by Scott Harvey
Staff Writer
Following up a week of good performances, the University of La Verne golf team traveled to Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course in San Diego last Friday and Saturday to compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Golf Championships.
ULV finished in third place in the College Division last year after a stellar performance by former students Brian Pitcher and Mark Watson in both rounds of play.
This year the high winds and sporadic rains would post a much tougher challenge for not only La Verne golfers, but all competitors on Friday, as the lowest score was 75, while the average of most players was 83 strokes.
For La Verne, Friday was no different for the majority of the golfers, as junior James Torpey put in the lowest score for La Verne with an 88, a dismal score compared to Pitcher’s first round 72 last year, placing him as the leader of the tournament individually.
Although the Leopards did not play as well as they would have liked to on the first day of the tournament, every member of the team shot under 100, a revelation considering that Whittier College had a player shoot 143 in one round of golf and another shoot a 123.
Following Torpey’s score was junior Steve Lewis who shot 90, junior Jim Brooks with a 92, freshman Don Martin with a 93 and last for La Verne was sophomore Scott Garrison with a 97.
“We didn’t do as well as we did last year, but the weather definitely played a factor,” said Garrison.
Head coach Rex Huigens said the tournament at Torrey Pines was a good challenge for his players but not the kind of weekend he would like to remember.
“With high winds and rain, it was hard to play consistently on Friday, but we hung in there and finished on Saturday,” said Huigens.
On Saturday, La Verne’s luck was no better, as they were forced to take the earliest tee time of the tournament at 6 a.m. and finished the day at noon.
Although the tee time left the Leopards tired and worn down, they did not give up and finished the tournament’s second day with 363 strokes, enough to place 11th out of 13 teams in the College Division but not as well as Huigens had hoped.
“We should have played much better this weekend, but our match against UC San Diego should be a better marker of where we are as a team,” he said.
The Leopards faced UCSD Monday at Sierra La Verne Country Club but lost by a score of 307 to San Diego’s 291.
“UCSD is a tough team and play very consistently, but overall, we competed well on Monday,” said senior Steve Lenett, who shot an 84.
Overall, the Leopards had a better outing with sophomore Paul Gomez shooting a 75, Brooks a 76, Martin a 77 and Lewis a 79.
The Tritons were led by James Donahoe’s 68 and Darin Sullivan and Jeremy Byrd, who each shot a 75.
The loss dropped La Verne to 3-3 overall, but the Leopards will have a chance to break the .500 mark Tuesday against Whittier at Hacienda Country Club. La Verne will also compete in the Point Loma Invitational Monday.
