Valley’s Best Try to Heat Up

If, as the golf saying says, you are only as good as your last round, then Westlake, Hart and Buena seem to have their work cut out for them.

Each team shot uncharacteristically high scores during the Southern Section northern regional tournament at La Purisima Country Club in Lompoc last week, but still qualified for Monday’s Southern Section team championships at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs.

There they will meet the top three teams from each of four other regional qualifying rounds, with the top four advancing to the Southern California Golf Assn. championships on June 6.

The desert heat will be a welcome change for the three teams that posted the three highest qualifying scores in a 30-mph wind at La Purisima.

“Take all the money you can that it won’t happen again,” said Hart Coach Dennis Ford, whose team finished third with 405 strokes at La Purisima. “The course was playing just brutal. It was a three-to-four club wind.”

Buena won the northern regional at 397, with Westlake next at 398. The three top teams had averaged near 375 and had been below 370 at similar courses during the season.

“Any of the three teams out of the north have as good a shot to win this as anyone,” Buena Coach Gerry Carruthers said. “For any of the teams to shoot over 390 again is unrealistic.”

The Warriors, second in the Southern Section last season, are led by Ross Fulgentis, who broke the Marmonte League individual tournament record by shooting 283 over four rounds.

Hart, in the section championships for the fifth time in seven years, is lead by Jason Semelsberger, who shot a 68 during the Foothill League tournament, and Carlos Robledo, named the league’s most valuable player.

For Buena, sophomores Drew Weilbacher and Dusty Morton finished in the top five of the Channel League, with senior Nate Whitson coming in sixth.