Three-peat in Cards for Pali High Golf

Ethan Rautbort’s Sixth-Man Score Lifts Dolphins over El Camino Real at City Finals  

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Ethan Rautbort walked off the 18th green at Wilson Golf Course dejected, believing he’d  cost his team a shot at its third straight City Section golf title.

An hour later, though, his score proved to be the difference as Palisades High edged 7A League rival El Camino Real at Griffith Park. The teams finished deadlocked at 397 and for the first time in section history the champion was decided by the sixth-man tiebreaker.

Rautbort’s 86 was five shots better than that of the Conquistadores’ Alex Gibson  and upon learning the Dolphins had prevailed he couldn’t help wearing a sheepish smile.

“I was pretty much disappointed when I got to the clubhouse,” Rautbort said. “I thought I let the team down and my score wouldn’t matter.”

Rautbort birdied the 13th and 14th holes and the lifelong Palisadian from the Alphabet Streets had know idea then how crucial they would ultimately be.

As the remaining foursomes fnished their rounds and scores were posted on the board it became clear that the heavily-favored Dolphins were in jeopardy of losing for only the second time all season.

Junior captain Max Hagar, who recovered from a disastrous front nine to post an 80, described the long wait as “a rollercoaster of emotions.”

Pali High Coach James Paleno had told the Dolphins 392 was the magic number they needed to win, figuring that was one stroke better than the best score from 7A League runner-up Granada Hills, which dealt the Dolphins their lone defeat.

“It just goes to show every shot does count,” Paleno said. “We shot 398 to win last year and 388 the year before that. It was windy today and the pin locations were tough. We have a number of guys capable of rounds in the 70s and most of them are only sophomores.”

Jason Simon was the Dolphins’ low scorer with a 6-over 78. Fellow sophomores Ray Yang and Will Holbrow carded 79s.

“When you consider their lowest score was a 75 and ours was a 78, it shows how much depth we have,” Simon said.

Palisades was five strokes better than ECR on the front nine, but all five Conquistadores scorers shot in the 30s on the back nine to pull them even.

“I thought it might come down to back nine scores – nobody knew for sure what was going to happen until the tournament heads called us over,” Rautbort said. “I was so nervous. I didn’t want to be the person who wrecked it for us. When they told us we’d won it was a lot of relief.”

Palisades and ECR advanced to today’s CIF Southern California Golf Association regionals at Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena. Granada Hills shot 402 to finish third, followed by University (411) and Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences (417).

“This is such a great group of people – I really didn’t have to tell them anything beforehand,” said Hagar, who birdied the par 5 14th hole. “Everyone knew what we needed to do and what was at stake.

Palisades captured its 19th City title and eighth since Paleno reinstated the program in 1998.

“I could feel something was off on the driving range and it was a struggle out there – just the opposite of last week,” said Yang, who shot a 79 only six days after carding a 3-under par 69 on the same course to earn medalist honors at league finals. “My driver and my approach shots were off and I only hit six greens today whereas I hit 15 last time.”

Holbrow also shot a 79, matching his best score at Wilson, which he shot at league finals. He birdied the par 4 18th hole after hitting his approach to two feet from 110 yards and tapping in.

“This game has lots of ups and downs and you just have to stick with it,” Holbrow said. “It was hard having to wait around so long afterwards to find out if we won.”

Grant Ebner shot an 81 after a birdie on No. 17, where he  hit his approach to 15 feet and correctly read the right-to-left break to roll in the putt.

“This was our goal all year,” Ebner said. “We didn’t want to end the streak.

Birmingham sophomore Christian Lingamen shot a 69 to  win the individual title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Michael Han from University.