Sophomore Robbie Parden, and seniors Andrew Cho and Kent Paisley, the top three starters of the boys’ golf team, have been crucial to establishing the current 12-0 record in the El Camino League.

The league tournament takes place on May 2 and CCS is scheduled for May 9. Recent tournaments such as the Palo Alto invitational on March 24 and the Seascape tournament in Aptos on April 18 have helped prepare the team for the competition they will face. The team defeated Los Gatos in both of these tournaments but struggled with overall performance. As captain, Paisley felt the focus of tournaments was not the victories against Los Gatos, but preparing for CCS .

“Our focus is to try and shoot scores comparable to teams outside of our base and see how we’ll do in CCS,” Paisley said.

At the Palo Alto invitational against nine other schools, Saratoga placed fourth and beat Los Gatos by 29 shots. Parden, the No. 1 starter, stood out as a key player and shot a two under par 70 to place second overall during the tournament at the Palo Alto golf club. “The rest of our team played okay, but we beat Los Gatos so that’s important,” Parden said.

In Aptos on April 18, Saratoga also faced likely potential CCS opponents. Most teams were from areas further south in California, so Saratoga had another opportunity to compare itself with teams outside its league. Saratoga placed sixth overall and Parden shot 73, the best score on the team. The tournament provided practice for the team and gave some of the individual players more experience playing with the pressure of a tournament.

“Trying to get some competitive pressure is always very good for the team,“ Paisley said.

However, the team’s greatest energy will be funneled into strengthening the quality of golf that they play as a whole in order to do well in CCS.