Valencia girls golfer Ashley Song said that in her senior year, she took golf less seriously. This season’s results say different, however, as she did seriously well in Foothill League play, winning the individual title after finishing as runner-up last season.
“I don’t know exactly what clicked for my swing this year,” she said, “but I had expectations from last year and so I wasn’t stressing myself out to do really well and I just had a lot more fun this year and I think that definitely translated to better golf.”
Song claimed the top spot in the individual standings after the sixth and final meet of the Foothill League season on Wednesday at The Oaks Club at Valencia. Her final score for the season was 185 with an average score of 37.0.
Valencia’s Sung Park finished as runner-up and West Ranch’s Eunice Yi came in third place. In fourth was fellow Wildcat Allison Hwang, fifth was Golden Valley’s Jasmine Reblando and sixth was Hart’s Emma Allen. All six will continue to the CIF postseason.
West Ranch’s Brielle Sorenson came in seventh and will be an alternate for the postseason.
The Wildcats reclaimed the title of Foothill League team champions after the Vikings won it last season.
“We definitely played more games this time as practice,” Hwang said. “We traveled a lot, we went to a lot of places. We’d done short game practice like for three hours and we played every day, so I think like, playing every day and practicing with our coach helped us throughout this season.”
West Ranch ended the season with a group score of 1067. Valencia was second at 1088 and Hart third at 1132. Saugus was fourth (1231), Golden Valley was fifth (1266) and Canyon was sixth (1569).
Hwang, a sophomore, won Foothill League meet No. 6 carding a 2-over 38. She birdied on the second hole and made par on five other holes to claim her first medalist win of the season.
“I think this year, I struggled more with golf because academically, I was more focused,” she said. “I practiced more towards the end.”
West Ranch won the sixth meet as a team with a score of 213. Behind them was Valencia (229), and in third was Hart (236).
The CIF-Southern Section postseason begins with the CIF-SS Individual Regionals on Oct. 28-29 at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills. The top 36 players will move on to the CIF-SS Individual finals.
The CIF-SS Division Team Championships will be Nov. 4-5 at Costa Mesa Country Club, Los Lagos Course. The top three teams will advance to the CIF-SS SCGA Team Qualifier.
