Forced to Trade Spaces

The site for the Southern Section team finals has been switched to Indian Hills Golf Club in Riverside because of a conflict at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert.

The Nov. 13 team finals were originally scheduled for the Mountain View course, one of two 18-hole layouts at Desert Willow. Because the resort will close down the Firecliff course for reseeding on Nov. 10, the Mountain View course will be the only source of revenue for the resort.

Resort officials were not willing to give up the course, forcing section officials to scramble to find another venue and putting a wrench in the plans of teams that had scheduled practice rounds at Desert Willow.

“It’s a good thing they told us now,” San Clemente Coach Mike Hurlbut said. “We were going to go out there next weekend.”

Indian Hills, though, is a more difficult course as a 5,562-yard par 70 with a slope of 120 and a rating of 72.5. Desert Willow’s Mountain View course is 4,997 yards with a par of 72, a slope of 116 and a rating of 68.9.

Shooting Lights Out

Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula shot 374 in the Knabe Cup at Lakewood Country Club last week, a score that is believed to be the lowest five-player, 18-hole score in Southern Section girls’ golf history.

Shannon Yocum shot six-under 68, Colette Lowe shot 72 and Annika Windon shot 74 to lead the Panthers to a 17-stroke victory over Cerritos.

The Southern Section does not keep official team scoring records for girls’ golf, but no other team has reported a lower score since the section went to five-player scoring last year.

Yocum tied Amie Cochran of West Torrance for the individual title. Darkness prevented a playoff, so Yocum was awarded first place based on a better back-nine score.

Streak Continues

Palm Desert extended its Desert Valley League winning streak to 35 matches by going 3-0 last week, but only had to play one match to do it. The Aztecs were awarded two forfeit victories. Palm Desert has never lost a Desert Valley match.