After a two-year pause in competition due to COVID-19, the CIF Boys State High School Championship finally made its way back to San Gabriel CC. California’s top high school golfers were eventually crowned as the individual champion sealed his victory with a birdie on his second to last hole, while the team champion cruised to an 11-stroke victory.
Brandon Knight established a solo lead after 11 holes and never looked back as the junior from Foothill HS outlasted a cluster of nearly 10 players that came within two strokes of catching him at the top of the leaderboard to win the individual state title.
“It feels great,” Knight said. “I’ve been playing some pretty good golf recently. It’s awesome. Everything went right today. I made some putts and everything else was good.”
Starting his round on No. 10, Knight birdied Nos. 1 and 2 on the back to grab the solo lead at four-under. Another birdie on No. 5 opened a two-stroke lead, though he bogeyed the next hole, which opened the door for an exciting finishing stretch.
Knight’s tee shot on the narrow par-4 No. 8 went left and landed in a fairway bunker about 150 yards away from the pin.
“I hit it in that bunker in the practice round,” Knight said. “I thought about it, almost hit three-wood (off the tee) but I hit driver and it went right back in the bunker.”
Knight pulled a nine-iron out of his bag and planted his second shot 18 feet above the hole. His downhill birdie putt almost lost steam at the end but trickled into the cup, punctuated with a fist pump as Knight climbed back to five-under.
“I had a great number in,” Knight said. “(The shot) was perfect, right over the pin.”
Once all was said and done, that 18-footer proved to be the difference for Knight, who earned an exemption to this year’s California Amateur at Big Canyon CC because of the victory.
“My irons were awesome; I was striping it right at every pin. I also made some putts, it felt great,” Knight said. “I actually had no idea where I was the whole day. I never looked at the score so I was just trying to get it back. I feel like I played good, gave a few away.”
Eric Lee (Sunny Hills) and Edan Cui (Crystal Springs Uplands) tied for second at four-under. Joey Hayden (De La Salle) finished in fourth place at three-under while freshman Joshua Kim rounded out the top five at two-under. There was a three-way tie for sixth place between Josh Chung (Torrey Pines), Jaden Dumdumaya (De La Salle) and Luke Potter (Classical Academy), who all shot one-under.
On the team side, De La Salle was hot from the start and never surrendered its lead, as the Spartans were the only team to shoot under par en route to a commanding state title victory.
“We knew we were good from the get go, we’re a very talented team,” De La Salle Head Coach Jim Collins said. “Today we just told them to keep doing what they’re doing, and that’s what happened…We’re a happy group of Spartans, I’ll tell you that.”
De La Salle completed the CIF/NCGA sweep of regional and state titles and won its first state crown in 16 years. Finishing at three-under as a team, it was a fitting end to a dominant season.
“I’ve been coaching almost 40 years now and this is probably the best high school team that I’ve seen in Northern California without a doubt,” Collins said.
Three of the Spartans’ six competitors earned individual hardware. Collins was especially impressed with freshman Joshua Kim, who shot under par in all his rounds this postseason, joining his nationally-ranked teammate Jaden Dumdumaya as the only two Spartans to accomplish the feat this season.