Records Are Course of Action

Years from now, when historians, sportswriters or enthusiasts reflect on the evolution of Southern California high school golf, they might look back at this season as a pivotal one -- statistically speaking.

It seems more school records have been set this year than ever before -- 20 -- by schools that have been playing the same courses for years.

Goleta Dos Pueblos and Torrance each set the school record three times this year for five-player scoring over 18 holes and nine holes, respectively. Torrance won three matches this season with team scores under par, another school record.

“Every year I’ve just watched how much the quality of golf has improved,” said fifth-year Coach Devin Kushi of Torrance, which last set the school record with a 177-204 nonleague victory over North Torrance at Victoria Golf Club on Tuesday.

Torrance also shot under par as a team in a 178-194 Ocean League victory over West Torrance at Los Verdes Golf and Country Club in Rancho Palos Verdes on April 7 and 177-204 league win over West Torrance on Thursday.

Tartar junior Jacob Shin tied the school’s individual record with a four-under-par 32 on Thursday. He tied junior teammate Hee Joo Son’s 32 at Los Verdes Golf Club on March 30. Southern Section champion Ted Oh established the mark in 1992.

“There’s really been this surge of interest in the game,” Kushi said. “That’s part of the reason it’s hard to determine who’s going to be the top team each year because a team could pick up a new kid that could put them over the top.”

Although Ryan Ritzau wasn’t exactly a new kid, Dos Pueblos benefited from the return of its most valuable player from last year after Ritzau elected not to play at the start of the season because he was “burned out on golf.”

“I told him to take some time off and think it over,” Coach Doug Mitchell said. “After our fourth match, he decided he wanted to come back.”

In Ritzau’s first outing March 23, he shot a three-under 68 to lead the Chargers to one of the lowest 18-hole rounds in Southern Section history in a 358-360 Channel League victory over Santa Barbara San Marcos at Glen Annie Golf Club. Dos Pueblos, which has risen to No. 2 in the Southland rankings by The Times, has been playing at the Goleta course for eight seasons.

On April 14, Ritzau tied the school’s individual record, which he set two weeks earlier against Oxnard, by shooting a five-under 66 in a record-setting 355-412 league victory over Santa Barbara at Montecito Country Club. Ritzau topped those performances with a 65 in a 372-407 league win over Ventura Buena at Glen Annie on April 19.

Two days later, San Marcos shot a 355 in a Channel League victory over Ventura Buena at Santa Barbara Golf Club.

Third-ranked Cerritos Gahr broke its school record by 11 strokes in a 165-185 nonleague victory over No. 4 Cerritos team at La Mirada Golf Course on April 6. The Gladiators then set a Knabe Cup four-man record with a 281 at Lakewood Country Club, eclipsing the 283 by Long Beach Wilson.

“It used to be if you could shoot 200 as a team, you were pretty good,” Gahr Coach Steve Orr said. “But now, if you shoot 200, you may win a few matches, but that’s it.”

No. 7 Riverside Poly bested its school record by 10 strokes March 30 in a 164-215 Ivy League victory over Riverside North at Victoria Club in Riverside. North also set a school record in the match.

Michael Sage, Poly’s coach for 20 years, said the collective spike in the level of play this season was unparalleled.

“When I saw that [Dos Pueblos] had shot a 355, I thought ‘Wow!’ ” Sage said. “It used to be a few schools were good because they had country-club kids. Now kids have their own golf instructors.”

Sage said that as the leading players get better, “It rubs off on other kids, who think, ‘I could do that.’ ”

A look at some other numbers-crunching performances:

* Top-ranked Newhall Hart, which is led by Joe Greiner, Tony Pauling and Matt Ryan, set a course record for a high school team with a 360 at Robinson Ranch’s Mountain Course in a match against Westlake Village Westlake before winning its second consecutive Foothill League title with a tournament-record 357 at Griffith Park’s Harding course.

* Valencia took second in the Foothill tournament with a 363 when senior Brandon Chrstianson shot a school-record seven-under 65.

* La Quinta shot a 359 in a match against Redlands at Indian Springs Golf and Country Club in La Quinta.

* David Lieberman of Palm Springs shot a Desert Valley League-record seven-under 29 at Desert Willow Golf Resort to help the Indians set a school record in a 182-184 loss to Palm Desert.

* Corona Santiago shot a school-record 189 in a Mountain View League victory over Mira Loma Jurupa Valley at Eagle Glen Golf Club in Corona.