By Pete Borello
Not surprisingly, several local golfers shined at the annual Sean Remen Memorial Junior Golf Tournament March 25.
After all, the Junior Golf Association of Northern California event was held at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club - which has a course many of the local players are familiar with.
Mountain View resident Kevin Lozares, the top player on the St. Francis High golf team, won the boys overall championship. The sophomore, competing in the boys 16-17 age division, shot a 1-over-par 72.
Los Altos High senior John Sines finished seventh in this division by shooting a 79, and Lozares’ St. Francis teammate Todd Scanlin, a senior, placed eighth with an 80.
Another St. Francis golfer, sophomore Michael Jensen, captured the boys 14-15 division and did so in dramatic fashion.
The Los Altos resident won a four-hole playoff against Eddie Olson after both golfers finished tied at 74 at the end of regulation play.
“I knew I was going to do well in this tournament,” said Jensen, who posted the second-best score of the day. “I feel really good about my game right now.”
Jensen also played extra holes at last year’s Sean Remen Memorial, losing a sudden-death playoff for the 14-15 crown.
Jensen got off to a slow start at this year’s tournament - he said his “putts just weren’t falling” - and ended the front nine 5-over-par. But he recovered during the back nine, making three birdies during a four-hole stretch.
Arjun Pendharkar of Los Altos shot an 84 to finish eighth among the 14-15 boys.
Charles Sines, John’s brother, won the boys 12-13 championship by two strokes with a 79. Tyler Ichikawa of Los Altos placed eighth in the division with an 84.
Ichikawa’s brother Adam claimed the boys 10-11 title by posting a nine-hole score of 41. Runner-up Andrew Kaneshird, also of Los Altos, shot a 44.
One of the most impressive performances of the day came from Monterey’s Mina Harigae, who won the overall girls crown as a 12-year-old.
Harigae, California’s reigning women’s amateur champion, shot a 76.
“She’s a future star,” said tournament director Brian Inkster, head pro at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club. “You’re likely to hear more and more from her as the years go on.”
Saratoga resident Grace Hsu, a Los Altos Golf & Country Club member, finished second overall with a 77 and seized the girls 15-17 division title.
A pair of Los Altos residents placed in the girls 11-and-under-group: Tessa The took second by shooting 55 over nine holes; Alexandra Groetsema earned fifth with a 59.
The tournament, in its 38th year, drew 150 junior golfers from all over the Bay Area.
Past participants include LPGA players Juli Inkster (Brian’s wife) and Dorothy Delasin and PGA members Jeff Brehaut and Dan Forsman.
Brian Inkster won the boys overall championship its first two years, when the event was called the Los Altos Spring Classic.
The name of the tournament was changed in the late 1980s to honor the late Sean Remen, who once worked for Inkster at the country club. Remen was killed in an auto accident while away at college.
