For the first time in 24 years, the Palo Alto High School boys’ golf team will compete in the NorCal Regional Boys Golf Championship on Tuesday at the Berkeley Country Club. The team qualified for the tournament by placing second in the Central Coast Section on May 13 at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch.
According to head coach Doyle Knight, the Vikings had a strong finish against Gunn that put the Vikings first in the league.
“We ended up beating Gunn, so we were league champs, which gave us an automatic bid to CCS,” Knight said. “Beating Gunn on the last day with all my seniors was the highlight of the season, just being able to finish out their careers beating our rival. I had five seniors and one junior, so I had all my upperclassmen playing the last day, and it couldn’t have worked out more perfect.”
Knight said the team stayed composed under pressure and stuck to their usual style of play.
“They all just played their game,” Knight said. “In the past, there’s been several times where I’ve had really good teams. But for whatever reason, we just fall apart during the championship round. These guys just held together; they prepared themselves and they didn’t give into the pressure. They’ve played with each other for so long, they’ve played tournaments together and they had good bonding.”
According to Ryan Chang, a senior committed to Macalester College for golf, the individual effort from each player helped lower the team’s average.
“Compared to our league, we’ve always been kind of league champions, either No. 1 or No. 2, so that hasn’t really changed,” Chang said. “But our scoring average has definitely gotten lower this past year, just solely because of our improvements as a team. Individually, we’re all putting in the work that’s needed. We were able to finally string together the scores that we needed to move on by continuing to play our game. We didn’t go too aggressive in terms of trying to go for pins or trying to make birdies; we were just playing our usual game knowing that it was enough.”
According to Chang, despite high expectations, the Vikings were humble and just played their game at CCS.
“I think we all knew that this was our probably best chance of all the past four years to make it to NorCals,” Chang said. “We were all excited, but we tried to keep our heads down. And that’s what I like about our team: we don’t really get too overly ambitious or caught up in the results.”
Looking ahead, Knight said that the team has a great shot at getting third at NorCals and qualifying for the California State Championship.
“I’m excited to see how we do at NorCals,” Knight said. “De La Salle and Stevenson are head and shoulders above everybody else. … So there’s like us and five other schools are going for that last spot, because the top three get to move on the states. And if we just play normal, we have a very good chance of moving on. I keep telling the guys, ‘We don’t need to beat anybody. They have to beat us. Just play your game and let them make the mistakes.'”
