Angel’s 71 Good Enough for Second in SoCal Golf

Darren Angel scowled as he looked at the leader board upon finishing his round at the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. Championship Monday.

Angel, a sophomore from Granada Hills High, saw that his 71--even par on the 6,400-yard Stockdale Country Club course--put him in a tie for second place with Andrew Wen of Vista Rancho Buena Vista.

Angel took home the third-place trophy because Wen had a better score on the back nine.

Not a bad round for someone playing in his first CIF-SCGA championship, but Angel expects better and he was thinking about what might have been.

“I couldn’t make a putt,” he said. “I hit 14 greens and only made birdie twice.

“I was hitting everything on the lip, but I couldn’t get anything to drop. It just wasn’t my day. If I came back tomorrow, I might shoot 61.”

Angel’s frustrating day putting--he missed a three-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole--kept him from challenging the winner of the individual boys’ competition, Mike Samoles of San Diego Patrick Henry, who shot a 68.

Samoles became the second consecutive golfer from Patrick Henry to win the title. Chris Riley, who finished third in the NCAA championships last week for Nevada Las Vegas, won the Southern California championship last year.

Because of a format change, the CIF-SCGA tournament championship was decided over 18 holes instead of 36 for the first time in its 23-year history.

Angel was the only player from his team to shoot in the 70s and Granada Hills finished with 411 strokes, ninth of 10 teams and 36 strokes behind the winner, Santa Margarita.

The City Section’s other representative, Taft, finished last with 418 strokes. Scott Golditch shot 74 and Art Weiner had a 77 for Taft.

Westlake, with a lineup of two freshmen, three sophomores and a senior, finished seventh with 396.

Freshman Ross Fulgentis shot a 76, sophomore Brandon DiTullio had a 77 and freshman Matt McCrite came in at 79 for the Warriors.

Chad Wright of Buena shot 74, the only other area individual in the 70s.

Kellee Booth, a junior from Santa Margarita, won her second consecutive title in the afternoon girls’ individual competition, shooting three-over-par 74. She beat Betty Chen of Palm Desert by two strokes.

Grant’s Elise Kimm shot 78 and tied for third with Rachel Borcherts of Millikan. Kimm took home the third-place trophy because she fared better on the back nine.

Linda Ishii of Westlake finished in a three-way tie for sixth with a 79.