Live Oak senior Erick Justesen finished tied for second place in
the Central Coast Regional competion held Monday at Rancho Canada
GC in Carmel.
CARMEL – Live Oak senior Erick Justesen finished tied for second place in the Central Coast Regional competion held Monday at Rancho Canada GC in Carmel.
Rob Grube of Rober Luis Stevenson and Colin Peck of Menlo school finished with a 70, and Chad Brown of Gilroy and Andrew Sanchez of Burlingame finished tied with Justesen at 71.
There were 82 golfers who competed in the competition, and 11 teams which competed. Justesen advanced to CCS after finishing two strokes ahead of the nearest competitor for the league low score.
Justesen will tee off in the finals again held at Rancho Canada (West) on May 14. The top four individuals will advance to the NorCal tournament.
“I didn’t hit the ball particullarly well,” Justesen said. “But my scoring was probably the best it could be for as bad as I hit the ball. It was a grind.”
“If you are not hitting it straight on that course, you can get in some trouble,” Justesen said.
Justesen went to make a trial run on the course after setting up a tee time on Sunday, the day before the competition. He was told a half an hour before he started by the professional there that CCS wouldn’t let him practice on Sunday. So he settled for playing the east course instead of the west course, which is where the CCS competition is held.
He later found out later that that rule was just for an organized team practice being played on Sunday. But he didn’t want to chance it.
“I was just hitting 3 irons and 5 woods off the tee all day,” Justesen said. “I was trying to hit it straight to prepare for the west course. From what I heard, the west course is really tight and narrow, and you play a lot of placement golf. The east course is farely wide open.”
“I had only played it once since my freshman year, and then I only played the front nine,” Justesen said. “That was awhile ago, and I didn’t really remember it. It was kind of intimidating because I remembered playing terrible and it being a hard course.”
“Now that I am a senior I am hitting the ball 50 yards longer than when I was a freshman,” Justesen said. “I was surprised on Monday because the course was a lot easier than I remember. It was still a tough course, but it wasn’t as intimidating when I got there.”
