Albuquerque Academy sweeps at metro girls golf

The thing about a good short game is that it translates just about everywhere.

On Monday afternoon at Ladera Golf Course, consider the dilemma facing sophomore Addy Haas of Albuquerque Academy:

In the second hole of a playoff with West Mesa’s Alyssa Rodriguez, Haas turned a perfect tee shot into a precarious spot. She flared her iron approach far right of the ninth green, even to the right of a green-side bunker.

“As soon as I hit that, (I’m thinking), ‘I’m definitely gonna have to fight for this,’” she said with a smile.

She chipped over the bunker, but had to land the ball on a downslope, and her ball chased, running about 30 feet past the hole.

The only good news for Haas was that Rodriguez drove into a fairway bunker, blasted out short of the green and was facing a 15-footer for par herself.

Haas made her putt, Rodriguez missed, and Haas won the Albuquerque Metro Championship title.

“It’s amazing,” said Haas, after her third victory of the spring portion of the prep golf season. “I have the whole team to thank, my parents, my golf coach, they’re amazing and definitely contributed to my success.”

On the winning putt, Haas said she was in the right frame of mind.

“I stood over the putt and I kind of had this feeling. I was like, this confidence (rushed) over me,” she said. “I committed to it, and it went in.”

Both Haas and Rodriguez shot 3-over 75s on a breezy but manageable weather day on the West Side. They each parred the first playoff hole; Rodriguez got up and down and buried a 4-footer to extend the playoff.

The team title was far more complicated to determine.

Albuquerque Academy won the massive metro trophy after shooting 341. That was two shots better than La Cueva.

“The girls have slowly grown since the fall season,” said Academy coach Zachary Haas, who is Addy’s father. “It’s a really young team (two sophomores, two freshmen and one eighth-grader), and over the winter they committed themselves. They worked three to four days a week, weight room, short game work, even on those 20-degree weather days, they showed up.”

However, there was a significant rules controversy regarding one of the La Cueva players that influenced the standings.

The player in question apparently did not know where her approach shot at the par-4 ninth ended up, and believed it went into the green-side lake, said Volcano Vista coach Fred Cota, who was part of the rules committee for the event. She took a drop and played a second ball toward the green.

As it turns out, both shots were on the green. She picked up her second ball on the advice of a coach that was walking with the group, and finished the hole with her original ball, and this created massive confusion.

No fewer than three coaches told the Journal that what she should have done is putt out with both balls, and then let the rules officials hash it all out following the round.

Cota said the rules committee decided post-round that the girl did not officially finish the hole. Hence, she was assigned a max score of 9 on the ninth hole. Had it been ruled that she completed the hole with the wrong ball, she would have been disqualified outright.

The assigned 9 was the difference in La Cueva winning and losing. Bears coach Eric Orell did not wish to comment on the ruling.

La Cueva golfers finished 3-5 in the standings, with Kendall Trujillo (82), Ryanne Covel (83) and Kate Moores (86). Academy’s second-best score Monday came from Gabby Sanchez, who carded an 87 and tied for sixth.

The boys metro tournament is Tuesday at Arroyo del Oso Golf Course, with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.