Marin rivals battle in playoff at section tournament
“I'm going to treat this more as a learning experience. But if I do well, then great.”
— Tam's Ben Friedman on playing a U.S. Open local qualifier
Ben Friedman had an idea of the score he needed to qualify for the NorCal boys golf championships. Turns out he was right … sort of.
“I knew anything more than 2-over par wouldn't cut it,” the Tam High golfer said after completing 18 holes at the North Coast Section Division I championship at Rohnert Park's Foxtail Golf Club.
Friedman and three other golfers tied at 2-over par 74 — good enough to force a sudden-death playoff for the final qualifying berth for NorCals. In the playoff with Friedman were Marin Catholic's Mason Sylvester, Redwood's Arjun Aujla and Windsor's Will Hoff.
Hoff won the playoff, but Aujla is the first alternate and will advance to NorCals should anyone from NCS drop out of the field. Friedman and Sylvester did not survive the playoff. The top three teams and the top four individuals not on those teams advance to the NorCal tournament, to be held Monday at Berkeley Country Club. Foothill's Brandon Knight (67), Mission San Jose's Matthew Amajano (69) and American Canyon's Brandon Torres (72) earned the top three individual qualifying berths and avoided the playoff for the fourth and final spot.
“I started slow and got behind,” Friedman said after 18 holes of regulation play, then picked up his clubs for two more holes. “Then I spent the rest of the time trying to get back to even par.”
Sylvester must be getting used to the drama on the links. He was involved in a playoff a week prior at the NCS Division II tournament at Petaluma's Rooster Run, where the top 18 individuals qualified for Monday's NCS Division I tournament.
Among Monday's individual scoring, Marin Catholic's Theo Anderson shot a 78, while Branson's Ryan Herbst came around at 80 and Terra Linda's Sean Madden finished at 85.
“I just didn't putt well,” Herbst said. “The greens were faster than I remember from last year.”
Tam and Redwood fielded full six-person teams Monday, and the competition between the MCAL rivals couldn't have been much closer. The Red-tailed Hawks finished at 414, just one stroke ahead of the Giants (415). De La Salle claimed the team championship for the third year in a row with a 360, followed by Campolindo (374) and Amador Valley (378).
Aujla, Jack Mount and Brody Root were all part of the Redwood squad that competed at NCS last year. Aujla bettered his score from last season by five strokes. Mount (88) and Root (89) both struggled on Monday with the fast greens that sent scores soaring. The Giants' Dominic Orlando, in his first NCS tournament, shot a 79, with Jonathan Evers at 85 and Sam Sumski at 92.
“It was difficult out there, but I hope I did well enough,” Aujla said before the playoff was announced.
Tam made its return to the NCS championships as a team for the first time since 2018 with Friedman, Hayden Thill (80), Max Berg (81), Adam Dali (86), Abe Willard (93) and Paxton Miller (109).
Friedman has little time to recover from Monday's long outing, as he is expected to join the field Tuesday, May 16, for the U.S. Open local qualifier at The Club at Ruby Hill in Pleasanton.
“I know the qualifying will be difficult,” said Friedman, who is making his first US Open qualifying appearance. “I'm going to treat this more as a learning experience. But if I do well, then great.”