Centennial's depth pays dividends in SWYL tourney
| Thursday, Apr 16 2009 11:16 PM
Last Updated Friday, Apr 17 2009 11:20 AM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Centennial's Joseph Choi chips a shot up towards the pen on the third green, during Thursday's SWYL golf tournament at Kern River Golf Course near Ming Lake.
Centennial sophomore golfer Jack Henneberry stood at the window of the Kern River Golf Course clubhouse Thursday afternoon, adding up strokes and straining to see the 18th green.
Another Golden Hawks sophomore, Neil Bautista, had just missed a short putt, sending Henneberry into a spin of agony.
But a few minutes later, after Bautista had recovered and finished a wonderful round of 72 to match Henneberry's 2-over-par effort, the two found themselves celebrating outside the door.
That's because the Hawks won their second SWYL mini-tournament of the year, edging Stockdale behind two of their unheralded players.
Centennial got solid but not spectacular rounds from their No. 1 and 2 golfers, Manav Shah (74) and Joseph Choi (77), but it was the matching season-low 72s from Henneberry and Bautista that pushed the Hawks past Stockdale, 375 strokes to 378.
"Our four, five and six guys are a key to us winning," Centennial coach Andy Muro said. "They've got to keep doing what they're doing. When those guys play well, we tend to win."
The three-stroke photo finish was the latest in a series of close battles between Centennial and Stockdale that should continue into the postseason.
"It's always close with Stockdale," said Bautista, who made 16 pars on the round. "... We can go a long way. I think we're going to put it together at the end of the season."
Stockdale was a bit handicapped in this one. The Mustangs were without defending state runner-up Pete Fernandez, who missed a practice Tuesday and therefore had to sit out the tournament in accordance with team rules.
Alex Marina led Stockdale with a season-low and meet-low 71. Bryce Keene had a 75, and Suraj Patel a 76.
"I'm not really disappointed at all," Stockdale coach Jim Keene said. "We'll pull it together."
Frontier took third behind Chase Goodvin's 78 and Ridgeview fourth behind Matt Wisniewski's 77 and Joe Dias' 78.
