Southern Section Golf : Loyola’s Tanigawa Wins Championship in Playoff

Ken Tanigawa wasn’t selective Monday. The Loyola High School senior battled heat, water, friends, and ultimately himself to win the Southern Section individual golf championship at Desert Falls Country Club.

Tanigawa defeated Dimitri George, a Mayfair High senior, on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff after both golfers had finished at 69, three-under par. Tanigawa, however, hadn’t been expecting the playoff.

An hour earlier, he had come down the 18th fairway holding a one-stroke lead over Bob May of Los Altos, who was playing directly across a lake on the ninth hole. May, a sophomore who has been playing with Tanigawa “since I first held a club,” predicted that his friend would over-shoot the green and drop his second shot into a pond, or “hit agua, “ as May put it.

Tanigawa hit agua, but he also hit a near-perfect pitch and a 10-foot putt while May three-putted and bogeyed his final hole. With nearly the entire field of 120 golfers in the clubhouse, Tanigawa was enjoying congratulations and a relief from the 95-degree heat.

“I was upset (about the ball in the water) but I just shook it off,” he said. “I’m playing real well right now and I’m just happy to win.”

Enter George. While Tanigawa was taking off his shoes, George birdied the 18th and entered the clubhouse with a 69. “I knew I had one of the top scores but I didn’t figure there would be a playoff,” he said.

Tanigawa was left with little time to warm up for the playoff on the 10th hole, where he found a new adversary besides George.

The 10th is a 386-yard par-4 that calls for a long drive over a wide lake and then a short shot to the hole. Tanigawa made a long, straight shot safely down the fairway, but in the process developed a cramp in his right calf.

Limping and in obvious distress, Tanigawa still managed a safe shot just off the green, while George’s landed 30 feet from the flag on the fringe.

Tanigawa then pitched to within inches of the hole, and George left himself a six-foot uphill putt. He missed the putt to the right, and Tanigawa sank his for par and the victory.

“There was pressure out there, and I was nervous on the playoff,” George said. “But he’s a really good golfer. He got hurt but made a good pitch.”

Both May and Dos Pueblos junior Brent Geiberger finished at 71, followed by Dave Berganio of Alemany and Brady Riggs of Burbank Burroughs at par-72. Geiberger, son of long-time PGA player Al Geiberger, was three under going into the 16th, but found the lake and double-bogeyed.

The top 22 finishers advanced to the SCGA-CIF Southern California tournament June 3 at Stockdale Country Club in Bakersfield. Tanigawa, along with Bellflower’s Pearl Sinn, will represent California in the National high school tournament at Colorado Springs, Colo., in late June.