Robert Gautney: Locals to compete in CIF SoCal regional today
| Wednesday, Nov 09 2011 09:23 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 09 2011 09:25 PM
The rest of the season will be on the line today for the Stockdale High girls golf team and a pair of players from Frontier High as the CIF Southern California Regional Championships will be played on The Golf Club at Rancho California golf course in Murrieta.
The top two teams and the next six players not on those teams will advance to compete in the CIF State High School Championships at Poppy Hills GC in Monterey on Nov.15. From past years, it looks like a score of around par will be needed for an individual to advance, while the Stockdale girls would need their all-time best performance to have a chance to finish in the top two.
Kaley In leads the Lady Mustangs into today's tournament. In shot a 76 to lead the Mustangs when they qualified No.2 behind Clovis West in the CIF Central Section Team Championships. Abby Marina has been the No.2 player all year with Justine Shih, Shelby McGowan, Sammi Ramkey and Jessica Park rounding out the line-up.
Meghan Shain and Michelle Martel from Frontier will be competing as individuals after qualifying in the CIF Central Section Individual Championships. Shain, the reigning Kern County Women's Amateur Champion, finished equal second in that event along with In and has been in a season-long duel with In for the lowest scoring average and perhaps, the Regional tournament may decide who wins the Californian's High School All Area Player of the Year award. Both are averaging around 76 for the year.
Hale in Florida For Second Stage
Former Garces High and Cal Berkeley star Stephen Hale will face his toughest and most important professional tournament to date when he competes in the PGA Tour Second Stage Qualifying in Plantation, Fla., Nov.16-19.
Hale will play 72 holes on the Plantation Reserve Golf Course and Club against 77 other players with a chance to move onto the PGA Q-School finals in December at PGA West in La Quinta. According to the PGA Tour website, the number of qualifiers from each of the six Second Stage events will be relative to the number of players competing, so at this time there is not a specific number that will advance.
Hale got to the Second Stage by qualifying 33rd in Pre-Qualifying and then 18th in First Stage Qualifying at Dayton Valley GC in Dayton, NV.
In the Q-School finals, the top-25 receive PGA Tour cards with the remainder of the players completing 108 holes receiving Nationwide Tour playing cards in varying degrees. The top 50 of those will have full exempt status. So, if Hale can at least make it through the second stage he will be playing at minimum on the Nationwide Tour for 2012! All I can say about all of this is GO HALE!
SCGA 4-Ball at BCC next week
The Southern California Golf Association will hold its annual 4-Ball Championship at the Bakersfield Country Club next Monday and Tuesday, Nov.14-15 and we will have a few local players competing.
D.J. Fernando will team with his former CSUB teammate Greg Lopez, now living in Irvine, after they finished No.2 in the qualifying at Dove Canyon CC with a 6-under 65. Also qualifying in that tournament was the duo of Bryan Lynn and Bill Frankhouser, Jr. who finished equal 5th with a 3-under 68.
Jeff Campbell and Jeff Acebedo missed out on the playoff for the last spots at Dove Canyon, but they will be in the field thanks to their alternate status.
At Rustic Canyon in Moorpark, Scott LaBare, who just won the Men's Kern County Amateur in October, teamed with Kevin Anderson who resides in Los Angeles to finish equal 4th to advance to BCC and Bhavik Patel and Manav Shah will compete as a team through exemptions.
Bakersfield teams have won the tournament twice in the 20-year history. Dale Keene and Dan Hogan won in 1999 at the San Diego Country Club while Dan's son Bryan teamed with Tyler Hurst to win in 2007 at Industry Hills GC.
Justin Pitts Sponsorship Scramble
This Saturday at the Foss-Kern River golf course, a scramble golf tournament to benefit the professional career of Justin Pitts will take place with an 8 a.m. shotgun start.
The entry is $125 and includes golf, cart, a tri-tip lunch and awards. The deadline has passed, but there still might be late entries available. If anyone is interested in playing, sponsoring or volunteering, contact Pitts at 599-0468.
Miller 15th, Robinson 19th for BC
Bakersfield College golfers Malea Miller and Paula Robinson competed in the Southern California Junior College Regionals at the Twin Oaks GC in San Marcos this week, but with 15th and 19th place finishes, they did not advance to the State Championships.
It took a top 12 finish to advance and Miller shot 79-82 for a 161 total, just a single shot from an equal 12th finish. Robinson scored 88-78 for a 166 total.
Glendale and Palomar advanced as teams while the medalist was Glendale's Silwanna Pattraporn who shot 2-under 142.
Chip Shots
-- UCLA's Pantrick Cantlay, the No.1 ranked amateur player in the world, received the Fred Haskins award as the NCAA's Collegiate Player of the Year last week. He joins a list of players such as Tiger Woods in 1996 and 3-time winner Phil Mickelson (1990-92).
Tee to Green appears weekly at Bakersfield.com/sports. You can reach Gautney at rgautney@bak.rr.com.
