Gums out at NorCal Championship

A week after his teammates, Lodi junior Justin Gums’ high school golf season is done.

Gums finished deep in the pack at the NorCal Golf Championships at Sierra View Country Club in Roseville, tied for 38th with a 4-over 76.

The tournament sends its top three teams and the next nine individuals separate from those teams. The ninth individual to get in carded an even-par 72.

“He had kind of a combination (of a rough day and good competition),” Lodi coach Jim Staal said. “NorCal is a strong field, but you still had nine spots after the three teams.”

Gums recorded two birdies and a bogey on the front nine, then started the back nine with a bogey, a double-bogey and another bogey before recovering with a birdie on the 13th hole.

“He’s not one to make excuses, so I guess that’s my job,” Staal said. “He went down to Phoenix over the weekend and

played a tournament, held by a magazine called Golf Week. A big nationwide tournament. He finished 10th down there with a 71-73. They didn’t get back until after midnight last night, then turned around and went up to Roseville.”

Gums’ teammates weren’t able to walk the course and support him since they were stuck in class, but Staal made sure he kept them updated with text messages.

“Hopefully they disciplined themselves to look only between classes,” he said with a chuckle.

Harker High won the team championship at 360, followed by Mission San Jose (366) and Archbishop Mitty (369) as the team qualifiers to the state tournament.

Mission San Jose’s Aaron Chen was the low medalist with a 5-under 67, followed by Archbishop Mitty’s Matt Lloyd at 68 and a tie at 70 between Bellarmine’s Austin Murphy and Menlo’s Max Ting for third place.