Well-rounded Baler women up against league-leading Monte
Vista
If the San Benito Haybalers wanted to serve notice to the rest
of the women’s golf teams in the Tri County Athletic League, today
would be the perfect day to do so.
Well-rounded Baler women up against league-leading Monte Vista
If the San Benito Haybalers wanted to serve notice to the rest of the women’s golf teams in the Tri County Athletic League, today would be the perfect day to do so.
As luck would have it, at 3:30 p.m. on the Ridgemark Golf Course the Haybalers are set to tee off against the league-leading Monte Vista Christian Mustangs.
With the TCAL Tournament lurking one week away and its league title up for grabs, the Haybalers can ill afford to let an opportunity to rattle the Mustangs and keep pace with the rest of the pack slip away.
Haybalers Coach Mark Tinder’s game plan is simple enough: spend as little time on the course’s manicured greens as possible.
“If we don’t three putt on the greens, we’ll win,” said Tinder earlier this week as his team prepped for today’s action. “We don’t want to throw strokes away on the greens.”
That is always easier said than done. Aside from the golf’s congenital level of difficulty, Ridgemark’s closely cropped greens are so quick, balls tend to skip rather than plop. That said Tinder knows if the players leave their first long, it puts enormous pressure on his golfers to make a good second shot.
“We want to leave our first putt one or two feet from the hole and then it’s a simple tap in from there,” said Tinder.
The Mustangs come into Ridgemark GC on fire, winning eight of its nine previous matches. Its only blemish came after a Monte Vista Christian player filled in her scorecard incorrectly.
Tinder considers the Mustangs undefeated and counters with a deftly blended lineup of players with raw athletic ability and pure golf skills.
Most of the Haybalers’ hopes lie on the shoulders and nine iron of Sara Tiffany, who earned All-Monterey Bay League last year and status as the team’s No. 1 player this year.
At around 43 strokes per nine holes, Tiffany exemplifies everything Tinder looked for after last season’s No. 1 player Jill Williams graduated.
Tiffany hits with power, knows how to maneuver past the rough and has a nice touch whenever she gets within putting range.
“She’s extremely steady,” said Tinder. “Very consistent.”
Hillary Williams, the younger sister of Jill, who is currently attending Santa Clara University on an academic scholarship, is No. 2 on Tinder’s depth chart.
Much like her older sister, Hillary has a knack for manipulating the fairways and traps and using her athletic ability to her advantage.
Third in the hole, and probably the most pivotal player in the Haybalers’ line up, is Corryn Pacheco, a sophomore. Tinder rates Pacheco’s short game among the best in the Tri County League and thinks perseverance is her strongest suit.
“She’s a very hard worker,” said Tinder. “She does not stop trying to improve. A very strong work ethic.”
Johni Kiesewetter, the Haybalers No. 4 player, is the definition of hacker. The classic swing-from-the-heels golfer is a tribute to Kiesewetter’s prowess on the softball field. As one of the better hitters on the junior varsity squad, Kiesewetter, who also plays basketball and wrestled when at Marguerite Maze Middle School, knows how to swing a club.
“She’s one of those players that can draw on her athletic ability and is determined to be good,” said Tinder. “She has the power, now she just has to find the consistency. For someone that just picked up a golf club six months ago, that’s great.”
The steady sophomore Ashley Cullumber, who has played in every tournament thus far this year, senior Kelly Larson, Jennifer Maheu, another softball player that knows how to take a mighty cut, and Stephanie Starritt round out the rest of Tinder’s roster.
He knows retaining the league title will be a difficult task. But with a win today against the Mustangs, Tinder feels taking the TCAL Tournament, where the points earned are doubled and added to the points accumulated throughout the year, is just a putt away.
