Alamo Heights sophomore Andrew Carreon putts for par on the ninth hole at Golf Clubs of Texas on the last day of the District 27-4A Tournament. Photos by Marvin Pfeiffer

The key to winning in high school golf is having a deep team.

The Alamo Heights Varsity boys have just that. They used that depth this past week to claim their second straight District 27-4A team title and advance to the regional tournament in the process.

Their ultimate goal? The state championship.

Head Coach Danny Hayes, in his fourth year at the school, believes he has the team this year to enable them to get there.

“This is the best team in my 34 years as far as what they’ve accomplished,” Hayes said. “At our very first meeting of the year, I dug in my box and pulled out a state ring from when I was at A&M Consolidated and told the boys that I hadn’t had a team there since 1992 and I thought they had the ability to get there. So I’ve been wearing it every day and reminding them that’s our goal. They’re working their way to it.”

“We’ve been pretty balanced this year,” Hayes said. “My top three, their averages are pretty close to the same. Chase Anderson, Preston Anderson and Andrew Carreon are all pretty close.

One of the things that gives us an advantage is that I have a fourth or fifth golfer that can play pretty well,” Hayes said. His fourth and fifth players are Trey Hisle, a senior and Robert Davis a junior.

Preston is a senior while Chase is a junior and Andrew is a sophomore. Coach Hayes also mentioned Tucker Oelson and Jake Rhodes as being players to watch in the future.

“If you can come up with five good players you’ve got a shot at any level,” Hayes said.

The team has now won five out of the nine tournaments they’ve played in this year, including the Santa Anita Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., in October 2007

“We went out there and won that tournament,” Hayes said. Not familiar with the course, the Mules were nine shots out of the lead after the first day. They came back on the second day and won the tournament by ten strokes – against a team that had previously been undefeated.

Hayes is proud that his team has been able to play with most of the top teams in the city.

“Here in San Antonio you’ve got so many quality players and programs – with the Churchills and Reagans and Clarks and such that you always want to be competitive with them or be up with them and this year in head to head competition we’ve been able to play with and beat most of them on a regular basis,” Hayes said.

“So I think we’ve probably got one of the top teams this year in San Antonio which with the golf play in the San Antonio area is saying quite a bit.”

The Mules led Boerne by nineteen strokes after the first day in the district tournament this past week, and extended that lead to twenty-five strokes after the second day.

Carreon finished in first place after posting a 69 on the first day to lead all players and following that up with a 72 on Tuesday to win the tournament by two strokes.

After struggling a bit on the first nine on the final round, Carreon put it all together on the final nine holes to claim his first victory of the year. “I was five under on the back side,” Carreon said of his play on Tuesday. “Until the last hole and then I ended up two under I think.”

Everyone played pretty well,” Carreon said. “I think we were the favorite coming into this tournament so it’s a good thing we won. We’ll see what happens in regionals. We’re on a roll.”

The Mules won the tournament with a score of 294 on the first day and 293 on the second for a total of 587. Boerne finished second with 612 (313/299).

Chase Anderson (73/71), who went to the State finals last year as a sophomore, finished tied with Boerne’s Taylor Meadows at 142 but lost out to Meadows on the second hole of their playoff round to finish in third place.

Senior Preston Anderson carded a 146 (73/73) to finish fourth while Davis finished ninth with a 155 (78/77) and Hisle thirteenth with 163 (79/84).

The Mules second team, comprised of Tucker Oelson, Jeran Smith, Brad Stankey, Austin Clayton and Michael Flatley totaled a 671 to finish fifth.

“This is our best team since I’ve been here,” said Preston Anderson, who as a senior was playing in his last district tournament. “So we want to use our potential to do as well as we can because we’ve never had such a good shot.

The regional tournament is scheduled for April 21 to 24 and will be held at Golf Clubs of Texas.

The Alamo Heights Varsity Golf team took first place in last week’s District 27-4A tournament at Golf Clubs of Texas. From left to right, pictured here are Trey Hisle, Chase Anderson, Preston Anderson, Head Coach Danny Hayes, Robert Davis and Andrew Carreon.