Up-and-down start leaves Acorns hoping for big finish
SAN JOSE — Live Oak’s returning golfers look at the 2008 season as a missed opportunity.
Kevin Kjellsen can tell you all about it. Kjellsen was vying for a return trip to the CIF-Central Coast Section Championships after missing out his sophomore year because of scheduling conflicts with SAT testing.
He was part of a strong team that came unraveled. First, the Acorns’ second-best scorer was kicked off the team following an on-the-course scuffle with Kjellsen. Then Kjellsen became academically ineligible.
“I was a little disappointed,” Kjellsen said Tuesday during practice at Coyote Creek Golf Club. “We had a really good team last year. It was our chance. Then our No. 2 guy, a really solid player, punched me in the face for something stupid, and I didn’t make grades. We lost too many guys.”
Now the only senior on the team, Kjellsen is determined to make his last season special. He has dipped his average into the low 40s, shooting in the mid to low 30s on several occasions, and is leading the way for his younger teammates.
Oh, and his grades are good.
“I’m keeping them up,” he said. “As far as my game goes, I’d say I’ve gotten more consistent, a lot more accurate. I’m reasonably solid. I’ve had some solid matches, but no bad ones.”
Calling himself “reasonably solid” is a stretch for Kjellsen.
“He’d say he’s not having a good season,” Live Oak first-year coach Tom Sumpter said. “He’s not a big long-ball hitter. On a given course, though, he can do very good.”
That Kjellsen relies on his short game makes him an exception to his teammates.
“He’s definitely our best guy. He’ll definitely make CCS,” Ryan Colton, a junior, said. “We’re all powerhouses, but he can putt.”
During last Tuesday’s win over Pioneer, Kjellsen carded a team-best 2-over-par 39 at The Golf Club at Boulder Ridge, as the Acorns collected their second win in Mount Hamilton Division play. Still stuck at two wins a week later, Live Oak (2-5) is likely not going to challenge for the division championship, but that hasn’t dampened the Acorns’ spirit.
“We’ve had a lot of matches where we’re one or two strokes out of it,” Colton said. “We’ve had some good days. We know we can play with some of these teams. If we play our best, we can win any match.”
The difference between Live Oak and the divisions’ elite teams, like Branham (9-1), is a few strokes per player.
“We pretty much need to improve the small stuff,” junior Alex Avon, who’s averaging in the high 30s, said. “The biggest thing is not getting nervous. Sometimes we get up there on the first tee, and you get nervous with everyone watching you. I think everyone on the team has whiffed at least once.”
That goes with being a young team. Colton, Avon and Kjellsen are the team’s only veterans.
“They’re a really solid team. I think the older guys are really strong and consistent, and the younger guys need to harness that,” said swing coach Barry McDonnell, who was owned a PGA Class-A professional card. “If they work on that, they’ll be better in the years to come.”
Priority No. 1 for Live Oak is sweeping Sobrato when the rivals play back-to-back matches April 20 at Summit Pointe and April 22 at Coyote Creek, their home course. From there, the Acorns could play in the April 27 Blossom Valley Athletic League Team Playoffs before the BVAL Individual Championships, the qualifying tournament for sectionals.
If the Acorns can putt like Kjellsen and drive like Danny LaCorte, who has eclipsed 300 yards, they could send several players to CCS.
“If we played best ball, we’d kill it,” Lacorte said.
