Incorrect Ruling Discovered; Irvine Out of Golf Finals

The Irvine High girls’ golf team has been ousted from the Southern Section team finals and replaced by Torrance Bishop Montgomery because tournament administrators incorrectly applied tiebreaker procedures Tuesday at the regional qualifier.

Irvine tied for fifth with Bishop Montgomery in the Southern Regional at Los Serranos in Chino Hills.

The top five teams in that qualifying tournament were to advance to Monday’s section finals at Temeku Hills in Temecula.

Tournament administrators used a back-nine card-off tiebreaker, adding the back-nine scores of each team member.

Irvine’s three players scored 144 on the back nine to Bishop Montgomery’s 148, and the Vaqueros were awarded the fifth spot.

But Rule No. 14 in the Southern Section Girls’ Golf Team Championship Bulletin sent to participating schools states, “Ties for the fifth and final team qualifying positions at each regional will be broken by the score of the fourth team member.”

The card-off rule was third in the tiebreaking procedures, to be applied only in the event that the fourth players had also tied and darkness prevented a sudden-death playoff.

Bishop Montgomery won the fourth-player tiebreaker, 99-120, and Wednesday, Southern Section officials overturned Irvine’s entry into the finals.

“It’s tough to swallow,” said Al Herring, Irvine’s co-coach. “Everybody was sky-high here about making it, then this happens. It’s a shocker, but if that’s the rule, then we can’t really argue, can we?”