Eleven Area Golfers Advance to Section's Individual Finals

Eleven local golfers qualified for next week's Southern Section Finals on Monday at Skylinks in Long Beach, including two each from Tesoro, San Juan Hills, Mission Viejo and Los Alamitos high schools.

With only three of the 102 golfers scoring under-par rounds Monday during the Southern Individual Regional, the cut to move on to next Monday's final at Industry Hills Golf Club stood at 77 strokes at the end of the day.

Both Eric and Owen Taylor, the twins from San Juan Hills, made the cut, as Eric turned in a one-over-par 73, and Owen carded a 75.

"Eric and Owen both played well played today," San Juan Hills coach Jim Tinker said. "Their goal was to advance to next week's CIF Individual Finals at Industry Hills, so mission accomplished."

Raymund Gonzales, the freshman sensation from Mission Viejo, was outstanding, turning in a 73, while teammate Mike Lorrimer wasn't too bad himself, coming in right at the cutline with a 77.

Also at 77 were both junior John Lee and freshman Jonathan Young of Los Alamitos, as well as Kelby Scharmann of Tesoro, whose teammate, Joe Korn, also made the cut, carding a 75.

Andre Vu of Fountain Valley was two strokes over at 75, while Corona del Mar senior Tanner Trauthen was one stroke back of Vu at 76.

San Clemente's Kevin Allen also advanced, turning in a 74.

Servite's Preston Valder (70) and Mater Dei's Brian Campbell (70) turned in second and third-place performances, respectively, with Valder grabbing the edge on his back-nine score, while Kevin Lee of Cerritos took home tournament medalist honors at four-under 68.

"Next week will be a tough test," Tinker said of Industry Hills. "The Babe [Zaharias] course is extremely challenging and all the top players will be there. I was pleased to see all four players from our Sea View League advance. This shows how competitive our league was this year."