By Katie Le
SANTA ANA, Ca. — A call for a golf match between Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) and Corona del Mar High School (CdMHS) took place at Willowick Golf Course on Tuesday, Apr. 19. The players arrived at 2:30 p.m., which was 30 minutes before the game began.
Although FVHS’s home course is at Mile Square Park, the match was moved to Willowick due to Covid-19 restrictions. Since the terrain was more serpentine and bumpy, the players were given leniency, allowing them to hit the ball one club length from where it originally landed. Fortunately, this was FVHS’s last home game at Willowick and they will continue to compete at their usual location for the remainder of the season.
In a league tournament, the competitors would shoot 18 holes, but since this was a non-league match, nine holes were played.
Before each player took their first swing of the entire game, they introduced themselves and showed the ball they would be using to avoid any future mix-up of which ball is whose.
Eight players splitted into four pairs to go against four others from CdMHS:
- Junior Anthony Duong and freshman Jackie Yenson
- Senior Grady Pongalek and junior Justin Dang
- Senior Jeffrey Langford and senior Oscar Nguyen
- Senior Jaden Carr and junior Timothy Pham
A golfer from each pair was held responsible for recording the number of strokes everyone took to putt the ball in the hole. At the end, the scorecards were compared to compromise any differences in points.
Most climactic, Yenson lost his ball playing hole 16. He was given three minutes to look for it; the coach was by his side in the great hunt until time ran out. Ultimately, Yenson incurred a “stroke and distance” penalty, where he had to shoot the ball at the same spot again with an addition of two strokes to his score.
There was a point in the match where Duong managed to lose his ball as well. However, the penalty was sustained because he hit a provisional. This meant that if the golfer thought the ball might be lost, they were able to shoot a second ball just in case.
The final individual scores raked:
- Dang: 40 strokes
- Duong: 40 strokes
- Nguyen: 40 strokes
- Pham: 43 strokes
- Langford: 46 strokes
- Pongalek: 47 strokes
- Carr: 54 strokes
- Yenson: 57 strokes
The Barons accepted a hard-fought defeat with a final score of 179 strokes to 209 strokes.
Head coach Carter Keyser “[felt] it would be difficult to beat Corona del Mar.” However, this was FVHS’s first game back from spring break, and despite what the score concluded, he was still proud of the team.
“My expectations were to keep it close and hopefully at least play better than we’ve been playing,” Keyser said.
Going into the game, the golfers aimed to keep the overall score under 200 strokes. Even though the goal failed to meet, it was still one of their lower scores of the season. In terms of improvement, Keyser hopes “each guy could drop a couple shots.” It’s safe to say that, whether they win or lose, maintaining a positive attitude and staying motivated after each game is what builds a good team.
“You look to the future [and say] ‘okay, we can do better.’ In golf, it can be streaky. Sometimes, you’re a really good player but you just get into the funk and it’s hard to get out of that. So, I think you just stay positive and, you know, you just keep moving forward,” Keyser said.
