The Saints golf team has been a perpetual contender for the league championship and over the last 30 years has won more than 70% of their dual matches. Our team has won one State Championship (2005), one Southern California Championship, 2 CIF Championships, and have also been CIF runner-up 4 times. The Saints golf team has participated in the full field San Diego CIF Championship 34 out of the past 36 years heading into the 2026 spring season.
Coming off a 2024 season in which the team finished in the top 14 in San Diego County, we knew that the 2025 season would feature many changes since 4 of the returning top 6 golfers had graduated. In the early part of the 2025 season, the team performed solidly as we integrated many new golfers into the roster, finding the players who would fill out the varsity matches. In the 2nd half of the season, the team showed continual improvement and finished the season in the top 10 in San Diego high school golf. The season was highlighted by posting consecutive scores of 188, including a great victory over the San Diego CIF Section Champion Torrey Pines by two strokes!
As we look ahead to spring 2026, we will again be replacing three of our top six as varsity members Fernando Beltran, Lucas Younes, and Josh Gross have graduated. Despite losing these three valuable members from the top 6, we have high expectations for the coming season as junior Kimo Crisostomo has worked his way into the top echelon of San Diego high school golf and is complimented by returning varsity lettermen Austin Lambeth (senior), Carlos Cerda (senior), Julian Warter (senior), Noah Keeton (junior) and Evan Kliber (sophomore). The strength of our golf program over the past 10 years has been the improvement of players from the JV and we again expect to have players move into varsity roles after working on their games throughout the summer.
For the 14th year, Saints will serve as host for the San Diego Country Club High School Invitational. We will again play in the Ramona Bulldog Invitational at San Vicente Golf Course and have a tough non-league schedule to get ready for CIF playoffs. You can follow our schedule and results on our team webpage through the St. Augustine website.
Saints alumni golfer of note: As coach of the golf team, I like to emphasize to everyone involved that golf is truly a lifetime opportunity that allows you the chance to get better as you get older or simply to spend time with friends and family in beautiful outdoor setting around the world. We have many examples of alumni who have achieved significant things in the golf world after graduating from Saints.
In past years, we have highlighted the professional careers of Armando Favela, Joe Cave, and Tyler Torano as well as the outstanding achievement of Don Eklund who has twice qualified for the US Senior Amateur Championship.
This year, I’d like to congratulate Chris Derr (Saints 2011) for some of his recent golf accomplishments. Since graduating, he has continued to improve and compete in tournaments. Over the past 4 months he has had two significant accomplishments:
1. He qualified for the Southern California Four Ball championship.
2. He was one of four golfers to get to participate in a televised four-part series called “Breaking Erin Hills” which gave four top amateur golfers the chance to play an extremely difficult 7,000 yard long US Open Golf course.
In the following video, you can watch Chris get interviewed as well as watch to see him play some golf!! https://youtu.be/cG6WNVJqP14
Please read our monthly newsletters to keep up with all the golf team activities as they occur.
Head Golf Coach
For more information contact Coach Tom Isaak.
