DESERT HOT SPRINGS – Three players posted a 4-under-par 67 on Tuesday at Mission Lakes Country Club. One took home the first-place plaque as the CIF-SS Individual Champion, the other two didn’t even make it onto the leaderboard.
Confused? This year the Southern Section changed the way it decided its boys golf championships, merging two tournaments into one. So besides determining individual honors, the event also served as a team qualifying event for the So Cal Championships on Monday in Pasadena.
Tesoro junior Jack Ireland was one of the players who shot a 67, but he was there as a member of Tesoro’s team and not eligible for an individual award. Westlake’s Sean Crocker, who also finished with a 4-under round, was in the same position, so first place went to Redland’s K.K. Limbhasut, the third and final player to post a 67 on the 101-degree day in the desert.
“It is kind of frustrating,” said Ireland, who holed five bridies and one bogey. “But this is a team event too, so I had to take my medicine and hope the team played well, too.”
That didn’t happen for the Titans, who finished eighth in the 14-team field with a 381.
“We had a few guys shoot the temperature, which was not good,” Ireland said.
Only the top four teams advanced to the So Cal Championships, and one of them was Mater Dei. The Monrachs placed third with a 374 to advance to the SCGA-sanctioned tournament for the first time in school history. Marcus De La Rosa led led the Monarchs with a 1-under 70 despite bogeying two of his last four holes.
“This is huge. This is the reason why we signed up to do this. We all wanted to do it for him,” De La Rosa said, referring to Mater Dei coach Ollie Martin, who will retire at the end of the season.
“My putting was a little shaky, but everything else feels good,” De La Rosa said. “So I will just have to work on that and see what we can do. Everyone is doing what they need to do. We can still pick up a few shots here and there, but we are getting there.”
This was the second tournament in a row in which Ireland finished in the 60s. His only score in the 70s came in the CIF-SS Southern Individual Regional when he shot a 77 at Skylinks Golf Course. But he lost the chance to earn one of the final spots in the Individual Championships on a card-off because officials ruled there wasn’t enough light left to complete the playoff.
“There was enough light. I felt like we could have played,” he said.
Woodbridge sophomore Hide Yoshihara and University junior Ari Gulugian led the county at the Individual Championship, tying for fifth and 10th. Yoshihara posted an even-par 71 to advance to the So Cal Championships for the first time. Gulugian fired a 73.
“It feels really good. It feels like hard work pays off,” Yoshihara said. “Last year I missed (the So Cal Championships) by one (stroke). So this is really cool.”
Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com
