Bracing for a golf victory

Vern's back holds up, Ron figures out how to putt, and they rally to beat Bob and Blayze as the annual pre-draft golf tournament returns to action.

Fighting through fog and traffic on I-5, four members of the JSFL took to the course Saturday morning for the return of the annual pre-draft golf tournament at Lomas Santa Fe's 18-hole executive course.

Down a stroke after Bob Garcia's brilliant effort on the par-3, 94-yard 15th hole -- his drive was a lawn-dart inside a foot of the hole, and he quickly drained the birdie putt -- Vern Ahrendes and Ron Hender picked themselves up off the mat and took the next two holes to win by a stroke.

Garcia's shot on 15th, combined with a pair of missed putts from 6 feet by their opponents, catapulted Garcia and Blayze Hanson from a stroke down into the lead for the second time in the round. Earlier, Hanson calmly buried a 9-foot birdie putt Vern Ahrendes and his black belt in back

on the par-3, 94-yard 10th hole to counter pain prevention

a bogie from the Ahrendes/Hender twosome.

Garcia's shot seemed to awaken his opponents. Facing the final three holes down by a stroke, Ahrendes evened the match with a clutch par putt on 16 after getting a read on the break from his teammate. Garcia and Hanson were forced to use Hanson's short drive that caromed off a stand of trees just to the right of the tee box, but salvaged a tie with a bogey. Hender finally managed to hit a decent tee shot on 17 and that decided the match. His 9-iron shot dropped within 12 feet of the hole, and he nailed a left-to-right breaking putt for a birdie for the lead. The twosomes finished the 18th with pars.