It isn’t every day that local high school golfers have to face heavy winds.
But that’s the obstacle they hoped to overcome Thursday afternoon in the sixth and final regular season Pacific League golf match at De Bell Golf Course.
In the end, Arcadia High edged out Burroughs in the team standings, but Burroughs Louis D’Aquila shared low-medalist honors.
The senior, who plans to play at College of the Canyons next year, shot 76 on the par-71 course, tying him with Crescenta Valley’s Trey Ballard.
“It was hard judging the distances because the winds would switch on you, with you or against you,” D’Aquila said. “I’ve never seen the winds like this before. I’ve seen winds, but not like this.”
Just three teams had enough players to score in the team competition. Arcadia shot 426, followed by Burroughs at 430 and Burbank at 449.
“The wind made it really hard to hit the ball pure and straight and I couldn’t really get a grip on my swing because I had to alter a bunch of my shots,” Burbank’s Cole Pendarvis said.
Pendarvis, who shot 88, even got a scare on the course.
“I was on the 17th tee box. As we were putting on the 16th hole, the tree fell down right next to my bag,” he said.” It was just crazy. The scores are inflated because of the wind. Nobody could get a grip on where to hit the ball and how to use their swing properly.”
Following D’Aquila for Burroughs was sophomore Jake Panikowski, who shot 83. Rob Ceja (85), Dylan Roy (92), Aaron Cohen (94) and Myles Sherry (97) round ou the Indians.
Burbank was led by Louis Calzado, who shot 87. Pendarvis and Hayden Chase each shot 88. Niko Coccio shot 91, Nick Toczek 95 and Benjamin Kim 97.
In finishing the regular season, Burbank ended up second with 19 points behind Arcadia, which easily took the league title with 30 points. Crescenta Valley took third with 17 and Burroughs was fourth with 16 points.
The league finals are next week at the Wilson and Harding courses at Griffith Park, respectively.
