CIF postseason golf: Four teams in regional, but Palm Desert has best chance to stay alive
Four boys golf teams from desert high schools will participate Monday in CIF-Southern Section team regional play, each looking for a win in their division to earn a CIF-SS team title.
But only one of the desert teams has a strong chance to advance to the next level of postseason play because of the way the CIF-SS has set up divisional play.
The Palm Desert Aztecs are playing in the Division 1 regional at Western Hills Country Club in Chino Hills, a division the CIF has packed with 20 of the best teams in Southern California. The regionals not only serve as CIF championships but as qualifiers for Thursday’s SCGA qualifying tournament in Oxnard.
The CIF-SS, based on a points and rating system, already knows that the top 10 teams from Division 1 will be among the 14 teams in the SCGA qualifier. In fact, the CIF-SS rules for SCGA qualify state, “All 14 teams could hypothetically advance from division 1.”
That means a team like Xavier Prep of Palm Desert, which finished second to Palm Desert in the Desert Empire League this year, could win Division 2 at Soule Park in Ojai on Monday and still not advance to the SCGA qualifier. That is also true for La Quinta High School, playing in Division 5 at Los Serranos Golf Club in Chino Hills, and Desert Valley League champion Twentynine Palms, playing in Division 7 at El Prado Golf Club in Chino.
Young Aztecs look to advance
With Palm Desert having at least a 50 percent chance of advancing to the SCGA team qualifier – which in turn will send four teams to the CIF-SCGA championship in Pasadena on May 26 – Palm Desert head coach Kurt Breitfuss still sees room for improvement from a team that was 10-0 in the DEL.
Led by two seniors in Lucas Myers and Cabot Ellis, Palm Desert also has freshmen players who will be in the postseason for the first time.
“Even in the last few days I saw two players who will hurt us in team competition if they kind of make the judgments they did out there,” Breitfuss said at the DEL individual finals. “When you come to team competition, you only get to drop one score (of the six players) and you are going against top teams. I’m of the philosophy, let's us not make the mistakes, let the other teams make the mistakes. Just play smart. That’s tough when you are a 14 year old.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CIF playoffs: Palm Desert boys golf has 50 percent chance to advance Monday
