Whittier wraps up regular season finishing 3rd at Tukwet; SCIAC No. 5
Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Whittier College golf team competed in their final regular season SCIAC event at Tukwet Canyon Golf Club located in Riverside, Calif. and finished tied for 3rd with Occidental with an overall score of 315.
Whittier was coming into the event ranked No. 23 in the nation and would have taken 3rd place outright but due to a complication with the rules Whittier ended up being tied for 3rdat the end of the day.
Senior Matt Liotta-Butterworth was on the edge of the fairway and the rules official wouldn't allow him to move two dead twigs (branches) and basically forced him to take an unplayable which cost him a stroke. Normally if there's a question as to a procedure, the player is told to play a second ball and keep both scores until they can get a ruling from an official or committee. Since it was the rules official that made the ruling Butterworth didn't think he would be allowed to play a second ball.
By the end of the day the entire round took 5 ½ hours and Whittier fell behind Redlands (305) and La Verne (294).
Whittier was led by senior Doug Kennedy who shot a 75 finishing 8th in the event, while Ricky Macias strung together a strong round finishing with a 78 rounding out the players who shot under 80 on the day.
Ryan Kitabayashi and Mark Alvarez barely missed the 80 cut by finishing with 81's and Liotta-Butterworth and Andrew Moreno-Hunt rounded out the rest of the Whittier field by shooting an 83 and 84, each respectively.
Whittier returns to the course as they begin preparing for the SCIAC Championships which are taking place on Sunday, April 22 and Monday, April 23 taking place at Diamond Valley.
