Four Palm Desert High School golfers headed to Division 1 schools next fall

When the Palm Desert High School boys’ golf team begins play this spring, they will do so with four golfers already signed to play for Division 1 colleges next year.

As part of Palm Desert’s signing day celebration Wednesday, Max Margolis, Austin Woods, Caden Breisch and Landon Breisch will all ceremonially sign letters of intent for colleges starting this fall.

Margolis is headed to the University of Santa Clara, while Woods will play next year at UC San Diego. Twin brothers Caden and Landon Breisch will both head to UC Riverside.

The players said that golf and academics both played a part in their decisions.

“I was lucky enough to take a lot of different visits and see different schools, meeting different coaches, meet the players on the team, kind of take insights from it all,” Margolis said. “Santa Clara kind of had a bit of everything for me. My coach, Andrew Larkin, he’s a fantastic coach, a great guy.”

Margolis said he was excited by Larkin’s vision for the program and how it fits in the West Coast Conference with teams like Pepperdine and Saint Mary’s. Margolis is also excited to study business finance so close to the Silicon Valley.

For the Breisch twins, getting to play together was part of the decision to go to UC Riverside.

“It was the only program that would take both of us,” Caden Breisch said. “We talked to other schools, but a lot of the programs were filled.”

More: Coachella Valley to host five US Open golf local qualifiers, PGA West added to rotation

Caden added that the proximity of UC Riverside to the desert will allow the brothers to continue using the family’s membership at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells.

Landon Breisch said he was happy to have performed well enough to earn a scholarship to a Division I school, with UC Riverside being a member of the Big West Conference, though he is also hoping to receive some academic scholarships to help with expenses. While the twins will both study business at UC Riverside and will room together in the dorms, Landon Breisch said the plan was for both academics and golf.

“That’s the dream, to stay in golf after school and play professional golf,” Landon said.

Woods will also be playing at a Big West school (UC San Diego), a school he picked for traditional reasons.

“I was talking to a few other schools. A big part of it was the location, being right next to the ocean and the weather is really good all year round,” Woods said. “I was talking to a couple of other schools on the east coast, and they had to take like five months off because of the snow, hitting indoors.”

Woods said he will focus on economics with perhaps a minor in business or finance, classes that are easier to keep up with when an athlete misses multiple days because of competition. But like his teammates at Palm Desert, Woods would like to explore golf after college.

“Depending on how my game is going throughout my years in college, I definitely want to try for a couple of years and see how it goes from there,” he said.

The recruiting process for most Division I prospects begins when they are freshmen with questionnaires and information about schools being sent to players, though they can not officially talk to school coaches at the time. Eventually players can have contact with coaches and take official visits to schools, then can sign with a school during their senior year.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Strong Palm Desert team celebrates four golfers signing Division 1 letters