MENIFEE – One week after Great Oak took home this season’s Southwestern League team title, the individual league finals got underway Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Menifee Lakes Country Club on the Lakes Course. This two-day event pitted the best of the best against each other as each program looked to send their top qualifiers on to regional competition play. Day One tee yardage was set at 5,400 yards from the Red, while Day Two will be pushed back to 6,100 yards.
Day One action saw an intense battle for separation between two freshman standouts in Breanna Noble (Vista Murrieta) and Maddie Sammon (Murrieta Valley), who did their best to contain Great Oak junior, Jessica Li.
Also making waves on the course was Murrieta Valley’s Rylee Rainosek who had a hole-in-one on the par 3 eighth hole. Through those first eight holes it was Noble at -2, which gave her a one-shot lead over both Sammon and Li while defending champion from Vista Murrieta, and older sister to Maddie, Lauren Sammon, sat at +2.
As the golfers hit the back nine, a bogey for Noble on the 13th, and a bogey for Maddie on the 13th, who was coming off a birdie on hole 12, put the two golfers one up on Jessica Li at -1. That’s when Li took advantage of her course knowledge with back-to-back birdies on hole 16 and 17 to jump ahead of the younger Sammon by one shot, and Noble by two.
Hole 18 was a short par 5 that had birdie written all over it, which is exactly what Li did to finish out in front with a 69 (-3). Lauren also finished with a birdie on that final hole, finishing at +3 on the day, while younger sister Maddie finished with a par on the final hole and was -1 on the day (71). Noble finished with a 73 (+1) after struggling a bit on the back nine with four bogeys and only one birdie.
The top five (with a tie for fifth) heading into Day Two consisted of Li, M. Sammon, Noble, L. Sammon (75), Skylar Earle (76) and Brooke Carpenter (76), both of Great Oak.
The final round would be a roller coaster of emotions for not only the Sammon sisters, who were playing in their first-ever tournament against each other, but for all the girls in the field of contenders. It would all come down to a sudden-death playoff in which Maddie not only beat her sister, who was seeking a third consecutive Southwestern League individual championship, but she also took out Li, who led all golfers on Day One.
Along with Maddie and Lauren Sammon, as well as Li, five other Southwestern League golfers will move on to the CIF Southern Section regional qualifier, which will take place Monday, Oct. 23, at Bear Valley Country Club in Victorville. They are listed as follows:
Brooke Carpenter (Great Oak; 76, 76 – 152), Breanna Noble (Vista Murrieta73, 81 – 154), Kimi Arabe (Temecula Valley; 81, 75 – 156), Skylar Earle (Great Oak; 76, 80 – 156) and Wren Saithong (Vista Murrieta; 78, 84 – 162).
Upcoming events include:
- SoCal Regional Championship – Thursday, Nov. 9 at Los Serranos (North Course) in Chino Hills
- State Championship – Wednesday, Nov. 15 at Poppy Hills GC, Pebble Beach
JP Raineri can be reached by email at sports@reedermedia.com. Article contributions were also made by Derryl Trujillo (socaltrekkie@gmail.com).
