Tam High coach Derry Ryan had a front-row seat as Redwood sophomore Cole O’Connell strung together the best round of the day at the MCAL boys golf championships at StoneTree Golf Club on Thursday. Meanwhile, his team of Red-tailed Hawks — marshaled by other MCAL coaches — put together enough good rounds to claim the team title by the slimmest of margins.

As the players gathered back at the clubhouse, neither O’Connell nor the Red-tailed Hawks could be totally sure that they had done enough to win. In O’Connell’s case, his 1-under-par 71 was two strokes better than anyone else in the field. The team title was decided on a tiebreaker after both Tam and Marin Catholic’s top five golfers produced identical 393 scores. Tam claimed the title on the strength of Abe Willard’s 83.

“This is easily the closest I’ve been a part of,” said Tam’s Max Berg, who shot a team-best 75 to place fourth overall. “It’s crazy to think that every single shot really does matter.”

While the team scores were being tabulated, an additional swing was added to Tam’s total, potentially setting up MC to take the title. A few moments later, an error was found on an MC scorecard as well, putting the teams back on level terms.“Hole 18, I missed a putt and I was thinking about it — if I made it we would have won — but then I realized that we actually did win,” Berg said. “For a moment there, we definitely thought we didn’t have it, but we did.”

Although Berg missed one potentially crucial putt, he said his short game was key to his good performance.

“Making putts — all the 5- and 6-footers — was probably the biggest part of my round,” Berg said. “Off the tee I was alright. My irons were pretty iffy. My putts and short game were on.”

Tam — which had produced the past two individual champions with Berg in 2023 and Ben Friedman in 2024 — got consistent scoring from up and down its lineup. Berg’s 75 was followed closely by Friedman’s 76 and Hayden Thill’s 79. First-year golfers Elliot Dasovich (81) and Shade Murray (82) rounded out the top five as the Red-tailed Hawks won back-to-back team titles.

“We put a couple of new guys in and they just did everything in their power to help,” Ryan said. “Elliot Dasovich and Shade Murray, both of those guys came through when we really needed them.”

Coaches are not permitted to marshal groups featuring their own players, so Ryan was in charge of the fourth group, which featured O’Connell, San Rafael’s Kai Payne, and Marin Catholic’s Finn Henne.

O’Connell, who began his day in the shotgun-start format on the 17th hole, picked up a pair of birdies on the front nine.

“My swing felt pretty good at the start,” O’Connell said. “I made a par, made a birdie early on. I got my mindset going.”

O’Connell strung together solid shots on the back nine to remain under par throughout the day.

“When I got back (to the clubhouse) I had a thought that I might have won it but I wasn’t completely sure,” O’Connell said.

Thursday’s round was a far cry from O’Connell’s first experience at the MCAL Championships as a freshman a year ago when windy conditions contributed to him shooting an 87.

“It was brutal last year,” O’Connell said. “It feels great coming off with a 71 after an 87 last year.”

MC’s Theo Anderson placed second with a 73, marking the fourth consecutive year he’s finished inside the top three at the event. Anderson won MCALs as a freshman in 2022, placed second in 2023, and finished third in 2024.

Branson’s Jack Hilleboe shot a 74 to finish third this season.

MC’s other four scorers were Bodie Ransom (77), Jasper Smith (78), Henne (81), and J.P. France (84).

Redwood (397) and Branson (405) were also very competitive in the race for the team title, finishing four and 12 strokes back, respectively.

Tam claimed the automatic bid into the North Coast Section Division I tournament at Rancho Solano in Fairfield on May 19. Redwood is expected to make it into the D-I field while Branson and MC are expected to make it into the D-II tournament, which takes place at Foxtail North in Rohnert Park on May 12.

Should all four teams advance to NCS, all five individuals competing at MCALs would also punch their tickets into the next round.

San Rafael’s Payne shot a 79, Archie Williams’ Calvin Gundee shot an 83, San Marin’s Max Figueroa shot an 88, Terra Linda’s Matty Nelson shot a 94, and Novato’s Gianni Zucconi shot a 95.