The gold team placed 3rd at the North Coast Section (NCS) qualifier at Lone Tree Golf Course on May 5. The team will continue on to NCS Tournament of Champions on May 14 after averaging 76 strokes for 18 holes and recording 386 strokes.

This was senior Jim Coon’s last chance to advance to NCS . “[My motivation] was to make it to NCS because this is my last year,” he said. Coon will be attended University of Hawaii, Hilo, where he will continue his competitive golf career.

Coon says that scoring for teams is calculated differently than individual competition. “There are six players that play, and the five lowest count. All those five scores get added up into a total number,” said Coon. In Monday’s case, the final score was 386 for Campolindo. “We all averaged the same score: around 76,” said senior Manny Manzone. Out of 20 teams in the tournament the Cougars placed 3rd behind De La Salle and Amador Valley.

San Ramon Valley and Monte Vista rounded out the top 5.

Head Coach Bob Latham was pleased with his team’s performance. He said, “We’re very deep, our worst scores are very competitive. Some teams have 1 or 3 solid players, we have 8. The difference between the best and the worst scores were 4 strokes.”

Coon believes there is still room for improvement however. “We’re capable of beating any team, if we all put in the effort. We need two or 3 of our 6 guys to score low next Monday,” he said.