Torrey Pines, Valhalla and Tee Controversy Pace Section Golf

The high school spring playoffs have begun, which in the San Diego Section means that controversy has once again come into play.

At Monday’s golf team championships at Lomas Santa Fe Country Club, two foursomes began by teeing off from the white tees rather than the blue tees. They followed suit for three holes before realizing their error and moving back to the blues. Upon finishing their round they replayed holes 2 through 4 from the correct tees. Nevertheless, all eight golfers were disqualified.

That didn’t make a difference as far as the top two team finishers were concerned. Torrey Pines and Valhalla, as expected, finished first and second respectively and would have done so if there were no disqualifications. Torrey Pines had a five-player total of 412; Valhalla came in at 417. Each had one golfer disqualified.

The disqualifications did matter at sixth place. Officially Poway finished in that spot at 427, but Serra, too, would have finished with an identical score if two of its golfers weren’t disqualified.

Since the scores of Matt Gresham (85) and Mark Coulliard (89) did not count, Serra had only four golfers finish. A team needs a five-player total, so Serra was disqualified as a team.

The kicker is that all eight disqualified golfers were told by their official scorer to hit from the white tees. Too, there was no pretournament rules sheet explaining what tees would be used.

“We teed off from the white tees for most of our matches during the season,” Gresham said. “And the scorer told us to play from the whites today. It’s not our fault that we did that.”

As John Roberts, coach of first-place Torrey Pines said, “These guys learn to do what adults tell them to do.”

Still, a committee of coaches decided on disqualification.

“We could have accepted the scores and the finish (of the top two teams) would have been the same,” Roberts said. “So we decided on disqualification so the tournament would be more legitimate. Only the top two go on to the next step (Southern California regionals), so I don’t really think you remember whether you finished fifth, sixth, or seventh.”

At least one Serra golfer would have remembered.

“This is the first year we’ve been good enough to get this far,” Gresham said. “I feel kind of bad. This is my last year in high school and this is what I’ve been working for for three years.”

Anyway, Torrey Pines senior Todd Demsey led the Falcons to the title. He shot a one-under par 71 and was the only golfer on the team to finish under 81.

Torrey Pines’ other finishers were: Todd Andrews, 81; Sachin Saste, 86; Paul Munsch, 87; and Mike Hartford, 87.

Valhalla’s top five were: Chris Stewart, 73; Brian Addis, 81; Ryan Carr, 83; Glenn Muncrief, 86; and Chris Ledwith, 94.

Fallbrook and Mt. Carmel finished tied for third at 425, and St. Augustine wound up in fifth at 426. St. Augustine also had one golfer disqualified.