Austin Tucker tops IVL boys’ golf championship
Special to this Newspaper
BORREGO SPRINGS -
The CIF-San Diego Section’s Southeastern Conference’s Imperial Valley League Individual Golf Championship was held recently at Rams Hill Golf Club in Borrego Springs.
“The championship meet happens to determine the IVL individual champion for that season,” Southwest High boys golf coach and Southeastern Conference boys representative to the CIF-SDS A. J. Escalera said.
“It doesn’t determine AllIVL which is determined by their score differentials from the IVL matches which also determines who advances to the CIF Individual tournament.”
This season’s meet in Borrego Springs saw all seven of the IVL’s golf teams have at least one representative present at the IVL Championships with the IVL regular-season match-play champion Southwest High Eagles having three players and the runner-up Vincent Memorial Catholic High Scots with four individual qualifiers.
The IVL Championships were played over the Rams Hill course’s par-35 front nine, with players teeing off at the blue tees at 1:00 p.m. and covering a total of 3,176 yards on a windy April afternoon.
When it was over, Imperial High Tiger junior Austin Tucker had carded a score of 41 strokes to claim the IVL Championship after battling himself and the elements through the first five holes.
“He was five over par going into the sixth hole and he was about 70 yards out and he couldn’t really see the pin,” Escalera said. “His shot hit right on a slope where it could get some momentum and another coach and myself monitoring the action watched it go in for an ‘eagle’ and that turned the day around for Aaron.”
The eagle was a somewhat unintended but welcome consequence of Tucker playing smart golf.
“It (the course) was playing really bad that day, really windy... I was trying to stay the same, trying to keep emotions together,” Tucker said. “I was trying to stick it close to the hole...it was a little wedge shot and then I couldn’t see it and I heard two coaches cheering and I knew it went in.
Tucker agreed with Escalera’s assessment that the shot was a literal game-changer.
“I had a pretty big lead after that and I was confident on the next three holes,” Tucker said.
Tucker was followed two strokes back by Palo Verde High Yellowjacket junior Aydan Cavasos who carded a 43 while Vincent Memorial senior Alejandro Gudino finished in third place shooting a 45. and
Finishing fourth with a score of 48 was Southwest’s senior Logan Jungers with fifth place going to Vincent Memorial senior Jose Esquer who shot a 49, and one stroke ahead of Brawley senior Aiden Soto who carded a 50 for sixth place.
Two players each tied for the next two spots, with Southwest junior Jackson Sanders and Vincent Memorial sophomore Emilio Rojas tying for seventh place with identical scores of 51 strokes while Vincent Memorial senior Adrian Luque and Southwest sophomore Ralph T.C. Collazo each carded a score of 52 to tie for ninth place.
Rounding out the field at the IVL Golf Meet were Central High Spartan senior Braden McElvany took eleventh place with a score of 52, Imperial junior William Quan who took twelfth place with a 55, followed by Holtville High Viking senior Griffin Garcia who placed thirteenth after carding a 58.
Next up for the Southeastern Conference boys golfers will be the CIF-SDS Individual Championship Tournament at Steele Canyon CC in Jamal this Wednesday, May 8 for which five IVL players, Tucker, Jungers, Soto, Rojas, and Cavasos had previously qualified.
“Those golfers had previously qualified by their scores throughout season, their body of work and will all be at Steele Canyon,” Escalera said. “All the leagues in San Diego hold individual tournaments like we did and it puts the golfers in a competitive environment and similar situation as to what they face in the CIF Individual Tournament.”
Tucker for one is already looking forward to this week and beyond.
“It’s nice that I won the title as a junior and get to try to defend it next year,” Tucker said. “And I have CIF coming up this week and we’ll see how far I go.”