Staying the Course

Playing in a group with the number one golfers from St. Joseph, Lompoc and Santa Maria, Cabrillo's Chas Whitmore birdied the first hole he played, the par-four fourth.

“I haven't birdied that hole in two years,” he said with a smile.

Cabrillo hosted the Los Padres League Tournament #2 at the Village Country Club in Vandenberg Village on Thursday.

Whitmore shot a season low 78 to finish four strokes behind medalist Eric Olson. Olsen and teammate Matthew Hansen shot the two lowest scores of the day to lead Morro Bay to their second straight LPL tournament victory.

With a final team score of 406, Morro Bay finished nine strokes ahead of second place St. Joseph. Santa Ynez wound up in third at 422, with Cabrillo just behind at 426.

“Out of the blue,” said St. Joseph coach Eddie Murray about Morro Bay's play this season. “No one knew, they certainly have a shot at it.”

Olsen shot even par on the front nine and hit two-over on the back. A seven on 15, a 370-yard par-four, kept him from scoring under par. He had birdies on the 411-yard par-four eighth and on the par-three 13th.

The Pirates shot a consistent score as a team. Of the five scores that counted in the total, Morro Bay did not have a golfer shoot over 89.

Whitmore, in the foursome ahead of Olsen, played well throughout the course. A bogie on his final hole, the par-5 third, cost him a tie for second.

“A two-foot putt and I could have had a 77,” he said. “I hit a lot of things solid, mostly my driver. It wasn't my putter.”

Whitmore continued, “I had 33 putts, but I hit a lot of greens. My putter wasn't doing that good, but I hit the ball really good.”

After the birdie on four, Whitmore felt his game would be there for the day.

“After (I birdied) that hole,” he explained, “I felt confident. I felt like going out there and shooting good. It wasn't all there, but I hit a lot of solid shots.”

Olsen remained consistent, hitting a 74 for the second match in a row. Coming into the tournament, Johnny Henno of Santa Ynez, had the second lowest score at the last match, but ballooned to an 83. The best score for Santa Ynez came from their number three player, Tyler Shean. Starting at the first hole, he compiled a score of 79.

Shean, Kevin Howie of Cabrillo and St. Joseph's Joseph Collins all shot 79, for the fourth best score of the day.

“He's coming around,” said Murray about Collins. “My top two guys, Collins and Chris Blystone, they have a chance to play CIF. I think they take the top six individuals. Joseph really wants to do it this year and he's one of the guys who's actually out there practicing all the time.”

And while they finished in seventh place, the Lompoc Braves showed a marked improvement from last week, which pleased coach Chris Adams.

“We improved by several strokes,” Adams said. “Brent Van Dyke (87) shot a personal best today.”

“We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who are working hard,” he continued. “They keep making progress and we are setting the cornerstone for the future.”

In the last tournament, hosted by St. Joseph, two teams - Morro Bay and Santa Ynez shot under 400 - but neither could improve on that score, with Morro Bay shooting eight strokes higher and Santa Ynez at plus-23 from last week.

The other five teams, however, did improve their scores from last week.

Murray explained from his team's perspective. “We're making a slow turtle's pace progress,” he said. “We were shooting pretty high at the beginning of the season, but we're getting slow momentum, you might say.”

“If we can get a couple more guys to shoot in the 70's,” he explained, ‘We've got a shot at it.”

And there are several players who are just about at that under-80 range in the LPL. A great example is Santa Maria's Jeff Rivetti.

After shooting a team low 82, Rivetti said, “I had five birdie putts that I didn't make and three-putted holes 1 & 2.”

PAC-7 League Tournament

Atascadero won the team competition at Cypress Ridge with a 390. Righetti's Bobby Barajas was the medalist with a 74. The Warriors finished fifth at 410.

Paso Robles placed second at 397. Nipomo finished third at 399. Arroyo Grande placed fourth at 400, and San Luis Obispo was sixth at 416. Pioneer Valley did not score.

Team leaders included Brian Popeney for Atascadero (75), Kevin Sepulveda for Paso Robles (75), Brian Walker for Nipomo (75) and Nick Koonvirarak for San Luis Obispo (77).

Boys Tennis

Righetti 13, Paso Robles 5

The Warriors' doubles teams all swept, as did Philipp Steinrueck at No. 1 singles as Righetti (3-0, 6-2) kept rolling with a PAC-7 win on the road.

Steinrueck took his sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-0. Michael Talamontez and Bradlee Brown dropped just two games in three sets at No. 1 doubles. Randy Rhodes and Josh DeHart (No. 2), and Ben Payne and Tony Ly (No. 3) finished off Righetti's perfect doubles day.

Templeton 12, Cabrillo 6

Cabrillo picked up six doubles points but failed to win a singles match against Templeton.

The No. 1 doubles team of Danny Gross and Vince Jefferson won 6-4 and 6-1 before falling to Templeton's Joe Zolnoski and Jeff Moody 6-4. Zolnoski and Moody, the No. 3 Templeton team, defeated each of their Cabrillo foes.

Morro Bay 11, Lompoc 7

Alex Jensen swept three sets at No. 1 singles for the Braves (2-2, 4-5), but they fell short in a Los Padres League road match.

Jamil Macias and Anthony Yang won two of three sets at No. 1 singles for Lompoc.

Santa Ynez 16, Santa Maria 2

At Santa Ynez, Evan Ineman and Ryan Allen swept three sets for the Pirates at No. 1 doubles without dropping a game.

Ryan Huebel swept three sets at No. 1 singles. Mathis Benthin, Santa Maria's top singles player, earned both the Saints' points.

March 23, 2007