Peninsula Golf Wins Southern Section

Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula has dominated girls’ golf the last four years, but as the Panthers collected trophies each year one eluded them.

They took care of that Monday when they shot a team score of 415 and won their first Southern Section team title by six shots over Long Beach Wilson. San Clemente was third with 426, and Alhambra Keppel shot 431 to finish fourth.

The top four teams advance to the Southern California regional tournament on Nov. 15 at The SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta.

Peninsula has won four consecutive divisional titles, is the two-time defending Southern California regional champion and won the inaugural girls’ state title last year. The Southern Section title on Monday completes the team grand slam after runner-up finishes the last two years and a third in 2001.

“It’s a huge relief to finally win this,” said senior co-captain Shannon Yocum, who led the Panthers with a nine-over-par 80. “We didn’t think this was going to be our year, but after our first few matches we realized that we had some depth.”

That depth came in handy on a difficult course. Only six of the 96 players broke 80 and nobody shot par. Peninsula was the only team that did not have to count a score of 90 or more. Stephanie Yocum shot 82 and UC Irvine-bound senior Mariko Makabe shot 83. Lai Shan Lau, a junior who shot a career-best 88 last Thursday in the divisional, bettered that by three strokes Monday and tied with teammate Marissa Steiner at 85.

Brianna Do shot 74 and Patti Chawalitmetha shot 77 for Wilson, which advanced to the regional for the first time since 2001. Ryann O’Toole shot 76 to lead San Clemente.

Keppel, which was third in the section, regional and state last year, was led by Dorothy Lee’s 83. Angela Park of Torrance had the low round with a 73.

Peter Yoon

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Granada Hills, led by Angela Villela’s five-over 77, won its fourth consecutive City Section team title and sophomore Paula Kerdpinyo of Marshall defended her individual title by shooting 72 at Balboa Golf Course in Encino. Venice finished second to earn the other qualifying spot for the regional. Tori Leon of Franklin was the individual runner-up with a 76.