One. Two. Three. Four.

That’s how South Whidbey’s top boys golfers finished at a conference match on Thursday.

Jesse Portillo, Harrison Price, Shane Thompson and Tyler Nelson carried the Falcon boys golf team to another Cascade Conference

victory. South Whidbey won with 324 combined strokes through 13 holes (par 52) at Useless Bay Golf & Country Club, Lakewood finished in second place with 356 strokes and Sultan finished third with 482.

Portillo scored 58 strokes, worth a match-high 18 points.

“We know he has it in him,” Price said of Portillo. “All he has to do is put it all together. He has the game to shoot anything.”

Price followed with the second-fewest strokes at 62.

Thompson finished with 66 strokes and escaped a three-way tie for third by one stroke.

“I was feeling really good for about, like 12 holes or so,” Thompson said. “I was three over [par]. And then I just fell apart.”

“The swing just went away,” Thompson said. “I was thinking too much.”

Thompson previously said his swing was off due to over-thinking, and last week was the same story.

“It’s just a mental block right now that I need to get through,” he said.

Nelson tied for fourth place with Ben Moore of Lakewood at 67 strokes.

South Whidbey’s fifth scorer, Connor Mock, was four strokes from sweeping the top-five spots. Mock shot a 71 and scored 10 team points.

Rain, wind and chill made an unpleasant golfing experience. Price, a Falcon junior, called it the worst conditions he has played in. “The first eight or so holes were probably in the worst conditions I’ve ever played in,” Price said. “So I was a few more over par than I expected and I wanted to be.”

Thompson, state team captain, had a different take on the weather’s impact on South Whidbey’s golfers that day.

“You could say it brought us together because we were all huddled underneath the club house,” Thompson said. “We were all cold together, we were all wet together, so we were all pretty unified as a team.”

Price credited the home-course advantage for putting South Whidbey on top of its conference rivals.

“Lots of guys I play with in the summer, they all hate Useless Bay because they hit so many balls out of bounds. It just helps to play it every day and know there’s nowhere to miss, really.”

Each individual’s stroke count determined the golfer’s place. Then the place was awarded points, with first place receiving the most points (18) and 18th place receiving the least points (1).

The team’s points, not the team’s cumulative strokes, were then used to determine the team’s ultimate placing.

The win was South Whidbey’s third conference victory and puts the Falcons in second place.

At the onset of the season, South Whidbey’s goals included repeating as the Cascade Conference champions.

Up to a meet with Cedarcrest and Sultan on April 19, South Whidbey was 3-1 in conference matches, and split its two matches with Archbishop Murphy.

“As a team, we’re just gunning for Archbishop (Murphy),” Thompson said. “And that’s our goal — just to beat them if we ever play them in a match.”

It was a busy week for South Whidbey’s boys golf team. On Tuesday, April 11, the boys played in the 10th annual Tom Dolan Invitational at Everett Golf & Country Club.

Twenty-one schools were represented at the invite, and South Whidbey was one of three Cascade Conference schools invited.

“We got what we got, but I think we exceeded our expectations and everyone played pretty well,” Price said.

South Whidbey finished in sixth place with 342 strokes (54 over par). The Falcons shot better than Archbishop Murphy and King’s, as well as Shorewood, which had the tournament’s individual champion, Chris Babcock, who finished with 71 strokes (one under par).

“We all left some shots out there, but even still we finished sixth,” Thompson said. “So if we all brought our A-games, who knows what would have happened.”

Thompson and Portillo both shot 84 strokes. Patrick Parnell recorded the team’s fourth-lowest score with 97 strokes and Tyler Nelson finished with 101.

Price played in the group that included Babcock from Shorewood, the invite’s champion. South Whidbey’s junior golfer said he was proud he avoided trying to match someone else’s game. He shot a 77 (five over par) and led the Falcons.

“I didn’t really let it bother me at all,” Price said. “I just played my own game.”