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It’s finally starting to look like golf weather in Berkeley, and the course conditions aren’t the only things improving.  

After carding a season-best 208 in a league match last week, the Berkeley High boys golf team continued to compete on a higher plane on Monday, taking 12th place at the reasonably prestigious Ukiah Golf Classic. 

“Most of our guys knew the course from last year, knew it was open, and easy to let things go,” BHS co-coach Rodney Kopish said after the match. “We did really well – 12th out of 20 teams – and with a stroke here and there we could have gone up to eighth.” 

Berkeley High’s total score of 435 marked a tremendous improvement over last year, when the squad shot well over 500 on the same course. Ivan Holmes’ score of 74 was good enough to tie for the best score in the tourney, though Holmes would drop to second place after a two-hole playoff with the co-winner. Adam Breckler and Curran Kennedy carded the Yellowjackets’ next two best scores, finishing the 18 holes in 83 and 87 strokes, respectively. Walker Koppelman-Brown and Ronald Quintero rounded out the BHS scoring.  

Berkeley High gets perhaps its only chance of the season at a league win this afternoon, when it hosts East Bay Athletic League rival Granada at Tilden Park Golf Course. Though the Matadors took the first matchup of the year between the two schools, played at Livermore’s Las Positas Country Club, Kopish believes his squad’s improvement is sufficient to compete for a victory this time around. 

“(Granada) is our big shot at a league win,” the coach said about today’s match. “We had a great performance (in Ukiah), but we’ve got a lot of room for improvement.  

“I think we should go down to 205 (strokes). I think that’s reasonable.” 

Today’s match tees off at 3:30 p.m.