By DAMIAN DOTTORE
OCVarsity staff

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- They sat side by side at a table in the clubhouse at Red Hill Country Club, staring at the scoreboard that brought nothing but bad news.

Irvine's Victoria Park 78. University's Ani Gulugian 80.

Not even a piece of strawberry cake seemed to cheer them up.

Victoria Park

Both are respectable scores on a tough course like Red Hill. But they still weren't good enough to be in the running to win the CIF State individual girls golf title.

Torrance's Jenny Shin had little problem mastering the tricky greens, finishing with a 2-under-par 72 to win the prestigious tournament.

Park was understandably disappointed. She qualified to play at Red Hill on Tuesday by shooting a 6-under 66 at Canyon Crest in Riverside on Monday, a score good enough to win the WSCGA So Cal Championship.

But she had problems with her driver at Red Hill. Although she hit the ball a long way, sometimes it didn't land where she wanted it.

“I think I am doing something wrong with my (right) shoulder,” said Park, who went to the driving range at Tustin Ranch after carding that 66 on Monday. She wasn't happy with her swing even though she had seven birdies in the round.

She's kind of lucky that she got to keep her 78 on Tuesday. She stopped on the 18th fairway and began to frantically search her bag. She had lost her scorecard somewhere on the 17th hole. If it didn't turn up, she'd be disqualified.

“I said to myself, ‘Oh, no!' Yeah, I was scared,” Park said.

But as she was walking off the 18th green, a CIF official pulled up in a cart and handed it to her. She was clearly relieved, but she still didn't like what it said.

“No, I am not happy,” Park said. “I didn't have a birdie.”

Park wasn't alone. Gulugian also finished without one. The greens, Gulugian said, were very tricky, and if a ball landed above the pin, “It wasn't fun.”

“And I ended up above the pin quite a bit today,” Gulugian said. “But what are you going to do? I was behind trees and I wasn't hitting fairways. It was tough to get up and down.”

She did make a nice par save on the 16th hole, though after her approach shot flew the green and hit a tree.

“This was the toughest course we have played during CIF,” Gulugian said. “But hey, I made it here.”

Park, a senior, and Gulugian, a junior, were making their first appearances in the state tournament.

“It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it,” Gulugian said. “Next year, hopefully it will be better.”

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