After last season’s tough ending, the golf team will look to
take the next step this year
Experience often breeds confidence.
Riding a wave of second-place finishes last season, the San
Benito High boys’ golf team
– nary a senior in the bunch – ended its year rather
disappointingly when it fell just two measly strokes short of
advancing to the section championships.
After last season’s tough ending, the golf team will look to take the next step this year
Experience often breeds confidence.
Riding a wave of second-place finishes last season, the San Benito High boys’ golf team – nary a senior in the bunch – ended its year rather disappointingly when it fell just two measly strokes short of advancing to the section championships.
It was an offseason guaranteed to be filled with second guessing.
But with four members of a six-member squad playing their first year of high school golf, and with the entire team returning this season, San Benito’s two-stroke shortfall was also very much a learning experience in disguise.
The game of golf, though, took round one.
“I think it prepared us to make the little shots,” said Baler Joey Amaral on Tuesday of last year’s setback. “It does come down to the little shots, those small things.
“But we have a full squad (that returned), and we all have the CCS under our belt.”
Following Thursday’s Tri-County Athletic League Tournament, which took place after The Pinnacle’s press time, San Benito has their sights set on Monday’s TCAL Finals at the Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club in Carmel, and subsequently another CCS berth. The Balers will likely need to finish in third place or better in order to qualify for the CCS regionals.
Considering what they’ve done this year, however, third place is certainly an attainable goal. San Benito tied Palma for first at Ridgemark Golf and Country Club earlier this season, but also tied Salinas for second in the first TCAL Tournament in early March. Otherwise, the Balers have owned second place outright, and rather comfortably as well.
“The boys are playing good and there is nothing negative I can say about what they’re doing,” head coach Reggie Synegal said.
“We’re having a lot of fun.”
Aside from the opening-tournament setback, San Benito’s first-place tie with Palma resulted in a team score of 185, some nine strokes better than the Balers’ best score through all of last season and the team’s lowest score to date this season.
Although San Benito will play 18 holes at the TCAL Finals, they should be in great shape barring they can post similar numbers to Monday’s Aptos Invitational, where five Balers carded sub-80 scores.
Marcus Synegal shot a 1-over 72, while Derell Aton’s 2-over 73, Nathan Winn’s 75, Will Cross’ 76 and Joey Amaral’s 79 helped compile a 375 at the Seascape Golf Course to take third place among 15 teams.
“I think the confidence we’ve gained will help us,” Winn said. “Those are scores we haven’t seen from all of us in a long time.”
Palma was first at Aptos with a 357 – medalist Sergio Rios shot a 5-under 66 – while Mitty finished runner-up with a 364. Los Gatos (384) and Serra (386) each figured behind San Benito in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
“I think we’ll be a little nervous going into it,” Cross said of the postseason.
“If we look like we did at the last invitational (Aptos), we’ll all be under 80. “We’ll be good.”
San Benito took in a practice round at the Rancho Canada Golf Club on Wednesday, site of the CCS regionals where the Balers posted a 397 last year. While toppling powerhouse Palma would be a dream – “We’re always trying to beat them,” Amaral said – simply staying close to the Chieftains, who finished fourth in the state last season, could very well be the difference between CCS regionals and CCS championships.
“It’d be nice to beat Palma,” Cross said. “But at this point it doesn’t really matter, just as long as we keep moving on.”
Said Winn, “I think knowing how much better we are than last year will help us come through as a team and take it to the next level.”
