every chance he got he’d grab his clubs and go out onto the course to practice.
“He is all golf all of the time,” Patch said. “You could see his work ethic changed. He played a ton.”
And it helped Steinfeld reach his goal. He will play for Cal State Monterey Bay in the fall, but he turned down the money the school was offering, Patch said, so the coach could give more to the kids who really needed it, hoping to make the team better.
“He just wanted to play somewhere so bad,” Patch said. “And Monterey Bay popped up, and then he went up there and played Bayonet Golf Course, and the kids on the team play Poppy Hills, so that’s not too bad. It’s a golfers dream come true.”
