Golfers Hart and Mahal now PAL Champions

After ending their season in third place in the Bay Division, the Aragon’s Boys’ Golf Team competed in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Boy’s Golf Tournament and in the Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs.

In their competitive league, the Aragon Boy’s Golf Team played a very successful season, finishing strongly in third in the league with a record of 14-4.

Commenting on the highlight of the season, junior Jeremy Hardy says, “The one highlight that immediately comes to mind is when we defeated M-A. Because of this victory, we shot up in the league rankings and gained lots of momentum going into our next matches.”

Of the season, Hardy adds, “Overall, this year’s season has been great. Even though we lost some teammates along the way, this year has definitely been our strongest in terms of team familiarity and our chances of going to CCS as a team.”

At the end of the season, senior Amol Mahal, also the team captain, was awarded PAL Golfer of the Year for having the best scoring average of the season.

With the close to the season, players from the Boy’s Golf Team competed in the PAL Individual Golf Tournament, a 36-hole tournament that is split into several days. The first day incorporated the use of the cut line; players who achieved a score below the cut line would advance to day two of the tournament. Players who advanced past day two would advance to day three, the PAL Championships.

Being ranked within the Top 40 in the league, Mahal and Hardy, along with sophomore Landon Hart and senior Ryan Spencer were given a bye for day one.

Meanwhile, senior Joshua Chan, along with the others ranked below the Top 40, competed in Day One of PAL, also known as the Qualifier round. Chan would make the cut and advance to day two.

Day Two took place at the Shoreline Golf Course on May 3 where the 50 golfers competed for the 24 spots available for Day Three.

Playing 18-holes, Hart shot the best of the day with a score of 73, which placed him in first place for Day Three. Not far behind, Mahal shot 77.

With these scores, both players made the cut and proceeded onto the next day; the rest of the team failed to make the cut.

Moving onto Day Three, the PAL Championships, Hart and Mahal managed to play very well despite the windy weather and challenging courses at Half Moon Bay Golf Links.

Shooting 79, Mahal’s total from those two days put him at 156, which qualified him for CCS for the fourth time since freshman year.

Mahal, who has played in PAL every year in high school, states, “My goals were to play competitively. And that’s exactly what I did. I felt this was my best season in PAL.”

Scoring the low of the day, Hart, as one of the younger players who competed, shot 77. With a score of 73 from the previous day, Hart’s two day total added up to 150, which not only qualified him for CCS, but sealed him his first place spot and made him the PAL Golf Tournament Champion.

Holding a score of 150, Hart beat out Woodside’s senior Jarvis Sill who had followed very close behind Hart, losing first place to him by only three strokes.

Hart says, “I’m proud that I won because I had a bad season, and I was able to step up during the playoffs.”

After a successful performance at PAL, both Hart and Mahal moved onto compete in the first rounds of CCS on May 11 at Rancho Canada Country Club in Carmel.

CCS proved to be not as successful as PAL turned out to be. On Day One of CCS, Hart shot 94, while Mahal barely missed the cut after shooting 76 when the cut was 75.

Regarding CCS, Hart states, “This year everything was bad for me with waking up early and then having to concentrate. Next year, I am really going to try to get to Day Two because if I had played like I did in PAL, I think I would’ve had a much better chance, but I played so poorly that I was never even close.”

Of his performance, Mahal comments, “Day One of CCS was an unfortunate ride. For as well as I played, my score did not reflect it. I had no problem hitting greens, but my putting just let me down.”

Nevertheless, Mahal adds, “I think I ended my golf career perfectly, even though I missed the cut for CCS Finals, I had a great season in the PAL and this loss only motivates me to play better golf in the future.”

In the end, despite the fact that CCS did not end as successfully as hoped for the two, Hardy sums up the year, saying, “I’m very proud of the way our team has come together this year to be strong competition … I think all of us have significantly improved in our individual games, and this helped us evolve into the team we were this year.”