BUCKINGHAM >> A little home cooking never hurts and the Clear Lake High School golf team made the most of it on Wednesday, winning a Coastal Mountain Conference North match on its home turf at Buckingham Golf and Country Club.
The North-leading Cardinals moved closer to the conference title with a winning team score of 456 (combination of the four lowest individual rounds out of six) while Fort Bragg, Willits and Point Arena all tied at 492. Fort Bragg was awarded second place and Willits third on a tiebreaker.
With just one North match remaining this season, that on April 25 at Little River near Mendocino, Clear Lake needs to avoid a last-place finish to clinch the outright conference championship.
The Cardinals got a big lift on Wednesday from Sierra Powers, who fired a season-low 108 to tie teammate Dan Camacho for Clear Lake’s low individual round. Brenden Allen’s 116 and a 124 by Angel Gonzales also counted toward the team’s final score. Sarah Parlee finished just two strokes behind Gonzales at 126.
“She’s been practicing hard,” Clear Lake coach Ted Mattila said of Powers. “I think that’s her best score ever here (at Buckingham).”
Keeping the ball in the fairway was essential on Wednesday, according to Mattila because of tall grass.
“Playing conditions were tough for scoring,” he said.
If the Cardinals clinch the North championship next week in Little River, they automatically qualify for the North Coast Section playoffs on May 7 at Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland.
