Dana Hills' Hurst feeling at home on the course

Josh Hurst dropped baseball and spent his sophomore spring see-sawing between the varsity and JV golf teams. His stroke average per nine holes hovered near 43.

Still, the potential was apparent.

"If you're an athlete and you love to play golf, your learning curve's going to be quicker," Dana Hills coach Phil Wilburton said.

The former middle infielder spent last summer with his clubs, and, now a junior, has emerged as the Dolphins' No. 1 golfer. Hurst regularly shoots in the 38-39 range, leading Dana Hills' resurgence from a disappointing 2007, marred by injuries.

The Dolphins are 11-4 overall and 4-1 in the South Coast League. They have come within a few shots of top teams such as El Toro and Tesoro but are searching for a signature victory.

"I'm confident that we can make the playoffs," Wilburton said. "But I'd like to compete for a league championship."

EL TORO'S RISE

Mark Flippin said his El Toro team is trying to "fly under the radar." Perhaps, the Chargers should consider playing worse.

Their individual scores have not been remarkably low. Yet, there's a consistency throughout the lineup that has propelled El Toro to a 12-0 start.

"In 2001, we were 15-1, and we were runner-up to Woodbridge in CIF," Flippin said. "It seems real comparable to that."

There's reason to believe it can continue. No. 1 player, senior Ben Bauch, will depart for Pacific before 2009, but everyone else returns.

FOOTHILL AWAITS RETURN

Despite struggling through a couple of recent tournaments, Foothill sits at 8-2-1, 3-0 in the Sea View League. And that's without No. 2 player James Taylor, who broke his collarbone snowboarding before the season.

Some teams have rules prohibiting such activity, but, "You can't tell kids not to live their lives," Knights coach Mike Bohen said. "It was a strange accident. He wasn't out doing stupid things."

Taylor is expected to return in a week or two, which means he's likely to miss Tuesday's league match against El Toro.

His coach is looking forward.

"If he comes back healthy, we get El Toro at our place the end of the year," Bohen said.

Contact the writer: jkay@ocregister.com