Southern Section Golf : Palm Springs Wins Title at Home

Palm Springs High School, playing on its home course at Mission Hills Country Club, scored a lopsided victory in the Southern Section team golf tournament Monday. The Indians shot a team-total 378, eight strokes better than second-place Los Angeles Loyola.

Said Loyola Coach Bill Sanchez, after watching his star, Ken Tanigawa, lose five strokes on the back nine and settle for a two-over-par 74: “I’m disappointed. It’s not sour grapes or anything, but we’ll see who’s the best in Bakersfield (at the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. tournament June 3). I question who is the better team.”

Palm Springs was unquestionably the better team Monday. The Indians, led by O.D. Vincent and Tim Wilcox, who each shot par 72, were never really challenged. Tanigawa, the Southern Section individual champion, was grouped with Vincent and led on the front nine, but double bogeyed the 16th hole and fell back to two-over par at the end of the round.

“It was a tough round,” he said. “You know, like they say, just one of those days. I missed a bunch of close putts, and that gets you down.”

Rounding out Palm Springs’ scoring were Roger Dibble at 75, Brian Leitgeb at 79, and Brian Prieto at 80.

Also advancing to the CIF-SCGA tournament were third-place Dana Hills of Dana Point, which had a total of 390, and Indio, which finished at 391.