CHINO HILLS – At this point of the boys golf season, Servite coach Dan Jako isn’t overly concerned with wins and losses. What matters to him now are the score that the Friars post.
On Tuesday, No. 1 Servite improved to 5-0 after beating Loyola of Los Angeles by 17 strokes, 189-207, during one of the team’s best performances here this season at Western Hills County Club.
But Jako left the nonleague match knowing that his Friars still have plenty of work.
“If we win and shoot a high score, am I happy?’” Jako asked his team. They all responded in unison, “No.”
Posting any score in the 180s is definitely respectable, but for Jako, just barely coming in under 190 is still not good enough to show that the Friars can be a CIF contender. To do that, he said Servite has to shave at least four strokes off of Tuesday’s score.
“Yeah we are winning and posting scores in the 180s, but we are not playing well,” Jako said. “Our No. 1 and No. 2 need to be playing better. It is not good when you are dropping their scores (only five of the seven players figure into the final score). I think the one thing that has hurt us is the high expectations that I put on them because of our past.”
Servite won three consecutive Southern Section championships from 2009-11, and produced a CIF State champion golfer in 2010.
On Tuesday, Brandon Brame, a sophomore who has been on the JV team at times this season, medaled for the Friars with a 1-over-par 36. He started out his round with a bogey, but then holed six pars and birdied the 374-yard, par-4 No. 9.
All but two of the Friars who teed off on Tuesday posted a score in the 30s as Davis Holman (37), Martin Manolo (38), Brian Francke (39) and Tanner Dice (39) all broke 40.
The 189 was Servite’s best performance on the front nine at Western Hills, but it was three strokes higher than the team’s lowest score of the season at their home course which was turned in on the par-37 back nine.
