WOODLAND — After an up-and-down fall season for himself and for his Camas teammates, Andre Kosaki knew exactly what he needed to do Tuesday at the 4A District 4 boys golf tournament.
He needed to keep things simple and not get too far ahead of himself.
“I felt like I was really able to stay focused,” Kosaki said. “Concentrating on every shot, taking it shot by shot. After yesterday I had a small lead, but I knew that if I played good I could finish. I just took it shot by shot. I was really able to not get in my head, and just play my game.”
Kosaki followed up Monday’s 1-over-par 73 with a 3-over 75 on Tuesday to beat out teammate Collin Clark by six shots to win the 4A district title.
The turning point didn’t come after Kosaki birdied the No. 11 hole. It came after he double-bogeyed the following hole.
“The driver was not working today,” Kosaki said. “I think I put it right every time I pulled it out. I made that birdie, and then the driver just went way right. That was kind of a hard thing deal with, but we got over it.”
Kosaki finished the round with a string of pars to earn the victory.
“Coming down the stretch, I knew I just had to play my game,” he said. “I knew it couldn’t really be that bad if I gave it 100 percent effort on every shot.”
Kosaki won with a 36-hole total of 148, followed by Clark at 154 and Union’s Mason Bluestein at 155. Skyview’s Graham Vilhauer (160) and Camas’ Ryker Jun (161) rounded out the top five.
With three golfers in the top five, Camas was able to outdistance Skyview for the team title 638-667.
“We struggled during our league matches and we weren’t able to win league,” Koaski said. “So I was really hoping to get it all back here at districts. And a couple of our guys stepped up and played phenomenal golf, like Collin. And Ryker played solid golf. And Luke (Rubano) was able to come back today and have a solid round, which I was really proud of because he had a rough day yesterday. It all came together and we were able to win.”
