Robert Gautney: Update on local college golf teams and individuals
| Monday, Nov 09 2009 04:22 PM
Last Updated Monday, Nov 09 2009 04:22 PM
With the fall seasons having ended for the Cal State Bakersfield golf teams and the Bakersfield College women's team going for a Southern Cal JC title next week, I thought it would be time to review how not only our local college teams have fared but how some of our local college players are doing at out-of-town universities.
At Cal State Bakersfield, the men's and women's golf teams concluded their fall seasons two weeks ago with the guys playing in the Bill Cullum Invitational hosted by Cal State Northridge.
The Roadrunners finished eighth, their lowest showing for their four fall tournaments where they finished second, fourth and fifth previously.
Through those four events, Levi Garcia leads the 'Runners with a 72.2 average, followed by Kyle Morrison at 73.0. The only other player lower than 74 for the season is James Moseley at 73.7.
On the ladies side of things, they completed their fall schedule at the Lampik Grip Invitational hosted by Cal Poly SLO at the Cypress Ridge golf course in Nipomo recently.
Ashley Neal had the best single round, shooting a 78 on the final day to finish equal 45th at 161. Meggan Bellows was CSUB's top finisher with a 160 on rounds of 79 and 81 to finish 43rd.
For the four tournaments that the ladies competed in, Neal leads the statistics with an 80.2 average, just .6 of stroke ahead of Jenna Barnett at 80.8. Next is Dana Arneson at 82.6, followed by Jennifer Davison at 83.0 and Bellows at 84.4.
Both the men and women will resume their 2009-10 seasons in February.
For BC, the women competed in the Southern California Regionals at Los Serranos CC Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 9-10).
BC won its first Western State Conference title last week and will be one of the favorites to win it all and advance to the State Championships.
This is BC's second appearance in the Southern Cal Regionals in the program's nine years of existence.
Katherine James won the WSC Player of the Year crown, with teammate Ellen Krausse the runner-up. Both had lower stroke averages than reigning state champion Asaka Kim from Santa Barbara City.
According to BC Coach Larry Cook, the Renegades will get stiff competition from the likes of Palomar and Rancho Santiago.
Individually, James, Krausse and Dee Ray and Stacie Netzer will also be playing individually for a chance to advance to the state championship while Debbie Benson and Vivian davis will be trying to help out BC's score in the 5th and sixth positions.
At Fresno State, our three local stars - Grant Doverspike, Bhavik Patel and Bryan Hogan just completed their fourth event of the fall season at the 37th University of the Pacific Invitational at the Brookside CC in Stockton.
The Bulldogs finished fourth at 10-under behind the home team UC Davis and BYU.
Hogan had his best showing of the fall season with a 16th place finish at 2-under, but the Bulldogs could have done much better had Doverspike and Patel played better.
Doverspike, the reigning WAC player of the year, finished 53rd shooting a final round 79 while Patel shot a final round 82 to finish to finish 33rd.
Patel was under the weather with a case of the flu and entered the final round in fourth place at 7-under. A healthy Patel and better round by Doverspike and the Bulldogs could have challenged for the team crown.
HORSE THIEF GOLFER IN SENIOR 4-BALL
Binom Galloway, a member of the Horse Thief Golf Club, teamed with Bill Karrth of The Bench Warmers to finished equal 25th in the SCGA Senior 4-Ball Net Championship last week at Moorpark CC.
The two shot rounds of 70 and 68 for a 6-under 138 total, a far cry from the winning score of 124.
That 124 was shot by Jim Moore from Mountain Meadows GC and Clarke Paxton from La Purisima GC, who carded rounds of 58 and 66. A total of 46 teams competed in the tournament which is open to players age 50 and over.
CHIP SHOTS
* I turned 50 on Wednesday and although I haven't played in many tournaments the past few years, I'm looking forward to teeing it up with the "old guys" in next year's Kern County Senior Championship at Foss-Kern River!
Tee to Green appears weekly at Bakersfield.com/sports. You can reach Gautney at: rgautney@bak.rr.com.
