Golf season draws to a close as team looks for CIF success

Before the Samo golf team ends its season, they still can look forward to the last major tourna- ment of the year—the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship. Led by the success of first-year player Brandon Mc- Donough (’18), who won Ocean League, Samo golf has won a spot in the team CIF tournament.According to an email sent out to the teaching staff by coach Barton Burdick, this is the first time in Samo history that a fresh- man has won the Ocean League championship.“Leading up to the tourna- ment I practiced my short game constantly and during our prac- tices,” McDonough said. “I gained belief and confidence that I could have a chance to win.”Due to the team’s strong chemistry, Samo not only powered through a number of victories— they were able to collectively work through tough losses. The team struggled against Torrance, and according to Richard Garcia (‘16), it was one of the worst games the team had the whole season.“It does help to have a team, but you feel bad if you let your teammates down by getting a score thrown out,” McDounagh said. “However, there are days when you play well and days you play bad, so it is good to have teammates to bail you out.”Last year Samo wasn’t able to make CIF due to their lack of con- sistency on the course. According to Richard Garcia, (‘16) the team

struggled to get five scores that could make enough of an impact to make it to playoffs.“Since making playoffs is a matter of your overall perfor- mance throughout the year, I feel that our consistency as a team was much better this year than it was [last year], especially with team chemistry and our unity on the course,” Richard Garcia (‘16) said.For McDounagh, even though the team has performed well so far, the team still has room to im- prove.“I feel [our team] didn’t play up to par with our ability, how- ever we have made it to team CIF this year which is an improvement from last year,” McDounagh said.Despite results from past years, the team is confident about its chances in the playoffs.“I feel like we have a pretty good chance at it this year,” Rich- ard Garcia (‘16). “We may not seem like the strongest team in the mix, but I believe that if we all have the right mindset we are capable of achieving great things in CIF.”