For the Lady Balers varsity girls’ golf team, this year featured intense competition among the 19 teammates.

     Before most of the matches, the girls went through a qualifier; which is usually played on what is known as the “Famous Four,” on the Diablo side of the Ridgemark course. For each varsity match, only six girls can go, meaning 13 are left out, to practice. All season they worked hard to make their scores the lowest they could be so that they could clinch one of the top six spots.

      Throughout the season, there was a lot of parity on the team, making the qualifier scores sometimes as close as a one point stroke difference. It’s been a tough road, and it was made even tougher when all the girls attempted to qualify as one of the six going to the TCAL tournament.

   The team played golf daily before the tourney, fitting in six to seven holes Tuesday through Friday. The top spots were filled by Jenny Glosser, Alexis Sanchez, Jordan Davies, Nicole Rianda, Emily Palmquist, and Yumi Kimura.

       These girls qualified to play a match at Salinas Country Club golf course, a brutal course, filled with long fairways and unforgiving greens. The girls battled to keep their scores down on each hole, trying to get the chance to continue on as a team by shooting a 388 or making it as an individual by shooting 97 or less.

      At the end of the day the Lady Balers had scored fifth out of the 10 teams with a cumulative score of 406, missing the cut by 18 strokes. The winning team spot was taken by Salinas High School, which scored 342.

     As for the Lady Balers as individuals, Kimura shot 109, Palmquist 102, Rianda 111, Glosser 104, Sanchez 106, and Davies 94. Davies score was low enough to get her into the CCS qualifier at Carmel's Rancho Canada Golf Club.

      Chris Branon, the girls’ golf coach, said most of the girls shot their “average score,” that they have maintained throughout the whole season. Branon feels that as a team, no one really took off, except for Davies. Who “took off at the end,” qualifying for TCAL’s and then again for CCS. As a team Branon feels that no one person really “faltered” at TCAL’s , they just all shot their year average.

    Davies said that before going into TCAL’s she was “super nervous.” However, once the match started, she was able to work through her nerves and focus on her game. Her drives were “pretty much amazing,” she said but her short game fell short. As for CCS Davies said, “That’s going to be hard.”

    As for the rest of the girls, this season is officially over. Four seniors will be graduating, and the team will continue building. Branon’s advice for next year’s team is to practice on the off season, stating that “the more time you put in, the better your score will be.” He also said that Davies has the potential to be a team leader for next season, but continues to encourage all the girl golfers to get out and play.