By Jesse Muñoz
COC Sports Information Director
SOLVANG — College of the Canyons notched a fourth straight conference victory last week after a late surge across the final five holes at Alisal Ranch Golf Course helped the Cougars catch up to host Santa Barbara City College for an eventual three-shot win.
“This was an extremely exciting tournament,” said longtime COC men’s golf head coach Gary Peterson. “I’d have to say, it was the most exciting round of conference golf I’ve ever been a part of.”
With spectators able to view the scoring in real time, Canyons was aware that it trailed Santa Barbara by five strokes entering the round’s final stages.
That’s when the Cougars began to make their charge.
COC sophomore Anthony Nilson was sitting at three-over-par at that point. But his performance on the back nine lowered his score to a one-under-par 71 for the day.
Meanwhile, Jacques Struyf, who was questionable to even play due to a recent finger injury, fought through the pain to also finish at 71.
Struyf, forced to ice his ring finger between shots, was part of a four-way tie with Nilson, COC sophomore Ed Beehag and Aidan Watts of SBCC for fourth in the individual standings. Beehag’s play on the back nine allowed him to come back from two shots over.
Arnaud Bouhaniche was the low man for Canyons. He finished the event two shots back of the lead at a two-under-par 70, good for third in the field.
Roy Chan and Kai Willen both finished at even pair as part of four-way tie in eighth place. However, the two COC freshmen had their scores dropped from the Cougars’ team tally.
COC (283), Santa Barbara (286) and Ventura College (296) represented the top three team scores for a third straight conference event. The Cougars were a combined five-under-par in their team score.
Canyons (57-2, 28-0) remained undefeated at Western State Conference events.
The conference round was the first in which a COC player didn’t claim individual medalist honors. That distinction instead went to Reynaldo Rodriguez of SBCC who was the low score with a score of 68.
Canyons was set to play again Monday, March 23, at River Ridge Golf Course in the WSC event hosted by Ventura College.
