Girls golf jumped straight into action at the 18-hole courses at Balboa Park and Torrey Pines for the first two rounds of D-I CIFs, Nov. 3 and 5. The Wolverines placed fifth overall and made it to day two for the first time in school history as a team.
Captain Chaewon Chon (12) said it was her first time making it to day two of CIFs. She said that she was nervous, but did her best to stay relaxed throughout the game.
“Our team in general did really well at Balboa,” Chon said. “We placed the highest we’ve ever had as a team, which let us go to day two, and I’ve never made it to day two before, so I was a little nervous. But because it was at Torrey Pines, and that’s a course that I know really well, I just took it really easy because I knew that that was going to be the last golf match that I ever play in my high school career.”
Chon said that for her last season, her goal was to play well, but also have fun.
“Going into CIFs, I knew that because it was my last one that I should try to have as much fun as I could,” Chon said. “I had already played at Balboa last year, so I wasn’t too nervous going into it. I was just trying to do my best and trying to beat my score from last year, which I did by a lot.”
Rosina Cui (10) said she felt that of the two courses, Balboa Park was more difficult.
“The first one we played was the Balboa Park golf course,” Cui said. “It’s very hilly. It doesn’t look that difficult, but in reality, it is pretty [hard]. Torrey Pines golf course was straightforward, but it was still difficult because the conditions made it difficult to play. ”
Chon said that the most challenging obstacle for her was playing a full 18 holes each day.
“I think the most challenging part for me was somewhere in the middle because usually in high school golf we only play nine holes, but for CIFs you have to play 18,” Chon said. “That also doubled the amount of time that I had as well, so for me, once I hit eight to 10 holes, I started feeling really tired because usually by then I would be done, but we’re only halfway done during CIFs. Physically, that was the hardest stretch for me.”
Cui said she played too aggressively in the beginning of day two, which impacted her performance.
“I knew I was three strokes behind the lead, I think, so I was just trying to catch up, and then I started not doing too well,” she said. “After that, I just stopped playing aggressively and I tried to be more strategic and conservative.”
Even though Westview didn’t advance to CIF regionals, Cui qualified individually. She was ranked fifth out of the 12 golfers who advanced to regionals. She scored 72 on the first day and 74 on the second, totaling 146.
“I was kind of sad because no one else on the team made it, but I also wanted to prove myself,” Cui said. “I want to be able to say that I’ve improved from last year, as last year I missed going to states by one stroke.”
Chon said that she was still proud of the team for doing better than they ever had.
“Even though we didn’t win, I think we still did a really good job,” Chon said. “The fact that we made it to day two and that we were able to go out there and still do relatively well was really great to see. Finding out that we made it to day two as a team made me really happy. We did a lot better than last year; all of our scores dropped from how we used to do. Last year at Balboa, we collectively hit 120 over par, and then this year we hit 55 over par. So we cut our score even more than in half, which I’m really proud of.”
