BRENTWOOD — Kelseyville High School”s Brent Hamilton and Middletown High”s Doug Quinones just missed qualifying for the Northern California playoffs after losing in a five-way playoff for the final individual at-large berth on Monday during the North Coast Section Tournament of Champions at Shadow Lakes Golf Club in Brentwood.
Only the top three teams out of an elite 20-team field move on to next week”s NorCals in Stockton. Joining them are the four low scorers who are not members of those top three teams. Hamilton and Quinones were bidding for one of those four at-large spots and they carded regulation rounds of 73 to finish in a tie for fourth along with three other golfers.
In the team competition, Foothill (Pleasanton) won the team title with a score of 374 on the par-71 Shadow Lakes course. Monte Vista (Danville) came in second with 381 and De La Salle (Concord) was third with 383.
Kelseyville placed 18th overall at 422.
Winning the individual at-large berths were Travis Taylor of American High School (Freedom with the day”s only sub-par round of 70. Max Brasil of Ukiah and Dom Cacione of Sonoma tied for second with 72.
In the five-way playoff for the final at-large berth, Hamilton, Quinones, Cody Robertson of Liberty High School (Brentwood), Kyle Souza of Livermore and Clayton Pickersgill of College Park (Pleasant Hill) moved to the 340-yard, par-4 first hole. Robertson and Souza parred the hole while Hamilton, Quinones and Pickersgill carded bogeys and fell out of the running.
On the second playoff hole, the 540-yard, par-5 second, Robertson sank a birdie putt to win the hole as Souza could only par the hole.
Kelseyville, the undefeated regular-season champion in the Coastal Mountain Conference South this season, was making its first trip to the NorCals as were Middletown at-large golfers Quinones and Mitch D”Amico.
“To come in tied for fourth out of 144 golfers is quite an accomplishment,” Kelseyville coach John Berry said of the 73s fired by Hamilton and Quinones.
Also for Kelseyville, Schuyler Bloom finished with 83, Nick Schaefer had 85, Hipolito Perez carded a 90 and Jonathan Bridges had 91. Middletown”s D”Amico finished with 88.
“Our season came to an end today but you”ve got be happy with it,” Berry said. “I”ll admit, I was looking around and soaking it all in because I”ve never been here before.
“To be in the same field with the Foothills, Monte Vistas and De La Salles, teams we could never meet on the football field or in other sports, at least we were on the same playing field for a day,” Berry added.
Kelseyville earned a berth in the TOC with an ninth-place finish a week ago at the North Coast Section Championships at Chardonnay in Napa, the first time the Knights have advanced beyond the sectional round.
“It was a nice ending to a season and by far the nicest season I”ve had in 27 seasons as the coach,” Berry said.
The Knights should be tough again next season even with loss of Hamilton and Bloom to graduation.
