2012 Boys Golf State Tournaments
When: Division I: Monday and Tuesday (shotgun start at 7:30 a.m.; final round at 7:30 a.m.); Division II: Monday and Tuesday (first round tee times begin at 10:45 a.m.);
Where: Division I at Aguila Golf Course (Phoenix); Division II at Silver Bell Golf Course (Tucson)
East Valley qualifying teams
Division I: Brophy, Chaparral, Desert Mountain, Desert Ridge, Desert Vista, Dobson, Gilbert, Hamilton, Highland, Horizon, Mountain Pointe, Mountain View, Perry, Pinnacle, Red Mountain;
Division II: Arcadia, Cactus Shadows, Campo Verde, Notre Dame, Paradise Valley, Saguaro, Seton Catholic, Williams Field.
East Valley individual qualifiers
Division I: Dominic Cotroneo (Basha), Joey Farmer (Marcos de Niza), Derrick Ghim (Chandler), Colton Jameson (Mesquite), Jakob Patterson (Corona del Sol), Conor Prindiville (Corona del Sol), Max Steele (Marcos de Niza), Alex Trevino (Mesquite), Avery Veitel (Mesa), Chanlin Wong (McClintock),
Division II: Bobby Gets (Higley), Gage Grimes (Apache Junction), Victor Hanks (Coronado), Dallas Rosen berger (Higley), Jacob Tena (Poston Butte)
2011 Champions (runner-up): Division I: Brophy (Desert Vista); Division II: Canyon del Oro (Salpointe Catholic)
Division I outlook
A few of the usual suspects figure to be contenders again: defending-champion Brophy bring back most of its top players (Tyler Kertson, Blake Toolan and Andrew MacMillan), 2011 runner-up Desert Vista, Hamilton, Mountain Pointe and Red Mountain. But this field is a bit more wide open this year, as some coaches believe at least a half-dozen schools can contend for the 36-hole tournament. Mountain View (led by Hayden Webb and Chad Hardy) was a popular coaches’ pick to make a run, along with Anthem Boulder Creek, Horizon (which also has an individual title contender in Prescott Mann) and Perry. Watch out for Mountain Pointe’s Austin Fletcher, who won the Mountain Ridge Invitational in Flagstaff and shot 5-under for the 27-hole tournament. Hamilton’s duo of Jino Sohn and Eric Ghim could make noise, along with Matt Liringis (Desert Vista), and Brandon Carlson (Perry). Red Mountain has solid talent again but the Lions are young, which obviously bodes well for the future. Aguila (par 72) is a long course (4,000 yards) and recently overseeded, so there are questions about the greens and how smooth the ball will roll on putts. Many coaches weren’t pleased about the course’s recent overseeding, but they expressed optimism for the shotgun-start format instead of past years of staggered tee times, with the hope that with so many golfers, it’ll shave off an hour or two of waiting for everyone to finish.
Division II outlook
Only 16 of the 66 schools in Div. II with boys golf qualified for the tournament. Tucson Canyon del Oro returns as defending champions, and CDO was a popular pick to win it again. There are, however, contenders. Seton Catholic, Williams Field, Notre Dame and possibly Phoenix Thunderbird will be in the mix. The Black Hawks feel they’re playing as well as they have all season, while Cactus Shadows’ Ryan Oldam is the Falcons’ lone senior which offers a good experience for their young team now and moving forward. Arcadia and Paradise Valley also qualified, as did two kids from Higley (Bobby Getts and Dallas Rosenberger) and Poston Butte’s Jacob Tena. Similar to Aguila, Silverbell also was reseeded earlier this month, though not as recent as Aguila, so it’ll be interesting to see how the ball rolls on/around the greens with chipping and putting.
Mark Heller is the East Valley Tribune sports editor. He can be reached at mheller@evtrib.com or (480) 898-6576.
