Boys’ golf finished 5th in the North Coast Section [NCS] Tournament of Champions on May 11 at Monarch Bay. The top 3 teams advanced to the NorCal tournament on May 18.
In golf, Division III schools like Campolindo compete against Division II and I schools in the post season.
Freshman Ryan Burnett led the Cougars with an 8 over par 80, followed by juniors Mitch Diraimondo and Austin Fischer with 10 over par 82. Junior Will Lagomarsino and senior Robert Young tied for 4th on the team, with an 11 over par 83. Freshman Edward Anaya tallied a 13 over par 85.
The Cougars shot 410 in the tournament, behind De La Salle, Foothill, Monte Vista, and Mission San Jose.
The players agreed that Monarch Bay, which is located in San Leandro, brought difficult playing conditions.
Of the loss, Freshman Ryan Burnett said, “I shot 80, [which] was bad, and everyone did awful. It was really windy. The wind and the fescue [rough] makes the course difficult. The wind was very strong.”
Freshman Edward Anaya agreed. “Over there it’s right next to the bay, so it gets very windy. When we played, the gusts were up to 35 to 45 miles per hour. It’s hard to play when it’s very windy,” he said.
“Where we play [Moraga Country Club] it doesn’t get that windy, and some other teams are more used to the wind, so we were not well adapted to playing those conditions,” Anaya added.
Of his 85 stroke performance, Anaya said, “That’s not good. I usually shoot mid 70’s, 75, right around there.”
Burnett said, “For golf it’s like sometimes you play your best, and then you don’t, so it’s kind of hit or miss. We just kind of missed. We can work and practice on the off season to get better. Doing things like hitting balls on the driving range.”
Anaya said, “We just have to prepare for the situations that we might face in qualifying rounds like the wind, we didn’t prepare for that at all. Just anytime we’re going to play a tournament to be prepared for any sort of conditions we have to play in.”
The Cougars accomplished much this season. In the first tournament of the year at Lone Tree, the Cougars shot 386, and placed second. Later, the Cougars won the Wildcat Tournament at Meadow Country Club, defeating over 20 teams, which included both Division I and II schools. The team finished 11-1 in Diablo Foothill Athletic League (DFAL) match ups, and won the DFAL Tournament at Lone Tree. This was the first time in 6 years that the team has won league.
Anaya said that he was proud of the team’s effort and success this season. “Overall, I think it was a solid season. We only lost one match, so we did well the whole entire season. I think overall it was more positive than negative [this season] and we all are proud of what we did, even though we came a little short at NCS.”
Burnett said, “It was a good season until we all did very poorly at NCS. We had a lot more promise than we lived up to.”
