Johansen’s Pena, Gregori’s Ebster finish well off the lead at Poppy Hills

Daniel Pena got what he was looking for.

The Johansen High School junior said he wanted to use Wednesday’s CIF/CGA State Golf Championships as a learning experience.

Well, Poppy Hills Golf Course – Pebble Beach’s tree-lined jewel – took the former Sac-Joaquin Section Masters champion and his Modesto Metro Conference mate, Gregori’s Chris Ebster, to school.

Pena struggled from the outset and finished with an 8-over-par 79, tied with five others for 36th place.

His playing partner, Jacob Solomon of Dublin, fired a 3-under 68 to win the individual title. Westlake repeated as the team champion at 18 over, overtaking Southern California champion Torrey Pines.

For Pena, there was a silver lining to Wednesday’s struggle. The 2014 Bee Golfer of the Year owns local bragging rights and perhaps a leg up in this year’s Golfer of the Year competition.

Ebster was two strokes back at 10-over 81. He tied for 43rd place with Loyola’s Quinn McGinley one year after helping Central Catholic to a historic sixth-place finish at San Gabriel Country Club.

That afternoon, Ebster strutted into the clubhouse with a round of 2 over in his back pocket – the lowest score of any Raider that afternoon.

Poppy Hills wasn’t so kind, humbling the golf prodigy.

“It’s cool,” Ebster said. “I’m just happy I made it here. Sure, I’m upset at how I played, but it was still fun. I had a good time.”

Ebster hit 17 of 18 fairways but needed 42 putts to finish the course. He had eight bogeys and two disastrous double bogeys.

One week after starting the CIF/NCGA Northern California Championship with four birdies on the first five holes, Ebster went in the other direction. He bogeyed four of the first five holes, double-bogeyed No. 8 and made the turn at 6 over. Ebster finished his round strong, though, rolling in a birdie on the par-5 18th hole.

“I found out something in my driver. My driver was amazing today,” he said. “Putting, I’m usually a good putter. Today, I wasn’t putting too good at all.

“Reading the greens was really, really tough. They were undulating – a bunch of hills – and the pin locations were tough.”

Pena’s only birdie came on the par-4 13th. His card featured nine pars, seven bogeys and a double bogey.

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Johansen’s Pena, Gregori’s Ebster finish well off the lead at Poppy Hills."