Española Valley junior Jacob Serrano smiled after he looked over his scorecard April 7 at the end of his second round at the Sundevil Invitational at Black Mesa golf course.
“I feel a lot better now that I know what my score is,” Serrano said.
After sinking a par putt on his final hole of the tournament and adding up his score, Serrano had moved one step closer to achieving a first in Sundevil athletics. His final score of 77 was his second state-qualifying round of the season. One more qualifying round and he would become the first male golfer to make the Class AAAA state tournament in Española history.
To score a qualifying round, a golfer’s score must be within eight strokes of the course’s rating (73 at Black Mesa).
Serrano shot his first state-qualifying round, another 77, Oct. 14 in Farminton. A golfer needs three qualifying rounds to compete as an individual at the state tournament to be held in May. In the opening round of the Sundevil Invitational, he had shot an 87 April 6 at Towa Golf Club in Pojoaque. He improved his score by 10 strokes at Black Mesa.
“I was on my home course, so I calmed down,” Serrano said. “Yesterday, I was afraid to play long and played short. Today I played long and hit it farther.”
Serrano finished with a total of 164 strokes, which placed him 11th in the field. Hope Christian’s Tino Gonzales had the best individual score at 144 and shot the tournament’s best round, 70, at Black Mesa.
Serrano wasn’t the only Sundevil to shoot a state-qualifying round at the tournament. Joseph Roybal scored a 78 for his first qualifying round at Towa. Roybal, a junior, shot a 94 the following day at Black Mesa.
“(Black Mesa) is a much harder course,” Roybal said. “I didn’t play like I should have.”
Roybal finished with a two-day score of 172, while teammates Adam Montoya and Zach Trujillo were at 184 and 198, respectively.
In the team standings, Hope Christian took first out of 10 teams with a team score of 614 strokes followed by Lovington at 643. Los Alamos, Española’s primary competition for the District 2AAAA title, finished third with 693 and Española fourth with 718 strokes.
“We’re getting closer to them (Los Alamos),” Española coach Tom Velarde said.
Velarde believes Serrano and Roybal can qualify for state as individuals, but Española’s best chance to qualify as a team will be to win the District 2AAAA championship. That tournament is scheduled for May 3 to 4 at Taos Country Club.
The other way a team can qualify for state is to shoot a team-qualifying score for three rounds. A team qualifying score is the course’s rating multiplied by four plus 40 strokes. Española has never shot a team-qualifying score.
“For us to go to state boils down to beating Los Alamos and Bernalillo at the district tournament,” Velarde said.