GOLF / SOUTHERN SECTION SOUTHERN REGIONAL : Trabuco Hills, Servite, Santa Margarita Advance

On a day of unexpectedly high scores Monday at the Southern Section Southern Team Regional, two favorites and one upstart advanced to the team championships next week in Goleta.

Trabuco Hills and Santa Margarita, two of the teams expected to finish among the top three, tied for first with scores of 42-over-par 402. Servite, the third-place team from the Sunset League, was third with 404.

Esperanza finished fourth (408) and Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach and San Clemente tied for fifth (409).

The top three teams from each regional advance to the Southern Section Team Championship Monday at Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta.

Entering the Southern Regional, most coaches figured it would take a team score in the low to mid 390s to advance, but the 6,400-yard course at Western Hills Country Club wasn’t yielding many birdies.

“The golf course must have been a lot more difficult than I perceived,” Santa Margarita Coach Dave Duran said. “I spent half the day in the clubhouse, so it’s an uneducated comment when I say the scores were poor.”

Players said they were having trouble with fast greens and that the wind, which picked up in the afternoon, also caused problems.

Trabuco Hills’ Justin Grandy, whose two-over 74 earned him a tie for medalist honors with Valencia sophomore John Lee, also was surprised by the scores.

“I didn’t think it (his 74) would be the low round,” Grandy said. “I was pretty shocked. I thought it would take about 69.

“When I heard our score was 402, I didn’t think we’d be in the top three or even four, so when we tied for first I was shocked again.”

But the biggest shock was the finish of Servite, which has two freshmen and only one senior in its starting six. The Friars, ranked 19th in Orange County in the midseason coaches’ poll, were the only team with three players in the 70s: Freshmen Mike Lauder (77), Jeff McGraw (78) and junior Wally Luciano (79).

This marked the end of the season for Huntington Beach and Esperanza, ranked second and third, respectively, in the midseason poll. Esperanza’s Chris Berry and Ryan Donovan, who finished first and third in the Empire League individual finals, each struggled to 84s.

Huntington Beach’s Greg Uberuaga and San Clemente’s Shawn Levin were disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Without the disqualifications, the Oilers and the Tritons would have finished in a fourth-place tie with 405.