Mira Costa Golfers Finish 12th at CIF Finals

Mira Costa High senior Kyle Nakazaki summed up his round in the CIF Southern Section final Thursday at Riverhawk Golf Club in Temecula in five words.

"Good front side, bad back," he said.

Nakazaki made three birdies and was 2-under par after seven holes. But he bogeyed the 10^th and 15^th holes and ended with an even-par 72, the low round on the day for Mira Costa.

The Mustangs shot 384 and ended up in a tie for 12^th place in the Southern Section final. Servite of Anaheim won the championship with a team score of 365.

Two Servite players shot under par and no player shot over 77. Preston Valder led Servite with a 3-under par 69. Patrick Cantlay was 1-under par at 71. Cantlay is a sectional qualifier for the 2010 U.S. Open Championship. He shot a 2-under 69 at the Newport Beach Country Club on Wednesday in a local qualifier to advance to the sectional qualifier.

Great Oak of Temecula was second in the Southern Section final with a team score of 370, winning a tiebreaker over Villa Park, which also shot 370. Santa Barbara was fourth at 372. The top four teams advance to the SCGA tournament at the SCGA Members Course in Murietta.

Four Mira Costa players shot in the 70s. Freshman Lawrence Ree was 2-over par at 74. Sophomore Michael D'Angelo shot a 4-over 76. Sophomore Ryan Ree, Lawrence's brother, was 7-over at 79. Sophomore David Kim and junior J.P. Harper were each 11-over par at 83.

Nakazaki opened his round with a bogey on the first hole. He quickly made up for it by making a birdie on the second hole, a 375-yard par-4. He landed his approach shot about 6 feet from the cup and made his birdie putt to even his round.

"He's been solid all year," said Mira Costa coach Bob Timberlake. "Usually he's going to be right there. Kyle's a good player."

Nakazaki followed up his birdie on the second hole with another birdie on the third, a 350-yard par 4, and dropped to 1-under par after three holes.

"I wasn't really trying to go birdie, birdie," said Nakazaki, who plans to try to  walk on the USC golf team next year. "It just happened."

His birdie on the seventh hole, a 550-yard par 5, came after he hit a pitch shot to within a foot of the pin. He tapped in for a birdie and was 2-under.

"I had a lot of green to work with," Nakazaki said. "It was pretty easy."

Nakazaki ran into trouble on the challenging 410-yard par 4 10^th.

It was his second bogey of the day and when his iron play started giving him trouble. He was still 1-under par until the 15^th hole when he made his third bogey on a 355-yard par 4.

"I never played here before, so it was a pretty good day," Nakazaki said.

Timberlake said his team needed to put up "a couple strong numbers" to have any chance of advancing out of the Southern Section final.

He was impressed by the play of freshman Ree. He started his round with a triple bogey and was able to recover and finish 2-over par.

"He could have blown up," Timberlake said. "That was pretty hard. As a freshman, he's that capable."

Timberlake said it's been an interesting year. His team won the CIF Central Team Divisional by 11 strokes at Lakewood Country Club on Monday when all five Mira Costa golfers shot under 80.

"It's a young team with a lot of potential," Timberlake said. "You gotta keep taking your lumps and you're going to learn."