Local golfers represented their schools well at CIF Sac-Joaquin Divisional Tournaments on Monday, with Turlock Christian placing third in the Division VI tournament and Turlock High taking fourth in Division I competition. Hilmar's Landon Azevedo, Turlock's Logan Adams and Turlock Christian High's Logun Lundquist will all advance to the Master's level after notching qualifying scores in their respective tournaments.
Azevedo, who has now qualified to compete in the Master's tournament for the fourth consecutive year, tied Ripon's Nick Sharp for the best score of the day with a 68.
The Hilmar golfer entered the Division V tournament at La Contenta Golf Club strong, shooting a 33 in the front nine. With a one stroke lead over Sharp and nine holes remaining, Azevedo knew it would be a close one. An eagle on hole 14 put Azevedo five under and he finished with two bogeys. But Sharp's eagle in the 17th hole tied him with Azevedo and the top spot.
“Landon played really well, but didn't finish as strong or as good as he would have,” said Hilmar head coach Ty Pettigrew. “He could have finished better overall but I am happy with his round.
“If you look at his scorecard it is very consistent. He and Sharp are good friends so Landon was happy they tied each other and they stepped each other's game up for sure.”
Turlock finished fourth as a team in the Division I tournament held at Rancho Del Rey Golf Club in Atwater, just six strokes behind St. Mary's in order to advance to Master's. The top Bulldog golfer for the day Adams finished with a score of 79 and qualified to compete individually at the Master's.
“I am really proud of the team as a whole, they all did well,” said Turlock head coach Jason Boswell.
Pitman's Bryan Rouse (82), Chandler Hedrick (87) and Emerson Thompson (89) put in a good day, although falling short of advancing, with Rouse missing the cut by two strokes.
“We had a great season overall and I am proud of all the kids,” said Pitman head coach Matt Jeans.
The Turlock Christian Eagles and head coach Jeff Cederlind, who announced this would be his last year coaching, competed in the Division VI tournament at Cherry Island Golf Course in Elverta and placed third with a team score of 452.
The Eagles top scorer was Lundquist, who shot a 77, and will advance on to the Master's tournament next week. TC's Kameron Vogt shot a 79 and Egan Farrar 84.
“Being in a different league this year made it hard to judge wins and losses since we played nine hole tournaments usually every week against the entire league,” said Cederlind. “So sometimes we took first, second or even third at times.
“After 14 years of coaching golf at TC I have decided to retire after this year,” said Cederlind. “It has been a lot of fun. We have had some really competitive teams over a long period of time for such a small school. Time commitment has been hard lately with the expansion of our family farming business and issues with the drought. Time to move on.”
The Master's Tournament will be held on May 11 at The Reserve at Spanos Park in Stockton.
