Daniel Heo pulled off an improbable comeback going six-under on the back nine to force a playoff and eventually win the CIF/SCGA SoCal Boy’s High School Championship over Luke Potter – the SCGA’s Player of the Year in 2021 and reigning CIF state champion.
But it’s safe to say even that’s not Heo’s biggest accomplishment in the past 24 hours.
On Monday evening, he graduated from Cypress High School. A trip to Disneyland after the ceremony kept him out until 4am. Four hours later, he was at Brookside GC competing for a regional title.
“We stood for like three hours getting ready to file in (at graduation),” Heo said. “I slept for about an hour and a half (when I got back) and had to wake up for this tournament. The way this turned out, I’m really happy. I was able to perform well today.”
He shot even-par through nine holes, finding himself three strokes behind a trio of leaders at the top, including Potter who posted an eagle on the front. Starting on No. 8, Heo battled for consecutive pars followed by a birdie to get his score in the red as he approached the No. 11 tee box.
After another par, Heo unleashed a stretch amateur golfers can only dream of. He rattled off three consecutive birdies followed by an eagle on No. 15. Now at six-under, Heo was leading the pack with one hole left.
“On the back nine, it was really all my wedges,” Heo said. “These par-4’s are really short and I hit my driver. I was really able to capitalize on my wedge game. My coach and I, we’ve been working on controlling the spin and trajectory. I really needed that because these greens were really sticky so I had to stick it close. I was able to make the putts as well.”
Meanwhile, Potter collected mostly pars with one birdie on the back, sitting at five-under. Heo bogeyed his final hole, setting up a playoff to determine the individual championship.
Starting from the par-four No. 1, Heo striped his tee shot down the fairway to set up an approach shot of less than 150 yards. He went straight for the flag, stuffing a wedge about 15 feet above the pin. It took four shots for Potter to reach the green, allowing Heo to two-putt for par to win.
Edison High School took home team championship honors in dominant fashion as the only team to shoot under-par in the competition. The Chargers saw five of its six competitors turn in rounds of even-par or better, finishing at one-under as a team. Joining them in next week’s state championship will be the Torrey Pines Falcons (+4) and Sunny Hills Lancers (+8)
Winning Team Members (Edison Chargers)
Ben Crinella
Timothy Jung
Jake Rothman
Troy Tarvin
Connor Krueger
State Individual Qualifiers
Daniel Heo (Individual Champion)
Luke Potter
Diesel Roman
Gavin McCormick
Connor Williams
Aidan Tran
Nathan Tseng
Nick Davis
Matthew Robles