San Benito finishes third among four teams Monday at the Corral
de Tierra Country Club in Salinas
SALINAS
The San Benito High boys golf team finished runner-up to rival Palma in each meet last year, but it wasn’t until the very end of the season when they began to nip at the Chieftains’ heels.
On Monday at the Corral de Tierra Country Club in Salinas, the Haybalers finished in third among four teams after both Palma and Carmel carded matching scores of 190. But San Benito’s 194 wasn’t far behind, especially considering it was only the first match of the season.
“That says a lot,” new head coach Reggie Synegal said. “These kids have been getting better over the summer. They’ve put a lot of matches in over the summer and now it’s all about fine tuning.
“Four strokes. We can accomplish that.”
At the start of last season, the ‘Balers were finishing anywhere from 12 to 20 strokes behind defending league champion Palma, but eventually closed the gap as the year progressed and even fell just four strokes short at one tournament late in the season.
San Benito’s first match at Corral last year ended with a team score of 212, 18 strokes higher than Monday’s performance, where Salinas finished fourth with a 227.
Carmel’s Colton Bollinger medaled the par-36 front nine when he recorded a 35 to pace the Padres to a share of first-place.
San Benito, meanwhile, was led by Will Cross and Nathan Winn, each of whom shot matching 37’s for the Haybalers.
“For Nathan and Will to shoot 1-over, that was really good for the kids,” Synegal said. “We just need to take a couple of strokes off.
“But this was really good for us, for a first outing.”
Marcus Synegal shot a 39 for San Benito, while newcomer Diego Navarro contributed a 39 as well. Navarro, a senior, took two years off from the golf team after playing at San Benito High as a freshman.
Teammate Joey Amaral shot a 42 and Justin Palmquist rounded out the ‘Balers with a 43.
Coach Synegal, in his first year at the helm of the boys golf team, replaces last year’s coaching staff of Brian Silva, Sal Felice and Bruce Vieira.
It’s Synegal’s first time as a golf coach, though he says he has been coaching basketball for 20 years.
“There are a lot of really good kids and really supportive parents,” Synegal said. “It was easy to take this job as the golf coach. I think we can do something really good this year.”
San Benito will take on King City at the King City Golf Course on Thursday at 3 p.m.
