Santa Barbara wins California High School Championship
- SCGA photo
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (June 8, 2010) --Santa Barbara High School shot a record-breaking 2-under-par 358 and Patrick Cantlay of Servite HS outlasted two of those Santa Barbara players in a playoff at 68, to win the CIF-CGA State High School Boys Championship at Santa Maria CC.
Cantlay, a senior who’s committed to play at UCLA next fall and tied for 14th at the CIF-SCGA Southern Regional on June 3, birdied the second playoff hole at Santa Maria (hole 18), first knocking off Shane Lebow who will attend Stanford, then Jack Perry, who’s committed to Northwestern, for the title. It’s the first CIF title for Cantlay, who’s also the No. 2-ranked Golfweek player and No. 4 on the AJGA Polo Golf Ranking.
He had a rough first hole in which he hit his first tee shot of the day into a water hazard, going on to collect a bogey six while playing partner Jay Hwang of Torrey Pines eagled the par-5 hole. Cantlay would go on to birdie five of the next eight holes, not breaking into a tie for first until the 17th, when he scored his final birdie. A par on the par-4 18th hole put him into a three-way playoff.
“I saw the leaderboard on the course and I knew what I had to do out there,” Cantlay said after his round. “I had to kick it into gear and I did. I’m pretty excited.”
Cantlay had quite the golf journey over the last few days. He played in (and failed to qualify at) 36-hole U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying in Sacramento yesterday, traveling afterward to Santa Maria and arriving at 12:30 a.m. Immediately after today’s event, Cantlay flew to Pennsylvania to play in the Sunnehanna Amateur, which begins June 10.
In the team competition, Santa Barbara’s Perry (68), Lebow (68), Mickey Kirby (86), Sean Searls (77), Ray Gerow (72) and John Baur (73) avenged its third place finish at the Southern Regional, setting a CIF scoring record at Santa Maria (the previous low State score was in 2006, when Concord HS shot 3-over-par) and becoming the only team to break par during a CIF-State boys’ championship. The best five of six scores are counted toward the team total.
Servite HS (Anaheim) shot a 3-over-par 363 for second place (also placing second in the Southern Regional), while Torrey Pines HS, the Southern Regional team champion, finished third at 373.
Jake Katz of Westlake HS, who won the Southern Regional individual title, ended in a tie for sixth, shooting even-par 72.