Highland clinches first golf crown since 1997
| Thursday, Apr 30 2009 10:43 PM
Last Updated Friday, May 01 2009 10:08 AM
Images
Felix Adamo / The Californian Garces golfer Stephen Harmer tosses his ball to the next tee after missing a putt on 8 in SEYL golf. At lower right, BHS golfer Connor Huser lines up his putt.
Felix Adamo / The Californian Highland's Matt Hammons grimaces after missing a putt in SEYL tournament action.
Felix Adamo / The Californian High school golfers wait for their turn to tee off on four at the SEYL tournament held at the North Kern links
Like most high school golf coaches, Highland's Martin Baguio roams the course during a tournament, keeping tabs on all of his players.
But Baguio is different -- he never asks for a score, just a status report. Playing OK? Playing poorly? Playing great? Then a word of encouragement and he zooms away.
"I don't want to know what the score is," Baguio said. "... You're not playing the guy you're with; you're playing the golf course. Go out and play the best you can, and the scores will come."
And the scores have come. Highland won its sixth mini-tournament in eight tries and clinched an SEYL championship Thursday at Haggerty-North Kern Golf Course, shooting 386, their second-lowest total of the year.
The Scots are doing it not with a dominant player -- Bakersfield and Liberty golfers have the league's top two scoring averages -- but with depth from spots one through six.
"They're just a bunch of scrappers," Baguio said. "They're grinding the whole time."
Most of Highland's players don't focus on golf year-round like many of the area's best players do, instead playing multiple sports. Baguio's hands-off approach, which he used with success with his son Brady Baguio at Highland and Cal State Bakersfield, seems to work with this group of Scots.
Matt Hammons and Daniel Russell shot 3-over-par 75 on Thursday, James Phillips had a 76 and Dominick Stanley and Sean O'Leary both shot 80s. That was enough to top second-place Liberty by five strokes.
The league has one more mini-tournament before the area tournament May 11 back at North Kern, but upstart Highland already is assured of its first league title since 1997.
"I've always liked being the underdog," Phillips said.
Bakersfield's Conner Huser, who owns the league's low stroke average, birdied five holes to shoot a 70 and led the Drillers to a season-low 392 and second place.
"This was the first nice day we've had in a while, and I played solid," Huser said. "I birdied all the par fives."
Liberty's Rufie Fessler shot 72, BHS' Eric Newby a 75, and Liberty's Max Schmidt, BHS' Patrick Cain and Garces' Stephen Harmer all 76.
