The son of two retired Navy pilots, Reed Arnaldo is widely known as a class act by his many friends in high school golf.
“He’s a great kid,” said Casey Sovacool, Arnaldo’s coach at La Costa Canyon High School. “He’s a better kid than he is a golfer. His parents raised him well, and it shows.”
On a breezy and cool Monday afternoon at Torrey Pines North, Arnaldo proved he is a pretty solid golfer as well.
Firing consecutive birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, Arnaldo broke away from a three-way tie to win the CIF San Diego Section individual championship with a 5-under-par, two-round total of 138. He shot 69 in Wednesday’s first round at Steele Canyon, then followed with a 69 at Torrey Pines North.
A 5-foot-9, 140-pound junior, Arnaldo — who has committed to USD — beat a pair of Torrey Pines golfers, freshman Evan Liu (139) and senior Jay Leng (140). Liu and Leng (Stanford), however, helped the Falcons win their ninth consecutive section team title and 14th in the past 15 seasons.
“We’re all friends out there,” Arnaldo said. “We all know that at any given time any one of these guys could beat the other. That’s the way golf goes.”
After finishing seventh as a freshman and 13th as a sophomore, the son of Tiffany and Joe Arnaldo is a champion.
“It was awesome to win at Torrey Pines,” Reed Arnaldo said. “A lot of my friends were here, so it made it that much nicer.”
At one point, Leng, Liu and Arnaldo were tied at 3 under. Arnaldo, however, hit the shot of the day. At the 160-yard, par-3 15th hole, Arnaldo knocked a pitching wedge to 2 feet of the cup. At the par-4 16th, Arnaldo hit driver and sand wedge to about 20 feet. He drained both putts to take a two-shot lead with two holes to play.
Asked which putt was tougher, Arnaldo said, “Probably the 2-footer. I was shaking there a little.”
Liu birdied No. 17 to pull within one stroke of Arnaldo.
“I gave it a run, but Reed played really well,” Liu said.
Last year’s champion, Trevor Cox, beat his Cathedral Catholic teammate Michael Riebe in a four-hole playoff. This year, Cox was fourth at 1 under and Riebe was fifth at even-par. Riebe held a three-shot lead after the first round.
In the team competition, Torrey Pines overcame a two-stroke deficit to Cathedral Catholic and easily won the overall and Division 1 championship with its top-five golfers scoring 727.
Classical Academy won Division 2 and was second overall at 739. Cathedral (743) was third overall and second in Division 2. Carlsbad (760) was second in Division 1. Coronado (771) won Division 3 over Bishop’s (779).
Torrey Pines and Classical, plus up to the next 12 individuals, qualified for the SoCal Regionals on May 22 at Los Serranos South in Chino Hills. The CIF State Championships are May 29 at San Gabriel Country Club.
Torrey Pines has won the state title 11 times since 1976 and finished second the past four seasons.
