Angard Leads Viewpoint Golfers at CIF Divisional

Tournament experience is valued in all levels of golf and on Monday, the Viewpoint School golfers gained some much needed experience in the CIF Central Divisional championships. Leading the way for the Patriots were freshmen Alex Angard, who fired a 3-over par 75, and Jake Kester, who finished with a round of 78.

"This was a good experience for our young team. They had a good season and they got exposed to some great golfers to see how they stack up," Coach Paul Bastedo said.

With junior William Bastien sidelined due to allergies, Bastedo brought five freshmen and one sophomore to the divisional tournament, which was held at Lakewood Country Club. The Patriots finished with a score of 441, as they were the youngest team in the field of 17 with all five of their scores coming from freshman.

Angard, the Prep League MVP, rebounded from a front nine 40 with a 1-under-par 35 on the back nine, which included a long birdie putt on the 10^th hole and a two-putt birdie on the 490-yard par-5 14^th.

"I didn't hit the driver well at all on the front," Angard said.  "I started hitting the ball better on the back, and was able to put together an OK round."

Kester did not have his best ball-striking day and relied on his short game, which included several clutch putts including a 35-footer on the 18^th to give the Patriots two players in the 70's.

"I really had to get up-and-down a lot for my pars, my approach shots were not good at all," Kester said.  "I made a lot of good par putts that saved me some shots out there."

Rounding out the scoring for the Patriots were freshmen Jonny Siegfried with an 89, Ian Levy (95) and Trevor Kaufman (104) and sophomore Daniel Cha was (105).

"Alex had a good round and I'm really happy for Jake, he's usually in the low 80's and 78 was a great round for him especially considering that he did not hit the ball well," Bastedo said. 

The Patriots were 11-1 in Prep League play and advanced to the CIF divisional on all-league performances from Angard and Kester.

"We squeaked out a lot of close matches this year and thankfully we played our best on days we needed our best performances," Bastedo said.  "We've got some work to do in the off-season we really need to solidify the 3-4-5 spots and get some lower scores there, but we've got some good young players to work with in the future."

The golf season is not yet over for Angard, whose first-place finish (71-79) last week in the CIF Individual Divisional earned him a bid to the CIF Northern Individual Tournament held at Oxnard's River Ridge Golf Club on Monday.

"I'm excited, I've been pretty consistent lately and I've played there quite a bit," Angard said.  "It can get really windy, so keeping the ball low will be important for me."