Baywood Golf and Country Club

By Ray Hamill — There’s a clear frontrunner in this year’s race for the H-DNL girls golf title, and now there appears to be one for the team championship as well.

With three rounds remaining on the league schedule, McKinleyville junior Sofie Sundberg holds a commanding lead in the season standings, and has posted the top score in league in all four rounds so far.

Sundberg will try to make it five straight wins when the league plays at Del Norte on Thursday.

“She’s very consistent,” Arcata coach Troy Ghisetti said of the Mack standout, who is an all-year-round golfer. “The good thing about watching her play the past three years is she’s gotten better and better.”

Eureka’s Ileah Brannon lies second in the season standings, 17 strokes behind the league leader and eight ahead of third-placed Avery Meadows of Arcata.

It might be a tall order to expect Brannon to overcome the season deficit, but she definitely appears to be the best positioned to win a round at some stage and prevent a season sweep by Sundberg.

“Ileah is very consistent and she’s pushing her,” Ghisetti said. “But Sofie’s just a little stronger every week.”

Another golfer worth keeping an eye on as the season winds down is St. Bernard’s Allyson Hagler, who continues to show improvement.

Hagler has consistently knocked a stroke or two off her previous best each week, breaking into the top five at Baywood last week with her best round of the year.

The team competition, meanwhile, appears to be Arcata’s to lose at this stage.

Despite losing two of the four rounds to Eureka, the Tigers still hold a sizable 33-stroke lead after a pair of big wins over their closest rivals in week two and four.

In addition to Meadows, the athletic Morgan Ford and Sagen Sarchett are both enjoying outstanding debut seasons with the team, while Iris Coonrad is also a consistent top-10 threat.

“Avery Meadows has been very consistent for us as our No. 1,” Ghisetti said. “And having Sagen and Morgan Ford coming out this year has helped our team. They give us some depth, and they give us some athletes that can hit the ball.”

So far, the season has been an enjoyable one across the board.

“The kids are having a blast, and other than a little bit of rain they’ve been very enthusiastic,” the Arcata coach said.