Edison boys’ golf caps postseason run with fifth-place finish at state tournament
After three prior elimination stages, the Edison boys’ golf team and a familiar individual qualifier had made it to the final day of the high school season, and they were happy to be a part of it.
An excuse to not go to school: sign almost any student up. Throw in a chance to compete among an exclusive field for a state championship, and you have a dream come true.
Edison finished fifth in the six-team final, senior Troy Tarvin leading the way for the Chargers with an even-par round of 71 on Wednesday at San Gabriel Country Club.
Perfect weather conditions and a pristine golf course welcomed the competitors with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, quite the reward for those who made it to the final day.
“It was a pretty good way to end the senior season for me,” Tarvin, who finished in a six-way tie for ninth, said following his round. “I probably couldn’t think of any better way to end it.
“We didn’t really play to our best capability today, but it was still a good way to end the season, getting all the way to state, probably getting the farthest, I think, we could ever make it.”
Tarvin, who has committed to Harding University in Arkansas, was in the hunt for the individual championship after birdies at the par-three No. 11 and the par-five No. 13, but back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 took him out of contention.
Pleasanton Foothill’s Brandon Knight won the tournament with a five-under-par round of 66. The list of golfers who have won this tournament include PGA Tour golfers like Murrieta Valley’s Rickie Fowler (2006), Servite’s Patrick Cantlay (2010) and San Diego Scripps Ranch’s Xander Schauffele.
Also competing for Edison were senior Timothy Jung (72), junior Connor Krueger (76), sophomore Dawson Kollar (78), junior Ben Crinella (81) and senior Jake Rothman (88).
Jung, who committed to the University of the Pacific, shared his thoughts on the road to the state final, which Edison appeared in for the first time since it won the tournament in 2007.
The Chargers had initially been the first team out of the qualifying field at the CIF Southern Section Division 1 final, but after a disqualification gave Edison new life, Jung said his team made the most of a second chance.
“It was just all excitement and fun,” Jung said of his team winning the CIF State Southern California regional title last week. “We weren’t really going into that thinking we were going to win. [The thought was] just somehow, everyone play well and go top three, advance to state. It’s special to win that tournament.”
Good golf courses have their secrets, and Marina sophomore Diesel Roman, an individual state qualifier, proclaimed after the state final that the golf course fought back on the putting greens.
“I’d say the tricks were the greens,” Roman said. “The greens were very crazy. I’d say when you were chipping, any chip that you had, it would not stop at all. You try hitting it, and it would just run all the way down. I think that was probably the toughest part.
“The bunkers had a lot of sand in them. The fairways look narrow from the tee box, and then you walk up there, and it’s a pretty wide fairway. Other than that, I think it was pretty nice. The conditions of the course were pretty nice.”
Roman iterated he feels confident that he will make it back to the state championship tournament again in his high school career, expressing an infectious love for the sport.
“I found why I wanted to play golf,” Roman said. “I really love it. I love it with everything. I found out the reason why I started playing, because I want to be the best. That’s pretty much why I’m out here, why I’m at this tournament.”
The team championship went to Concord De La Salle, which had Joey Hayden (68), Joshua Kim (69) and Jaden Dumdumaya (70) all enter the clubhouse in red figures. The Spartans topped San Diego Torrey Pines 352-363 for the state title, the first for the program since 2006.
“We’ve been hearing that a lot from a lot of alumni, that we need to get it done,” Hayden, a University of Santa Clara-bound senior, said. “It’s been a long time, so we read some letters last night from some old alumni on that team, and that was a good motivation for us.”
CIF State Boys’ Golf Championship
At San Gabriel Country Club
Team Results
1. De La Salle 352; 2. Torrey Pines 363; 3. Sunny Hills 371; 4. Foothill 373; 5. Edison 378; 6. Dougherty Valley 382
Individuals
1. Brandon Knight (Foothill) 66; 2T. Eric Lee (Sunny Hills) 67; 2T. Edan Cui (Crystal Springs Uplands) 67; 4. Joey Hayden (De La Salle) 68; 5. Joshua Kim (De La Salle) 69; 6T. Josh Chung (Torrey Pines) 70; 6T. Jaden Dumdumaya (De La Salle) 70; 6T. Luke Potter (Classical Academy) 70; 9T. Troy Tarvin (Edison) 71; 9T. Connor Williams (San Pasqual) 71; 9T. Garvin McCormick (Thousand Oaks) 71; 9T. Matthew Robles (Warren) 71; 9T. Zachary Mate (Cosumnes Oaks) 71; 9T. Aidan Tran (Clovis North) 71; 15T. Timothy Jung (Edison) 72; 30T. Connor Krueger (Edison) 76; 39T. Diesel Roman (Marina) 77; T45. Dawson Kollar (Edison) 78; 48. Ben Crinella (Edison) 81; 53. Jake Rothman (Edison) 88
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