Pirates finish second at State Golf Championships
CARMEL -- In one of the closest Final Four golf tournaments in recent history, the Orange Coast College men's golf team fought hard but finished second overall, three strokes behind College of the Canyons, during Monday's CCCAA Men's Golf State Championships, held at Rancho Canada Golf Club.
The Pirates, looking for their first men's golf state championship since 1958, shot a team score of 354-372-726 in the two-round event and finished just behind the champion Cougars (356-367-723). Santa Rosa (351-383-734) finished third overall, while Chabot (359-379-738) finished fourth.
Playing on the East Course during the morning rounds, all four teams shot fantastic scores. Santa Rosa held the lead after the first 18 holes were played, shooting a team score of 351, or 4-under-par on the par-71 course. The Pirates were just three shots behind at 1-under 354, with Canyons (356) third and Chabot (359) third. Just eight shots separated first from fourth with 18 holes left to play.
In the afternoon, all four teams took on the West Course and shooting low became more difficult for everyone involved.
In the morning, 14 players shot even par or better. In the afternoon, only four were able to tame the par-71 West Course at par or better.
But down the stretch, College of the Canyons made the fewest mistakes in the afternoon and fired the lowest second-round team score of 367, moving the Cougars from third to first.
"The West Course had very tight fairways, some water hazards, some out of bounds and just enough stuff to distract players and get them off of their game," OCC head coach Sean Collins said. "The wind was up and it was cold, but nothing our guys shouldn't of been able to handle. It was a great run and they played hard, but we just came up a few shots short."
OCC's leader on the course for both rounds was David Pelekoudas. After struggling at the Southern California Regionals, Pelekoudas came up huge for the Pirates, firing a pair of 2-under, 69s for a two-round score of 138. It was the lowest score among the four teams competing for the state title and was just one shot behind Reedley College's Jacob Ruffino (67-70-137) for the low round of the championships.
Riley Murphy also cleared par in the morning with a 1-under 70 before finishing the afternoon with a 75 for a two-round score of 145.
Other OCC scores included Kyle Pollema (71-75-146), Kyle Melchiorre (73-77-150), Marcus Mercado-Kiel (74-76-150) and Michael Chen (71-85-155).
