La Cañada looks to individuals
A freshman and sophomore duo, Colin Morikawa and Joshua Suh, have led the La Cañada High boys’ golf team all season long and expectations are for them to keep doing so in CIF Individual competition.
Morikawa and Suh will start by looking to place in the top 30 to advance out of the CIF Northern Individual Regional Monday, which tees off at Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo at 8 a.m., to the CIF Individual Finals, which will be held at Riverside’s Victoria Country Club on May 21.
“I think Morikawa and Suh will advance,” said Tetu, who will also have Daniel Rhee competing Monday. “It is kind of hit and miss with Rhee. He can shoot pretty low, but he has been inconsistent throughout the year. Suh and Colin will probably shoot around par.”
That would almost assure a trip to the next round on the par-71 course, as the cut was set at 77 last year with La Cañada’s Jay Lim being the only Spartan to make the cut with a 74. Lim went on to finish one stroke shy of advancing to the CIF State Championships.
The Spartans trio will be joined by Jack Bouchard, a junior at Flintridge Prep who finished second in the Prep League for the third straight season.
Bouchard, a reigning All-Area honoree, was one of four contestants from the Prep League to advance to Monday’s competition. Bouchard registered a two-round score of 146 at Brookside Golf Course No. 1 in Pasadena on May 3, finishing six strokes behind Alex Angard of Viewpoint.
Veteran Flintridge Prep Coach Bob Loughrie said Bouchard, who shot a 12-over-par 83 last season in the event at Las Posas last season, is eager to take part in the event for the third season in a row.
“He’s an excellent player and has gotten a lot of experience being in the playoffs,” Loughrie said. “There are a lot of good players that will be at Las Posas and he’s one of them.
“I think he’s got more than enough potential to do well.”
Suh, a sophomore, will look to improve on his showing in last year’s Northern Individual Regional when he finished tied for 88th with a 92.
Morikawa, a freshman, is looking to have a bounce-back round after he shot an uncharacteristic 78 in the CIF Southern Section Northern Team Divisional at Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai Monday.
“This kid Morikawa has it going on and after a poor round last week I just think he is ready,” said Tetu of the Rio Hondo League champion. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him shoot in the 60s.”
The Spartans finished tied for ninth with Calabasas with a 391 in the team divisional. Suh carded a one-over-par 73 for La Cañada, which got a 77 from Noah Bernstein, an 81 from Rhee and an 82 from Will Swanson.
“The scores were not what they could shoot, except for Joshua,” Tetu said. “[Team playoffs] are a roll of the dice, you need to have everyone clicking on the same day. We were disappointed, we hung around to the end and watched the scores come in and everyone was just going over the strokes they could’ve saved in their heads.”
Tetu expects Rhee and Morikawa to have better performances playing just for themselves.
“It’s a different mind set when you’re playing for each other,” Tetu said. “You do things conservatively and you really are playing for the other kids. When you’re playing in the individual you’re playing for yourself, most golfers are more comfortable with that.”
andrew.shortall@latimes.com