Valencia girls golfer Ashley Song had sprained her ankle a week prior to the CIF-Southern Section Division Team Championships and wasn’t sure if she’d make it to the tournament.
But after digging deep and with some convincing from her coach, Song decided to make one final appearance with her team at the tournament, which took place Tuesday at Los Serranos Country Club.
Although no Foothill League golf team advanced through to the next round of the postseason, the senior said the experience was still worth it.
“I had kind of already made the decision not to play,” Song said, “and then I went in to just apologize again and kind of see if there’s anything else I could do and he convinced me to play and took me to sports med and got it checked out and I’m really glad that I went.”
Valencia, West Ranch and Hart each played in the Team Championships, with the league champion Wildcats finishing the best out of the three in seventh place. The Cats had a team score of 443, the Vikings were 16th at 470 and the Indians were 17th at 493.
Out of the 22 teams competing in the tournament, Palos Verdes was the winner, scoring 373.
Eunice Yi had the best individual score out of all West Ranch golfers, carding 5-over 79. Song was best out of the Valencia team at 9-over.
Song, a fourth-year varsity golfer, felt fairly comfortable on the course and remembered many of its features from previous years.
“There’s a lot of bunkers,” she said. “A lot of the greens are very protected, so you have to be careful about your shots and thinking about where the next one is going to go rather than just hitting away.”
However, according to Song, the results weren’t as important as the experience on Tuesday.
“We know that even at the top of our game, we’re most likely not going to qualify, so we’re able to have more fun on the course and goof around a little bit more than what we would do in league or individuals,” she said.
The team woke up at 5 a.m. to get to Los Serranos, a van ride that consisted mostly of sleeping and was highlighted by a Starbucks run.
“It doesn’t feel over,” Song said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet that it’s the end. I think we all kept having moments of ‘this is the last high school match’ and ‘this the last time being in the van together’ and al of those moments, but I don’t think we really comprehended it.”
It’s an experience that any prep golfer can enjoy — with or without a sprained ankle.
