Girls’ golf players advance to regionals

Senior Nicole Suppelsa and freshman Casey Syal qualified for the Southern Calif. Regionals at Arrowhead Country Club on Nov. 10.

Both players placed in the top 28 of players who competed in a series of three playoff rounds in order to qualify.

Syal was one of the four freshmen who competed for a spot in the finals.

Although she did not qualify for the Southern Section Finals, she is looking forward to improve this off-season.

“Things did not really go according to plan, but I was excited to compete at this level and I learned a lot,” Syal said. “I have set my mind on being more consistent and hitting more greens. My short game has improved so that when I miss greens I’m better at saving par.”

Syal says that she has gotten comfortable playing high school golf, and she is optimistic about next year.

“Next year I would like to come in with a fresh attitude and try to build off of my knowledge of my course and my experience playing in matches to really make a scoring difference,” Syal said.

Head coach Glenn Van Enk hopes Syal makes it into the state championship next year and is amazed by what she has done so far.

“As a freshman to go as far as she did, it is really rare,” Van Enk said. “She had one of the best [9 hole] averages in the league.”

Suppelsa, who won Bay League Player of the Year on Oct. 18, played in the Southern Section Regionals and qualified for the Southern Section Finals last year, which was the farthest any Panther has gotten since 2009. Suppelsa was not able to qualify for the Southern Section Finals this year.

“I did not play as well as I could have and I definitely left a lot of shots out there, but I birdied (a score of one-under par) my last hole as a Panther which was awesome,” Suppelsa said.

Although she could not replicate the same success seen in last year’s CIF playoffs last Thursday, she looks forward to playing golf in college. On Nov. 7, Suppelsa signed a National Letter of Intent for Women’s Golf at Boise State University in Idaho. She will be the first Panther in five years to go on to play Women’s Division 1 golf.

Suppelsa is thankful for the opportunity she has had the last four years playing for Peninsula.

“I am thrilled that I have gotten the chance to compete for Peninsula and I am glad that I was able to set some records along the way,” Suppelsa said. “I love golf and ultimately I hope that my success will help our program as a whole.”