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  • Mater Dei's Marcus De La Rosa watches a shot during...

    Mater Dei's Marcus De La Rosa watches a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Andrew Hammond hits a shot during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Andrew Hammond hits a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman looks at a possible putt during...

    Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman looks at a possible putt during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Jacob Biss attempts a shot near the cart...

    Mater Dei's Jacob Biss attempts a shot near the cart path during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Jacob Biss attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Jacob Biss attempts a putt during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Ryan Mendoza watches a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Isaiah Aguirre attemptsa putt on the 18th green...

    Mater Dei's Isaiah Aguirre attemptsa putt on the 18th green during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Marcus De La Rosa watches a shot during...

    Mater Dei's Marcus De La Rosa watches a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

  • Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman attempts a shot during the CIF/CGA...

    Mater Dei's Matthew Zimmerman attempts a shot during the CIF/CGA State Championships Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.

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Damian Dottore. Sports. HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN GABRIEL – Warming up for a practice round at San Gabriel Country Club made it that much harder for Mater Dei to win the most prestigious tournament in high school boys golf.

Freshman Issei Tanabe, one of the Monarchs’ scoring leaders, never even made it off the driving range, suffering an injury that forced Coach Ollie Martin to shuffle the Monarchs’ lineup for Wednesday’s CIF State Championship, inserting freshman Matthew Zimmerman, who was making his postseason debut.

“We couldn’t coach him out there (the rules prohibit it), so he was out there on his own, and he did the best that he could,” Martin said.  “It would have been wonderful to have him (Tanabe) today.”

Even with Tanabe in the lineup, the Monarchs still might not have been able to catch Westlake. Jack Biwer, Spencer Soosman and Matthew Wolff each posted a 1-under-par 70 at San Gabriel CC as the Warriors finished with a 7-over-par 362 to cruise to a 9-stroke victory over Rancho Bernardo and Dublin in the team competition. Mater Dei finished fifth, shooting a 389 in Martin’s last match with the Monarchs before retiring after 17 years coaching at Mater Dei.

“This was a great way to go out, making this kind of a run to get here. Not many teams get to make it this far,” Martin said. “To be part of this and experience this and watch my players competing is a lifetime kind of memory. Some things didn’t fall into place for us today, but I am still really proud of them.”

Zimmerman was thrown into a very difficult position on Wednesday. The rules prohibited him from getting a look at the course before he teed off in the tournament. The Monarchs were only allowed to bring the six players who teed of for them at the So Cal Championships on Monday into Tuesday’s practice round.

Tanabe was at the course on Wednesday, walking around in support of his teammates, and he got to watch Marcus De La Rosa post an even-par 71 to lead the Monarchs and place 11th in the individual competition at the tournament. Justin Suh of Evergreen Valley High of San Jose won the state championship with a 4-under-par 67.

Jacob Biss and Ryan Mendoza also posted rounds in the 70s the Monarchs, shooting a 75 and 76 respectively.

De La Rosa holed six birdies on his round, and none might have been better than his last. It came on the 403-yard, par-4 No. 8. He tee shot fell in the rough right on the lip of a fairway bunker.

With one foot in the bunker and the other out and the ball below his feet, he hit a gap wedge 130 yards to the back of the green, leaving him with a testing 35-foot downhill putt. He holed it for a birdie.

De La Rosa, who teed off on No. 10, opened his second nine with a  pair of birdies which put him close to the top of the leader board at 2-under par, but he had double bogey and two bogeys in his next five holes.

In between those missteps, though, he dropped his tee shot on the 195-yard, par-3 No. 5 about 3 feet from the pin. His birdie putt dropped him to 1-under.

“I was hoping to make a move down the stretch so I decided to play right at the hole,” De La Rosa said. “Even is a good score here. This is a tough course. It’s one of those courses where if you aren’t hitting the ball well, you will get in trouble. Even is not what I wanted, but it’s up there.”

 De La Rosa said he wasn’t feeling any extra pressure to go low, knowing that Tanabe was not in the lineup.

“We have a really deep team, and we all told him that his health comes first. No question,” De La Rosa said. “If he needed to take the day off because of his injury, then that is what he needed to do. We felt like we had a good enough team, and we would be fine. Just being one of the six teams here was great. You couldn’t ask for anymore.” 

Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com