Dover Bay Secondary School finished five strokes off the lead, taking second at the AAA provincial high school golf championship this week at the Nanaimo Golf Club.
The five-person Dover Bay team – Shirin Anjarwalla (Grade 12), Eli Greene (Grade 11), Kasira Muanyam (Grade 11), Sasha Farenholtz (Grade 11) and Kirit Lalh (Grade 10) – shot a combined 309 on Tuesday and 307 Wednesday for a total 616, bested only by Langley’s Walnut Grove Secondary (overall 611). Despite falling short, Dave Nelson, Dover coach, said the team defied expectations.
The scoring format saw the best four scores counting and the highest being dropped.
“I figured we had a shot at getting in the top five because it was our home course and the kids … have been playing well this spring. I figured we had at least a shot at the top five if we played well,” said Nelson. “We definitely met that.”
The coach said it was a true team effort, with scores from all five players used over the two-day tournament.
“It’s a sport where you’re never happy because you always feel like you left shots out there,” Nelson said. “It’s just one of those things. So I’m sure the kids will say that they left shots out there on the course, but overall as a team everyone contributed, considering the weather, especially on Tuesday, they played extremely well compared to the field. A lot of kids struggled with the wind, but we managed to just stick to it and keep the scores lower and it was good.”
Nelson said his players had an obvious home-course advantage, but they still had to perform.
“Every school that hosts has that little advantage, but you still have to execute, you still have to hit shots, you still have to factor for the wind and those kinds of things,” he said.
Anjarwalla and Greene, who finished tied for fourth and seventh, led the team, according to Nelson.
“They were fantastic,” he said. “They had two strong rounds, especially on Tuesday. To shoot 74 and 75 in those conditions, that definitely was a good start for us.”
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