Nueva’s Lee, Crystal team qualify for state golf tourney

Lee made pars on his first six holes before recording an eagle on the par-4, 254-yard seventh hole. It was one of 12 birdies on the day for the field. He followed that with birdies on eight and nine to move to 4-under at the turn. Lee got to 5-under after a birdie on 11 before things fell apart. After a par on 12, Lee went double-bogey, bogey to drop 3 shots and fall back to 2-under. That was wiped out with his second double in four holes with a 7 on the par-5 16.

In the team competition, Crystal had all six of its golfers finishing in the top-50 out of 97 starters to compile a five-player score of 375 strokes. They finished in a tie with De La Salle and both Crystal and the Trojans were four shots behind CCS team champion Stevenson.

The Gryphons were led by Henry Chen, who shot a round of even par and finished in a tie for seventh with Lee and Campolindo’s Leo McDonough. Chen had an up-and-down start with two birdies and two pars on the back nine. He teed off on the 10th hole. He stabilized over his final nine holes, with another bogey and birdie before parring the final six holes.

Phillip Hu shot a 2-over 74 to finish in a tie for 14th. he got off to a great start, recording an eagle on his first hole, the par-5 1oth. He dropped a shot with a bogey at the 12th, but got it back with a birdie on the 16th, but went bogey-bogey as he made the turn at even.

He back to 1-under with a birdie at the fourth hole, but then had three straight bogeys before parring his final two holes.

Griffin Chiu finished in a tie for 19th with a 3-over 75, while Edan Cui, who finished third at CCS, came in with a 4-over 76 to finish tied for 26th. Ethan Lee rounded out the scoring for the Gryphons, coming in with a 6-over 78, good for a tie for 38th. Arden Xu finished in a tie for 48th with an 8-over 78.

Chiu had an adventure on his second nine. Starting on the 1oth hole, he had a birdie at the 11th and a bogey at the 14th. Then things got interesting as he had two birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey over his last nine holes.

Cui could never quite get it going, recording five bogeys over his first nine holes, starting on the 10th. He stabilized on the front nine, finishing two birdies over his final three holes.

Ethan Lee had as much of a roller coaster ride as his teammate Chiu. He birdied his first two holes, 10 and 11, but gave those shots right back with back-to-back bogeys at three and four. He was still even after No. 15, but dropped three shots with a bogey and double bogey as he got to the turn. Bogeys at holes one and two gave his four in last five holes and had two more at four and five before a birdie at seven.

It is the second year in a row both James Lee and the Crystal team have qualified for the state tournament. Lee finished in a tie for 22nd with a 1-over 72, while the Gryphons finished third in the state as a team with a combined score of 8-over.