Eagle Rock Keeping Taft Company : Behind Wong’s 70, Eagles Tie Toreadors After 1st Round of City Golf Finals

Jason Gordon of El Camino Real High stood behind the 10th tee at Harding Golf Course at Griffith Park on Tuesday and looked at the cast on his fractured right hand. Then he looked at the cast on the golf course.

Neither one exactly thrilled Gordon, the defending City Section individual golf champion who was forced into a spectator’s role this year after breaking his hand in a freak accident 10 days ago.

“I think it’s a down year,” said Gordon, who won last year’s title as a junior with a total of 72-73--145. “Some of these numbers are real high.”

Those weren’t just sour grapes. Despite perfect weather, only six players broke 80 in the first round, and, with 18 holes to play, upstart Eagle Rock moved into a tie for first with perennial contender Taft in the team competition at 408.

Eagle Rock senior Gerald Wong was the only player to break par, finishing at one-under 70. Wong had three birdies on the back nine and finished with a three-under 31. Cameron Broumand of Palisades is second at 73.

Taft was led by Ryan White, who shares third place at 77 with Josh Oring of Granada Hills and Tony Bordwell of El Camino Real.

White, a bespectacled freshman, says he has grown eight inches since enrolling at Taft in September.

“It’s messed me up some,” said White, who now stands 5-foot-9. “But there are touring pros who are 5-3 who hit it 300 yards. The secret is to hit it straight and make putts.”

Despite his inexperience, White managed to finish the round with no sixes on his score card. Bordwell, a junior, stayed in the hunt despite a balky putter. Bordwell missed birdie putts of eight feet or less on each of the last two holes and did not have a birdie.

“Twelve pars, six bogeys,” he grumbled. “And three of the bogeys were on missed two-footers.”

Taft, the 5-A League champion that last season was upset in the team final by El Camino Real of the 4-A League, now faces a stiff test from Eagle Rock, the 3-A League champion.

It took an 82 from Taft’s No. 6 man, freshman Sheldon Mink, to move the Toreadors into a tie for first heading into today’s final round at the more difficult Wilson Course.

All four girls in the field qualified individually, led by Eagle Rock’s Leann Wong, Gerald’s freshman sister. Wong shot 83, three shots better than Carol Jensen of North Hollywood.

Louise Leftinger of Van Nuys, a foreign-exchange student from Sweden, shot 88 and Monica Chant of Birmingham had 99. All individuals under 100 qualified for the second round.

The top six teams advanced to the final 18 holes. Trailing Eagle Rock and Taft are Granada Hills (427), University (438) and defending champion El Camino Real (442).