Buhach Colony’s Ochoa is Golfer of Year

Emie Ochoa was faced with a new dynamic on the Buhach Colony campus this spring.

In the pantheon of prep athletics, a successful golf team doesn’t tend to elicit much excitement from the student body.

Still, returning six players from a team that unexpectedly finished third in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South Tournament and became just the second to qualify for the Sac Joaquin Section Masters Tournament in school history is going to garner attention. So, while Ochoa and his counterparts weren’t exactly enjoying rock-star status, there was a notoriety on campus that’s seldom extended to some of the more tertiary sports.

“It was definitely different,” Ochoa said. “People on campus knew what we were doing and what we were trying to accomplish. It was nice. There’s some pressure that came with it too. All of a sudden there were expectations.”

The Thunder completed the ultimate goal, ending Turlock’s 11-year reign atop the Central California Conference with the school’s first golf title since it was competing in the Valley Oak League in 2004. The group never quite recaptured the magic of a year ago, however, ending its season at the section tournament. Ochoa was the only member to advance to Masters this season, where he shot a 78. That, coupled with his CCC co-MVP, helped him retain his title as the Sun-Star Boys Golfer of the Year.

“I spent so many hours out on the course (last) summer, just working on fine-tuning my game,” Ochoa said. “We all did. We were focused on winning the CCC and then seeing what we could do after that.

“We wanted to put that banner in the gym and we did it. But even with that, from a team standpoint, it definitely wasn’t the year we expected to have.”

Ochoa shouldered a portion of the blame, acknowledging he lacked consistency throughout the season.

Buhach coach Rich Cometta had a different take.

“Emie still shot the ball really well,” Cometta said. “Golden Valley’s Peter Kim had a great season, and when it came down to it, only a handful of strokes separated him and Emie for the low-score average.

“Emie deserves all the success he’s gotten. He’s one of the kids that I never have to say anything to. He works as hard as anyone I’ve seen.

“If there’s one knock on him, it’s his inability to acknowledge that a shot he wanted 6 feet from the hole was still pretty good 12 feet from it. Emie is such a perfectionist, it’s the part of his mental game he’s going to have to keep working on as he moves forward.”

Whether Ochoa met his lofty expectations or not, no one can say he didn’t rise to the occasion when it mattered most.

While his teammates struggled against a steady wind at the Division I South Tournament, Ochoa found ways to save strokes throughout a 7-over-par 79 at his home course of Rancho Del Rey. The senior followed it up with a 78 at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Tournament the next week.

“I never imagined going to the Masters without my teammates,” Ochoa said. “We were missing our fourth-best scorer that day at Sections, but we really didn’t shoot the round we should have. It was different playing at Masters by myself, but I just focused on playing the course and not who was around me.

“I felt good about my round. I made an incredible putt on 17 that set the tone for the whole afternoon. I wasn’t playing conservatively. I just went out and played.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony’s Ochoa is Golfer of Year."