Competition For Men's Golf Title Expected To Heat Up In The Desert

2016 State Championship Fact Sheet

by Jerry Hannula, CCCSIA

The state's top community college golfers will assemble in Rancho Mirage on Monday (May 16) for the CCCAA state championship at the Desert Island Golf and Country Club for a one-day, 36-hole stroke-play event starting at 7:30 a.m.

College of the Desert is this year's host and the Roadrunners should be considered as one of the favorites to earn this year's state title.  Desert, which is led by Pacific Coast Athletic Conference player of the year Michael Starbuck, has already played the Desert Island course twice this season and posted a five-man team score of 6-under-par 354 in its last visit on April 11.  However, the Roadrunners didn't fare as well at last week's Southern Regional event, finishing in third place 22 strokes behind College of the Canyons (743).

Canyons, which captured the Western State Conference championship for the seventh consecutive season, is led by WSC player of the year Will Barnett.  Barnett posted a 36-hole score of 142 (69-73) to finish 2-under-par at the Southern Regional to win medalist honors with the only red score of the day.

Santiago Canyon College placed second in the Orange Empire Conference and second again at the Southern Regional.  The Hawks are a dark horse to win the state title but have been improving steadily in recent weeks and can count on Austin Trcka and Michael Lascari to challenge for individual medalist honors on Monday.  Santiago Canyon will need three more players to post scores in the mid-70's in order to have a shot at the title.

Orange Coast College, led by OEC player of the year Marcus De La Rosa, ran away with the conference title but finished fourth at the regional with some inconsistent afternoon scores after posting a solid team score in the morning rounds.

The biggest challenge from the northern schools would appear to come from Folsom Lake College.  The Falcons, Big 8 Conference champions for the third time in the past five years, are led by Big 8 player of the year Mason Troike.  Although Folsom Lake captured the conference title, it struggled during last Monday's Northern Regional despite playing on the Falcons' home course.  The Falcons tied for fourth place but earned the region's fourth and final state championship berth during a tie-breaking procedure.  If they can regain their composure in time, the Falcons could be a factor in this year's state tournament.

Reedley College won the Northern Regional by 15 strokes over Santa Rosa as Sam Roles led the Tigers with a pair of 1-over-par 73's and Jeffrey Yamaguchi posted the tournament's only red-letter round by carding a 1-under-par 71 during his morning round while Ben Hallam was even par during his morning round.  Santa Rosa was paced by Taylor Myers and Michael Danielski during the regional tournament.

Monterey Peninsula will be the northern region's No. 3 team after finishing 19 strokes behind Reedley.  The Lobos received a 5-over-par effort from Joe Russo during the regional with Connor Mclean four strokes back.

Canyons has won seven state titles in men's golf, including two of the past three, while Desert has six titles with the last one coming in 2012.  Monterey Peninsula has won three titles and Orange Coast has one title while the other four teams are each looking for their first men's golf titles.

Temperatures for Monday's tournament are expected to reach into the mid-90's with winds expected between 10-20 mph.