CALISTOGA — A Thursday in late winter resembled a perfect spring day as the Coastal Mountain Conference South golf season teed off at Mount St. Helena Golf Course in Calistoga.
Kelseyville, Middletown and the five other teams that make up the CMC South enjoyed ideal weather conditions for the first of eight scheduled conference matches this season, and that hasn”t always been the case in past years when snow and rain greeted the South golfers in March.
Kelseyville, the defending South champion, finished regulation play tied with St. Vincent at 423, but lost the sixth-man tiebreaker as Josh Mani beat out Kelseyville”s Liz Berry 98-108.
The low five rounds for each team count toward its score in regulation play.
“We”ve still got to get that fifth scorer to come through and we didn”t today,” said Kelseyville coach John Berry, whose squad is anchored by seniors Jonathan Bridges, Nick Schaefer and Hipolito Perez, and freshman Wyatt Ferrell.
Bridges fired a 75 on the par-70 Mount St. Helena course, tying Rincon Valley Christian”s Ty Cazet and Middletown”s Blaine Ruggio for the day”s low score. Schaefer was a shot behind at 76 and Perez finished with 79 as did St. Vincent”s low scorer, Claude Akins.
Middletown”s Lisa Copeland, who along with Berry are the only girls competing in the conference, fired an 83.
Other team leaders were Cody Mueter of St. Helena with 82, Brandon Willoughby of Tomales with 89, and Sean Dunkel of Calistoga with 92.
Bridges and Ruggio each had two birdies during their rounds.
Rincon Valley Christian finished 20 shots behind St. Vincent and Kelseyville in team scoring on Thursday with 443. Middletown was next with 462.
Middletown, led by Ruggio and Copeland, has a new coach this season, Kit Huston.
The CMC South teams return to action Thursday at Bodega Harbour at 1:30 p.m.
