Vaqueros stay in hunt
PASADENA — With three Western State Conference matches remaining, the Glendale Community College women’s golf team remains in first place. But the lead has grown smaller of late.
It’s boiled down to a two-team race for the conference crown between Glendale college and College of the Canyons. Both have virtually locked up spots in the Southern California Regionals in November, but there’s something the Vaqueros want beforehand — the program’s first conference crown.
“We just want to win conference,” said Glendale college Coach Greg Osbourne, whose team finished second, two strokes behind Canyons on Monday afternoon in a conference “home” match at Brookside Golf Course No. 2. “That what it comes down to.”
Canyons carded a 306 on Friday to pull to within one match of Glendale college, which finished with a 308. The next conference match will be Monday at Twin Oaks Golf Course in San Marcos before the two-round conference finals takes place Oct. 30-3 at Olivas Links Golf Course in Ventura.
On Monday, the Vaqueros received a five-over-par 71 from Hannah Lee.
Lee said she wasn’t completely satisfied with her round.
“I made some shots on the greens for pars,” Lee said. “I just wasn’t entirely happy with my round.
“Half of my shots I didn’t like. Had I avoided a few of those shots, I would have done better. We just have to continue to practice and fix some things that we messed up [Monday].”
Vicanda Ma and Thanawan Sriratchaya each had 77s for the Vaqueros, who got a 78 from Pattraporn Silawanna. Kristin Grimes of Canyons carded a 75 to take medalist accolades in the field of 26.
Osbourne said while the Vaqueros’ top-four scores were decent, there’s room for improvement.
“Anybody else would be ecstatic,” said Osbourne, whose team tied for first, but lost a tiebreaker during the previous conference match Oct. 10. “You have a lot of ups and downs in golf and that’s because it’s a very difficult sport.
“We beat ourselves [Monday]. That’s what happened.”
Santa Barbara City College finished third with a 329, followed by Bakersfield (344) and Citrus (477).
The match was originally scheduled to be played at Oakmont Country Club, the Vaqueros’ normal home course. However, a scheduling snafu forced the event to be moved to Brookside.
