Enochs star ignites Masters with a bang – a hole-in-one

Alyse Padilla started her day with a double bogey, not exactly the optimum beginning at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Golf Tournament.

Did she mope to the next tee? Did she scream, “Why me?” to the golf gods? Did she jump into the nearest hazard?

The Enochs High School junior did none of the above. Padilla responded with the perfect golf shot: a hole-in-one.

Padilla restarted her round by knocking a 120-yard shot with a pitching wedge into the cup Monday at The Reserve at Spanos Park’s par-3 fourth. Not only did she render her 6 on No. 2 – her first hole of the day – a moot point, she provided a highlight for the field of 108 at the section’s biggest annual tournament. Padilla received applause from players and spectators during the awards ceremony.

The ace was the first of her career.

“It hit about a yard past the hole and spun back and in. I saw it bounce and it just disappeared,” Padilla said. “It was weird not finishing the hole.”

Consider the early jolts to her golf system: a double bogey out of the gate, followed by a hole-in-one. Then, she had to gather herself for the 16 remaining holes.

“I wasn’t mad at all. I just let it go,” Padilla said of her early stumble. “I’ve come a long way from last year.”

Padilla, the star of an Enochs team that won its fifth Modesto Metro Conference title in six years, saw her season come to an end. She finished with an 83, 11 strokes too high to advance to the Northern California Championship next week.

Still, her round represented a six-stroke improvement over her performance at the 2013 Masters at the same venue.

“I played good after the hole-in-one except for one hole (an 8 at the par-5 11th),” Padilla said. “Next year, I won’t do that.”

The top three teams and four individuals will advance to NorCals next week at Crazy Horse in Salinas. One teams to extend its season was Turlock, the 11-time reigning Central California Conference champion which claimed its second Division section banner last week.

The Bulldogs rode the efforts of their top four players – senior Sarah Garcia (80), senior Bergen Benedict (81), junior Brooke Vierra (85) and senior Michaela deBos (94). They totaled 437 strokes to place behind winner Oak Ridge (420) and runner-up Davis of Yolo County (427).

“At the team banquet, I said that a fifth at Masters would be a big jump for us. The girls chided me because they wanted to go for third,” coach Mary Krupka said. “I think we shocked everybody. A lot of schools congratulated us and knew what it meant to our program.”

Another girl wearing a wide grin was East Union’s Brooke Riley, who parlayed five birdies into a 2-under-par 70 and shared medalist honors with fellow juniors Emilee Hoffman of Vista del Lago and Gurman Kaur of Franklin of Elk Grove.

Riley, The Bee’s two-time Stanislaus District Golfer of the Year, placed third in Northern California and tied for 33rd in the state last year. But her rounds of 78 and 77 at Masters the last two years amounted to some unfinished business.

The slender lefty answered with steady play, leading to a clutch finish. She rolled in a 30-footer for birdie at the par-4 18th – she negotiated a left-to-right break of more than a foot – and closed with a birdie at the par-5 second. Her putting woes at the previous Masters were no factor this day.

“I had to go low today. The weather was nice. I think I finally figured out how to play the course,” Riley said. “I’ve been putting better since about mid-August.”

Ceres, which annexed its first league golf title this year and earned a Masters berth, placed 14th. Senior Caitlin Pfaff paced the Bulldogs with a 96.

This story was originally published November 3, 2014 at 11:29 PM with the headline "Enochs star ignites Masters with a bang – a hole-in-one."