Teachers Don’t Give Golfers a Mulligan

The Southern Section golf team finals begin today and with the competition comes the problem of athletes missing too much school.

The finals start at 8 a.m. and players on qualifying teams will miss a full day of class for the second time this week.

Last week, many of those players missed two days for league finals. Next week some will miss a day for the section individual regionals and the week after that its another day for the finals.

Add in a slew of half-days and a handful of full days throughout the semester for regular-season matches, and its no wonder teachers and administrators are beginning to voice concerns.

“It’s definitely a problem,” said Curtis Marcell, assistant principal at Servite High. “We think golfers are taking too much time out of school.”

Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton has also noticed and he plans to propose a rule change designed to keep kids in class.

It’s a problem unique to golf because matches must be played during daylight. An 18-hole match can take as long as six hours; nine-hole matches can take three. In addition, golf courses won’t give up valuable weekend tee times, so Saturday matches are not an option.

Southern Section rules allow high school teams to play 18 matches a year, but the rules do not specify how many holes are allowed in each match. Missed class time begins to add up when teams split 18-hole matches over two days. Theoretically, teams could play 36 regular-season matches and remain within the guidelines.

It gets even worse for high-level players such as Nico Bollini of Servite. Bollini, the defending Southern Section champion, estimates he has missed about 20 days this semester.

Bollini is an elite junior player and plays in many top-level national tournaments.

He has missed so much school that Servite administrators told him he would not be allowed to graduate even though Bollini maintained a 3.3 grade-point average.

“I was really close to transferring for my last semester,” Bollini said. “My dad had to go in front of the school board to keep me in school. I don’t know why it’s a big deal if my grades are OK.”

Servite administrators worked a deal with the Bollinis and, provided he keeps up with his work, he will graduate in June.

But teachers are making it increasingly difficult to maintain good grades without being in class. At Santa Margarita High, Taylor Wood said teachers require that he take quizzes even if he missed a lecture the previous day that announced the quiz.

Staunton’s idea is to eliminate the splitting of nine-hole matches, thus reducing the number of game days. Staunton says academics is the top priority, but he also relates to golfers and their coaches.

“Wouldn’t you want to play some of the finest courses in Southern California as much as possible for the limited time you had if you were in high school?” Staunton said. “That’s what I told my son when he played. I said ‘Go out and play. When will I ever take you to Big Canyon?’ ”

The problem seems to be a bigger issue at private schools because they do not have a designated physical education period.

Ian Wells, an English teacher at Redondo Beach Redondo Union High, coached golf for one year before giving it up. The reason?

“I thought I was missing way too much class,” Wells said.

He added that students missing that amount of school will have a difficult time passing.

“Flat out,” Wells said. “The way I teach my class, if a kid misses class more than five times in a semester, he is not going to pass.”

But Wells shouldn’t underestimate the resiliency of golfers. Bollini recalls studying for a biology test between shots at a tournament two years ago.

There is no section rule about the amount of school athletes are permitted to miss, just the minimum 2.0 GPA requirement. Staunton said golfers generally have no problem satisfying that requirement.

“Let’s face it,” Staunton said. “In my experience, golfers are a pretty good group as far as students go.”