By Derryl Trujillo
— Four local golfers advanced through league qualifying, the CIF Southern Section Central Individual qualifier at Bear Creek in Murrieta, and the CIF-SS Championship play at River Ridge in Oxnard to last Thursday’s CIF-SCGA Southern California Regional Final at Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena.
The goal was simple but not easy. Be among the top 9 players not on a team qualified for next Wednesday’s CIF-State finals at San Gabriel to advance. Unfortunately, for all four of our locals at Brookside, the road ended a round short of the finals. The score to advance was -2 (70) on the 6,852-yard layout that also serves as parking for UCLA football games.
Great Oak’s Nathan Sampson (starting at #1 in a shotgun) reached -2 after going eagle, birdie on the 5th and 6th holes but gave one shot back with a bogey at eight to go out in -1 (35). Back-to-back bogeys at fifteen and sixteen dropped him to +1. He would recover one of those shots with a birdie at seventeen and gave himself an eagle opportunity at eighteen by driving the green, but the putt did not fall.
Vista Murrieta’s Jaden Huggins (starting at #1 in a shotgun) had back-to-back birdies on fifteen and sixteen which got him to even par after going out in +1 (37) but he’d get no closer to the cut line and post E (72).
Temescal Canyon’s Nixon Lauritzen started on 16 in the shotgun start and completed nine holes at -1. He dropped a shot at the par 3 eighth (his 11th hole of the day) but got it back with a birdie at eleven (his 14th) and was one off the cut line. However, a rough finish (bogey, double bogey, quintuple bogey) sent him to a six over par round of 78,
Chaparral’s Chance Frye went out in +3 (39) also starting off 16 and recorded two birdies in his last six holes en route to a two over round of 74.
Derryl Trujillo has been a sportswriter in the area since 2018 and is a 2019 winner of the IEBCA Supporter of the Year award. He can be reached by email at socaltrekkie@gmail.com.
