LJ g golf: The Neapolitan

By Ed Piper

Vikings golf coach Christie Quinn offered to take her girls team out for sushi.

Freshman team member Daria Tvrdisic spoke up for In-N-Out. A reporter resonated with that suggestion.

"The Neapolitan shake is the best," Tvrdisic-few-vowels said.

I said, "What's a Neapolitan?"

"They mix all three flavors in one shake," she explained. Strawberry-chocolate-vanilla.

Me: "I love In-N-Out. I love their shakes. I'm going straight there right after this." (This: Torrey Pines Golf Course, match against Point Loma, Mon. afternoon, Sept. 20.)

Another funny note: Girls on the Pointer team were asking what time their tee time was. No one knew. I had seen the scheduled time on La Jolla's team website: 4:10.

It turned out, the Pointers have a few team members who are known for their lateness. The coach tells them all a false time way ahead of the actual tee time.

When I went over to take a photo of the Point Loma team, someone said, "This isn't the whole team. Others are going to show up." Hmmm. Okay. Any photographer is used to late arrivals.

A fifth golfer showed up.

A while later, the sixth and seventh team members showed up. Bingo. Photo of all seven. Then the story from the coach about giving them a false time starting time.

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La Jolla freshman Charlotte Cantonis kept up her torrid pace. At Torrey Pines, with courses that challenge pro golfers, she shot a 35, 13 shots ahead of her nearest teammate. The 35 Monday ties her best posted score so far, a 35 in the opening league match August 25 against crosstown rival Bishop's. That's over nine holes. Par on the North Silver course is 36.

No one else is even in the same ballgame. Her "differential" (handicap) is .57. The closest teammate has a 12.88 differential.

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Quinn introduced the girls to kikuyu grass before the match, alongside the closed putting green. (She pronounced it "kikui".)

"You'll see it growing on edges (of the course). If you shoot into it, the ball will stop." Only one team member (Cantonis) acknowledged having heard of it before.