Palm Desert junior Luke Ringkamp wins DEL golf title by 11 shots

A final-hole double bogey in a golf tournament generally is a bad thing. Unless you are Luke Ringkamp.

Ringkamp, a junior at Palm Desert High School, did take a 6 on the par-4 18th hole on the South Course at Shadow Hills Golf Club in Indio on Thursday. But by that time, Ringkamp had surged to a 13-shot lead over the field in the Desert Empire League individual finals, so the double bogey only cut his winning margin to a record-setting 11 shots.

“It was a good round. I started off 4-under through 3, so that was kind of good,” Ringkamp said after finishing the 36-hole event at 9-under 133. “I got a little loose, but I got it back on the back nine. But me and that 18th hole, we don’t love each other that much.”

Ringkamp’s final-hole double bogey dropped his Thursday score to 4-under 67 on the par-71 South Course. Combined with his 66 in Tuesday’s first round, Ringkamp finished at 9 under, 11 shots better than his Palm Desert teammates Caden Breisch, Joshua Householder and Max Margolis. Breisch started the day just one shot behind Ringkamp but struggled to a 79 on Thursday for a 144 total, while Householder shot 74 on Thursday for his 144 total and Margolis shot 75.

Ringkamp, Breisch, Householder and Margolis will lead a group of 11 players from the DEL into CIF-Southern Section individual play next week at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills. Palm Desert, the league champion, will send seven players to the individual regionals, while Xavier Prep will send three players and La Quinta will send one golfer, Preston Hoffman, who won a playoff for the final berth with a four-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

Ringkamp started the day 5-under par, but blazed into the second round with birdies on the first two holes. On the 508-yard par-5 third hole, Ringkamp just missed the green to the right with his second shot, then holed a 60-degree wedge chip shot for an eagle, his third consecutive three to open the day.

“Then real golf hit, like the wind. It started getting really windy for a couple of holes, through 11,” Ringkamp said. “Managed to save some pars, make a couples of putts. I just played my game.”

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Ringkamp led by six shots after a 3-under 33 on the front nine, but that grew on the back nine with birdies on the par-5s at the 11th and 13th hole, while Breisch fell back with a bogey on the 10th and a double bogey on the 12th.

By the time Ringkamp teed off on the 18th hole, his lead was 13 shots, so the double bogey was almost meaningless.

Joining the three Palm Desert players at the top of the leaderboard in the CIF-SS play next week will be Palm Desert’s , Austin Woods and Landon Breisch (145), Benton Sullivan (150) and Leo Lanza (151) of Xavier Prep, Cash Tompoles of Palm Desert (152), Trent Hamilton of Xavier Prep (152) and Hoffman of La Quinta (154), who defeated Cory Nava of Xavier Prep in the playoff for the final berth.

For Lanza, a sophomore at Xavier Prep, the CIF berth was a goal for the day.

“I did believe in myself,” Lanza said after a 6-over 77 gave him a 36-hole total of 9-over 151. “I knew it was going to be tough, especially because it was windy. But I played well the first day (74), so I knew if I could shoot a decent score, I could qualify. Today, I actually hit my driver a little bit better, a little bit straighter.”

For Palm Desert head coach Chuck Mazet, having eight players make the first-day cut and seven players advance to individual CIF play is a good sign for his team heading into team postseason competition later this month.

“We had 12 that qualified (for the DEL finals), eight advanced. We had a couple that were just out. So we were happy. We had a couple that had pretty good years (that didn’t advance),” Mazet said. “We were hoping for eight, but seven were realistic. Cash was close for a while, but had a good back nine.”