Gifford Collegiate @ CordeValle

Well the blogging has been dragging, all apologies...Back in tow with a recap from our final fall event up in Northern California. We have been hosting this event up in Nor Cal for 5 years and I must say I love the venue. This year's Gifford Collegiate was a tremendous success. Although we came up short, finishing 4th behind Stanford, Ok. State, and Augusta State...there were many bright spots for the young team.

Our team was made up of four freshman and two sophomores. A very young squad to say the least. We got off to a slow start in round one, gained some momentum in round 2 and made our final charge midway through the back 9 in the final round. After the par-5 15th in round 3, we had closed to within 2 shots of Stanford. With 2 par-5's left to play in our finishing stretch, we believed we could make one final surge. That thought was derailed with 3 bogey's on the par-5 18th. We were in contention coming down the stretch and in golf, that is all you can ask for in the final round. Our guys played solid all week and had a shot.

This young team will continue to grow with each round we play. Derek and I are both very excited about the future of this team. We hope to break through in the spring and bring tournament and individual titles back to Westwood. For now, our hats go off to Stanford...they played well at CordeValle and deserved the title. We look forward to competing with the Cardinal in the years to come.

Individually we had many bright spots...Pontus and Pedro continue to impress each carding top-10 finishes. Pontus fired 8-under to finish T-3 and Figgy finished at 5-under for a T-8. Gregor Main fired a solid 5-under 67 in round 2 to help the Bruin charge. Alex Kim continued his consistent play finishing 1-under for the week in a T-23...Freshman Bobby Lange came up clutch with an even par 72 in the final round to help the squad. It was a great step for Bob as he played with great confidence and finished the round strong birdieing his final hole...

A special thanks goes out to all the people who helped make CordeValle a tremendous success. Helen Mendel the tournament director and her staff, The golf staff at CordeValle, Tom Gray the super, and especially Mrs. Rhodine Gifford for her tremendous support of the event and our team. It was truly an honor to have you there for the week. We love having you around the team and appreciate all you do for us! See you in Hawaii!

We begin off-season workouts next week...focusing on strengthening our weaknesses and finishing strong in the classroom.