With an undefeated Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League record and two wins over rival Faith Christian, the golf team has clinched the league championship and has high hopes for its first Div. VI section title.

“We have a large group of guys that really love and enjoy the game,” coach Matt Vargo said. “They work hard at improving their abilities, and work hard at practice.”

The team’s experience has helped them stay at the top of the section.

Seniors Nick Foote, Rey Rickert and Emile Bourgeois and sophomore Tom Lincoln lead the team. Senior Tag Ashby and junior Case Demmon have improved. And senior Miles Bennett-Smith, a mainstay on the baseball team, has played in several matches, adding to the depth.

In our league, you only need a few low scorers,” senior Emile Bourgeois said. “We can all shoot in the low 40s.”

In a match, six players play nine holes, and the sum of the five lowest scores decides the winner. 

 Bourgeois’s career low is 40, and Foote has shot in the 30s several times.

The team is prepared to battle for a section title, and will play full 18-hole rounds in the tournament, May 4, at the Reserve in Stockton. 

Turlock Christian has won the section title several years running. Elliot Christian, Forest Lake, and Waldorf, which had a golfer in the state championships last year, also will prove significant challenges for the Cavs. 

But the team and coach are confident.

“On a good day, if our guys all play well, we’ve definitely got a shot,” Vargo said. “We’ve had players make the Masters, but they have to play very well. It’s a one-day event, so anything can happen.”

The section champion and three top individuals qualify for Masters, a tournament that combines the section’s six divisions. Although the Cavs have never won the section, they have had individuals advance.

Mark Davidson was the most recent to do so, in his senior year, 2006, but didn’t fare well.

Bourgeois thinks the team’s fifth man will be crucial.

“We all have to play well, and if the fifth person plays bogey golf [averaging one over par per hole,]we have a chance,” he said.

Vargo thinks the top five players will have to average a score of 85 (13 over par.) Although the tournament course figures to be much tougher than Davis Municipal Golf Course, where Bourgeois shot a career-best 72, he has high hopes.

“I can really feel my game coming around,” he said. “Putting is the X-factor.” 

If the team does come away with a section championship, it’s very unlikely to advance past Masters.

Yuba City High School’s top three players shoot 72 (even par) and SCDS would have to compete against Jesuit and other top teams.

“We’d have to play lights out to have a chance,” Bourgeois said.

But the prospect of winning Country Day golf’s first section title and receiving championship rings has the players excited.