A year of teamwork and personal-best performances ends with a trip to the playoffs for the Malibu High School golf team.
By Kendra Gilbert / Special to The Malibu Times
For the first time in the history of the program, the Malibu High School golf team earned a spot in the California Interscholastic Federation regional finals, capping off a record year. But the team was also a success in the classroom, and earned special recognition for its academic excellence.
“Our team was a lot better this year,” team captain Robby Mohr said.
Sophomore Joe Rosenthal, often described as a “golf fanatic” said, “It’s definitely been our best season. We feel like all of us can go low on any given day.”
And that’s just what the team did, shooting some of their lowest scores ever, setting personal and team records and making it to the finals for the first time. The Sharks, coached by Nick Deleo and Rich Lawson, finished the year at 9-6, a record good enough for fourth place in the Tri-Valley League, another Malibu High golf first.
And the team performed well in the finals, placing 8th out of 19.
“It was just a season of personal bests,” Mohr said.
Not only did the team step up its golf game, but the players proved for the second year in a row that they can also perform well in the classroom, taking home the CIF All-Academic championship. The 12-person squad had a combined GPA of 3.8.
Mohr, a graduating senior, said a highlight of the season was accepting the team academic award, along with Deleo, down on the field of Angel Stadium before a game against the Detroit Tigers.
“That was definitely a high point,” said Mohr, although he admitted he’s not much of a baseball fan.
While academics were a priority, the 17-year-old Mohr made it clear that, “I try to keep my books away from the golf course.” That meant no studying on the bus rides to matches around Southern California or during the commute to and from the twice weekly team practices at the Lindero Country Club in Agoura Hills.
“It’s tough, but you’ve just got to have the determination to finish everything and keep up the grades,” Rosenthal said.
A fundraising effort has been taken up through the Shark Fund, an organization dedicated to raising money for Malibu High, to build a putting green on the school’s campus, giving future golfers and the community a place of their own to perfect their technique.
“It would be a wonderful thing for the community and a wonderful addition to the sports facilities in Malibu,” Rosenthal said.
It would also eliminate the nearly hour-long roundtrip commute the boys have to make just to practice.
Laura Rosenthal, Joe Rosenthal’s mother and past board member of the Shark Fund, has spearheaded the effort to make the practice facility-which would include a 2,100-square-foot putting green with 13 holes, 450-square-foot bunker, hitting mats and a 50-foot-hitting net-a reality.
In order to finance the first phase of the practice facility, $54,000 needs to be raised. So far the amount earned stands at $10,000, all of which was donated by the Malibu Bay Co., Rosenthal said. A second phase, which Rosenthal said would cost an additional $95,000, will fill in the 4,000 square feet around the initial putting green with artificial turf, creating a larger practice area.
Rosenthal and Deleo hope the new practice facility, along with incorporating golf into the physical education programs at Malibu High, will increase interest in the sport.
“I think it’s one more thing that would make it easier for people to get involved,” Deleo said.
Although Mohr and the teams’ other departing seniors, Daniel Krafft and Dylan Daw, will graduate before the planned facility is completed, there are plenty of golfers ready to put the green to good use like “freshman phenomenon,” as Mohr calls him, Ryan Sarmiento, and sophomores Rosenthal and Ryan Matthews.
Rosenthal, who said he plans on returning to the team for both his junior and senior years, said the new practice green “would be a great place for the kids to learn or just to keep our swings up to par.”