LITTLE RIVER — The rain was flying in sideways and the wind howled at times, but that didn”t stop Brent Hamilton of the Kelseyville High School golf team from taking the Little River Golf Course near Fort Bragg by storm on Wednesday during an eight-team, non-conference match.
Hamilton fired a 1-under-par 70 to lead the Knights to an easy victory over the rest of the field. Kelseyville finished with 397 strokes, 108 shots better than the runner-up Ukiah JVs with 505. Fort Bragg was next with 525, Willits had 567 and Upper Lake finished with 611. Mendocino, Point Arena and Lower Lake all had incomplete teams (fewer than five golfers).
“Hamilton had a great round,” Kelseyville coach John Berry said. “I was playing in the group behind him and he was hitting fairways and greens all day long.”
Hamilton”s round consisted of four birdies, three bogeys and 11 pars.
The only competition Hamilton received was from teammate Hipolito Perez, the only other golfer in the field to shoot in the 70s. Perez finished with 77, including three birdies.
Kelseyville so dominated the field that its six golfers (the low five individual rounds count toward the team total) posted six of the seven best individual scores. Nick Schaefer had 81, Schuyler Bloom 83, Jonathan Bridges 86 and Wes Stevenson 92.
Point Arena”s Douglas Green shot a 90.
“That”s a good start,” Berry said of his team”s 2007 debut.
Three of Kelseyville”s top six — Schaefer, Perez and Stevenson — recently joined the team after finishing up basketball season.
“I told them before the match I really wasn”t concerned with the team score. It”s a matter of getting your beak wet sort of thing. I was pleased with their performance.”
Among the other Lake County teams in the field, Dalton Steptoe led Upper Lake with 107 and Kevin Barra”s round of 100 paced Lower Lake.
Kelseyville opens its Coastal Mountain Conference South season a week from today at Mount St. Helena Golf Course in Calistoga.
Berry sees a two-team race in the South between his Knights and the Middletown Mustangs, who have a first-year coach, former Kelseyville High School standout Shawn Auten.
“Middletown is the team to reckon with,” Berry said.
