SOUTHERN SECTION TEAM GOLF: SATICOY HUMBLES EAGLES OAK PARK WINDS UP LAST IN SECTION TEAM FINAL.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

SOMIS - Oak Park's record ride in golf came to a bumpy finish Thursday at Saticoy Country Club.

Coach John Vogel's Tri-Valley League-champion Eagles, 23-3 and playing in their school's first Southern Section team championship, struggled from start to finish and wound up last in a field of 16 finalists.

``Toughest course we've played - ever,'' said Sean Martin, the only senior starter on an Oak Park team that defeated longtime area powers Westlake and Calabasas this season but could not handle Saticoy - which will host a U.S. Open qualifying tournament on Monday.

``That's my excuse,'' deadpanned Kevin Clement, who struggled home at 105 - his worst score of the year.

Clement, however, did not lose his sense of humor on a day he watched a 2-yard chip roll 10 yards.

``I made every putt under six inches,'' he said.

Not every team struggled at par-72 Saticoy, which measured 6,575 yards for the section finalists but played longer with wind that started up shortly after the 8 1/2-hour competition was teeing off at 11 a.m.

First-place Santa Margarita (383), located near Irvine, proved unaffected by anything but irony, posting four scores in the 70s (of only 21 recorded all day) while winning its second section title by eight strokes over runner-up Atascadero (391).

Irony? In winning, the Serra League No. 2 Eagles finished five positions ahead of league rival Servite, which edged Santa Margarita for the league title and then bested Santa Margarita again in Monday's Western Divisional qualifier for Saticoy.

``We played well at the right time,'' said Santa Margarita coach Tim O'Hara after accepting his school's second section-championship award.

Long Beach Wilson (398) and Riverside Poly (399, despite a disqualification) finished 3-4 to earn the Southern Section's final berths in the four-section CIF/SCGA championship scheduled for June 6 at SCGA Members Club in Murietta.

Mission League runner-up Loyola, which won Monday's Northern Divisional qualifier to earn its fourth section-final berth for coach Tom Goepel, tied for seventh Thursday at 403 and got two of the day's better scores from Kevin Bric (74) and John Callaghan (76).

``Kevin shot a super score - I'm really proud of him,'' said Goepel, who will lose just two starting seniors to graduation. ``But some of the other guys. . . . Boy, the course sure won today.''

Amen to that, echoed Oak Park's Richard Young, who has qualified to play in the Southern Section individual tournament but could do no better than 91 Thursday, when he hit his first two tee shots out of bounds.

``Two 10s and an eagle,'' summed Young, who one-putted the eighth green from 15 feet after reaching that 539-yard par-5 hole in two shots.

Mostly, however, Young struggled as much as everyone else on Saticoy's large, rolling putting surfaces:

``Fastest greens we've played all year,'' he said.

``Impossible,'' was the description from Oak Park freshman Brandon Beck, who competes in difficult American Junior Golf Association tournaments and felt Saticoy stacked up with some of the toughest courses he has played.

``It was hard to judge the speed,'' Beck said. ``Even the uphill putts were fast.''

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Photo: Loyola's John Callaghan, blasting out of a bunker, shot a round of 76.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News