The most difficult golf courses in the Coachella Valley
Desert Sun reporter Larry Bohannan talks about some of the most difficult golf courses in the Coachella Valley
In the fading light of the desert Thursday afternoon, a long-time Coachella Valley high school sports tradition was continued: The Palm Desert High School girls golf team completed an undefeated league season.
With a 208-246 victory over La Quinta, Palm Desert completed its fifth consecutive perfect season in the Desert Empire League. Palm Desert has now gone undefeated in league 27 of the 28 seasons since girls’ golf became a sport in the CIF-Southern Section. Only two losses to Xavier Prep in the spring of 2021, when the sport was moved to the spring because of the COVID pandemic, spoiled the Aztecs run of perfection in girls golf.
“Ever year, that’s our goal,” said first-year Palm Desert girls’ golf coach Chuck Mazet after completing the 10-0 DEL season. “To win league, get some kids qualified for league (individuals) and get some to CIF (individuals). So we are on our path.”
The victory at Palm Desert’s home course of Desert Willow Golf Resort’s Firecliff course left La Quinta in second place in league at 8-2, the two losses being to Palm Desert.
While Palm Desert won the match, the medalist honors not surprisingly went to La Quinta’s Joanna Bushnell Crist. Bushnell Crist, a senior heading to Fresno State next fall, fired an even-par 36 Thursday with one bogey and one birdie. The even-par round gave Bushnell Crist an aggregate score of 5-under for the 10 DEL match this fall.
For La Quinta head coach Mark Williams, the year and the pushing of Palm Desert at times during the season were a bit of a surprise.
“Last year I had what I thought was a better team,” Williams said. “We had another girl that shot in the 30s nearly every time and we had a senior (graduate), Daisy Castro, who was guaranteed to shoot around 39, 40, 41 every single time. We didn’t really add much, but our team statistically is actually better this year. We are averaging about 1.5 stroke (per player) better than we did last year.”
Leading the balanced Palm Desert scoring Thursday was senior Sophia Waddell with a 3-over 39 that included two birdies. Mia Margolis fired a strong 40 despite starting with a double bogey and a bogey in her first two holes. Chelsea Weiss shot 41 for the Aztecs, with Hannah Woods shooting 43. Liya Kakar and Micaela Hernandez each shot 45 in the six-play, five-score format.
La Quinta players struggled at times on the front nine of the Firecliff Course, which has plenty of native desert sand and sloping greens. Beyond Bushnell Crist, Jayden Rodriguez shot 48 for the Blackhawks, while Sasha Gomez shot 52, Lexia Rosales and Gwen Cares both shot 55 and Malia Howell shot 57.
With the league regular season completed, golfers will now focus on the DEL individual championship, with preliminaries on Tuesday and finals Thursday at Terra Lago Golf Resort in Indio. Representatives of five of the six league schools will be in the field, with the league likely getting eight or nine berths into the CIF-SS preliminaries two weeks later. Bushnell Crist will be playing for her third DEL title in her four years at La Qunita.
“We are excited about next week,” Mazet said. “We hope to get five, six, seven individuals (into CIF) and then get ready for CIF team.”
Mazet said he hopes his team can put together a few big days in the CIF-SS team events.
“We haven’t put together a round where we have all six girls playing really good,” Mazet said. “Today we played good, but there were a couple of holes that put our score higher than what we want. We had really good ball-striking today, good chipping, playing really good in so many aspects of the game.”
