Boys’ Golf: Strong season ends in disappointment at CCS

The boys’ golf season ended abruptly on May 10 for Saratoga when the team placed 10th out of 11 teams at CCS regionals at the Rancho Canada West golf course in Monterey. However, Saratoga had a successful 12-0 season and No. 1 player sophomore Robbie Parden won the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) championship with a two-round score of 148.

Team captain and senior Kent Paisley said, “Robbie got third place last year as a freshman, which was very impressive and there were two seniors that were ahead of him. He was projected to win this year and he got his job done.”

The Falcons had previously won the May 2 tournament to become undefeated El Camino League champions poised for CCS.

“We were hoping to be the first team to advance out of regionals for [coach Bill] Drennan in his years of coaching,” said Paisley.

In spite of the high hopes, the team struggled at CCS and even key players had their worst rounds of the season.

“We’d been playing a lot better all season and everybody just had a bad day,” said sophomore Spencer Goldman.

Pressure was also a factor in Saratoga’s loss to Robert Louis Stevenson High, the first place team, who won with a score of 372. Although Saratoga went into regionals with a 12-0 record, the six CCS players were under a lot of pressure because they believed they could advance with a combined team score of 380 strokes, when in reality 398 was a sufficient score to advance.

“That’s over three strokes higher per person, something we could’ve easily done, in my opinion, if we had not ‘overhyped’ ourselves,” Paisley said.

Paisley described the day as a “disappointment” and felt that the season ended unexpectedly given the team’s promising record.