It was nothing short of a beautiful autumn Sunday. It was 3 p.m. and I was in the wide-open spaces of Petaluma, east of Highway 101. I was at the Rooster Run Golf Course. Rooster Run is a great test of golf, it’s open to the paying public, and the staff led by PGA professional Rob Watson is very much a supporter of junior golf. The course plays to a par of 72 and the designer of note is Fred Bliss (Windsor, Oakhurst, Redhawk). The course is separated by a very busy Washington Street with a tunnel underneath the street connecting the nines. It is crucial that the golfer put the ball in play off the tee. Accuracy is paramount with either out of bounds or water hazards on almost every hole. The greens are large and putt true.
To the west of Rooster Run’s front nine, the athletic fields were filled with Sunday afternoon youth soccer games. There were hundreds of parents. It seemed to be an Americana moment. The Petaluma Airport is immediately to the east of the golf course. That too was busy.
The following morning, Rooster Run would host the North Coast Section Division II Women’s Golf Championship. A field of 120 high school girls would be teeing it up to attempt to win a team title as well as an individual title. They were from as far north as Arcata in Humboldt County all the way south to Fremont in southernmost Alameda County. Division II team golf counts the low four scores out of five. Division II schools are determined by attendance and the high schools in Petaluma on Monday generally have less than 1,000 students enrolled. There were 11 teams in the field while the other contestants were individual qualifiers.
I was there because I was the tournament director. I hadn’t been to Rooster Run for a couple of years. Part of being a tournament director is to check out the course the day prior to the competition just in case there have been changes in the playing field. That was immediately the case when I saw there was a temporary fence to the left of the first fairway. Five yards beyond the fence were the white out of bounds stakes. It turns out that the fence is part of a new project to add more athletic fields to the park. It was also downright confusing. What was out of bounds? That’s the sort of thing that brings doubt during the course of the round. An addition to the rules sheet noted that the temporary fence was now out of bounds.
Monday dawned and I was at the course early. It was bitter cold and the temperature was in the low 40s. I started to put up the score sheets and prepare the packets for the coaches. The coaches work the tournament by either walking with a foursome throughout the 18 holes or by serving as a forecaddie near trouble spots. There are also rules officials, all of whom coach but might not have any players in the field. Those are the dedicated Worker Bees such as Mike Armstrong of Albany High School, Steve Sloper of Alhambra High School, and Ted Nelson of Victory Christian High School (formerly Rincon Valley Christian High School). They show up at both the Division II and the following week’s Division I tournaments each and every year. Pulling off a high school golf tournament is quite a production and the key to success is preparation. The contestants golf, the coaches supervise, the round ends, the scores are tabulated and the girls get a pretty high quality sack lunch (that wasn’t in a sack). Then there’s the awards.
The golfers started to come in with their scorecards after about five hours. It had been a long day with the temperature climbing 30 degrees into the mid-70s. It had been a beautiful day with little wind, constant sun and rising temperatures. A great number of the girls hung around the scoreboard. Every now and then the true scoreboard watchers would react. When the Branson High School in Marin team total was tabulated there was a loud cheer. Minutes later the final score from Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa went up and the cheer was even louder. When all was said and done, Newman had finished with a team score of 321. That pencils out to an average score of 80.25, which is pretty impressive stuff. Branson was second with 340 while Miramonte High School from Orinda shot 345.
Very few Division II schools have depth. As well as the girls from Cardinal Newman played, it was based on four scores of 76, 76, and 79 with a 90. The same was true for Branson with scores of 76, 77, and 79 alongside a fourth score of 108. There were a couple of teams that had all four of their low four scores come in at 90 or above. Their perspective has to be that they had a good enough season to get into the playoffs and they didn’t advance out of the first round just like the vast majority of the contestants. They got to be there. They have memories
Of the 18 individuals who advance to round two of the playoffs, a very impressive 14 of the 18 shot in the 70s. An 82 was the last qualifying score. The low score of even-par 72 went to Alyssa Lim of James Logan High School in Union City. It didn’t surprise me. From my weak perspective as an analyst of great golf talent, I actually watched Alyssa play one golf hole prior to the North Coast Section Championship. While driving around Rooster Run on Sunday, there were perhaps 50 girls playing a practice round. As I drove the course, I would ask each group where they came from. They would tell me and I would wish them good luck.
I got to the par-4 12th hole at Rooster Run that afternoon around 4:15 p.m. Standing on the tee by herself was a young girl who was about 5-foot-6 and extremely thin. She said she attended James Logan High School in Union City. She then stared at the distant green, some 285 yards away. She waited for the foursome in front of her to get to the putting surface. I waited and watched as Alyssa teed up the ball, took an easy practice swing, and then got ready to hit.
I watched in awe as I saw a beautifully fluid golf swing with high hands and a great follow through. It was effortless. The ball was immediately airborne as it climbed high into the sky. The ball drew from the middle of the fairway to the left side of the fairway, landing five yards short of the green, some 280 yards off the tee. I watched her pitch to inches away and tap in for a super easy birdie. I won’t be surprised if Alyssa Lim advances through the next three stages all the way to the State Finals.
As for me, I’m one of those Worker Bees and I head to round two at Foxtail on Monday to serve as a rules official. It’s a stress-free job with the 18 qualifiers and the inclusion of the big schools such as Acalanes and Monte Vista. After all, there’s a lot of talent out there.
