Golf team, which has battled the ‘bad hole’ this season, will
open TCAL Tournament on Monday at the Salinas Golf and Country
Club
HOLLISTER
Katie Moeller holds sentiments that most players may have about the game of golf.
“It’s crazy,” Moeller said. “One day your chipping will be amazing. The next day it’s horrible. But that’s golf.
“You hope for the best, but you never know.”
With the game changing from round to round, even hole to hole, players can often find themselves in a love-hate relationship with the sport. But San Benito head girls golf coach Chris Branon said bad shots come with any round; it’s limiting those bad shots that tends to be the problem.
“That’ll be the biggest quest — eliminating that big score,” Branon said. “If you have one blowup hole, you’ve got to turn it around.”
The Lady Balers golf team, after four straight days of qualifiers this week, will play in the Tri-County Athletic League Tournament on Monday at the Salinas Golf and Country Club. Seeking a team score of 384 or an individual tally of 96 — both scores would advance to the Central Coast Section Championships — San Benito needs to avoid the blowup hole and the big number as much as it can in order to move forward.
“You’re gonna have some bad shots with a hole,” said Branon, adding that bogeys and double-bogeys will happen, but scores in the 7- to 9-stroke range need to be avoided. “It’s the big number.”
Branon said it’s been those one or two “blowup” holes that have been the problem this season for the Lady Balers, who have battled consistency with individual scores sometimes in the mid-40s, other times in the high-50s.
In its season opener against Watsonville on Sept. 17, for instance, San Benito shot a 183 — its lowest nine-hole score of the season. In its following dual meet, the Lady Balers carded a 209.
“It’s the short game,” Moeller said. “We have a few girls who can kill the drive. But it comes down to the green. That’s where it gets difficult. That’s where the points add up. But it’s a different problem each time.”
Although the Lady Balers have held their own against some of the best teams in Northern California this season — they shot a 189 earlier this month against Stevenson and lost by just two strokes — the TCAL Tournament is more about numbers than competition.
Unlike in boys golf, where only a select number of teams can advance to the CCS Championships, girls golf sets a score over 18 holes — in this case 384 for a team and 96 for individuals. Branon said having a number to shoot for is easier than competing against some of the best golf teams in the state, but it does open up for a different game mentally.
Senior Yumi Kimura doesn’t see much of a difference, though.
“We have to play the course and play the best we can, and that’s a really hard thing to do,” she said.
Kimura, along with Moeller, Jordan Davies, Nicole Rianda, Jenny Glosser and Alexis Sanchez, competed at last season’s TCAL Tournament. Those six players, who compiled a 428 at the year-end championship, returned to the team this year for a second chance at the CCS cut.
But whether they compete on Monday won’t be decided until later today.
Branon conducted four days worth of qualifiers this week for the TCAL Tournament, where 19 girls competed for just six varsity spots and a chance to represent the Lady Balers at the Salinas Golf and Country Club on Monday.
With each member of the team having an equal chance at competing, Branon uses the qualifiers as a TCAL-Tournament precursor, with the pressure and intensity only carrying over to Monday for those who advance.
“It’s just as much pressure as TCALs,” Kimura said. “Every single player on this team is good this year, so there’s a lot of competition. And seniority doesn’t count at all, so that puts a lot of pressure on the seniors as well.”
Nary a No. 1 golfer on the team, San Benito has survived this season with different players posting the team’s lowest scores throughout the season. But with four days of qualifiers wrapping up today, Branon needs the six who are playing the best golf right now.
“It’s more of yourself,” Moeller said of the qualifiers. “But it’s still crazy.”
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The San Benito High girls golf team will compete in the TCAL Tournament on Monday at the Salinas Golf and Country Club. Tee time is 11 a.m.
