Granada Hills, Taft Dominate City Golf Teams

Call it optimism, the same kind of hopefulness that makes a guy break out a new golf ball on a bedeviling hole, buy a new set of clubs every other year or camp out all night at the pro shop on the outside chance that a tee time will be available at dawn’s early light.

When the organizers of the City Section golf championships drew up the leader board before the tournament Tuesday, they placed 70 at the top of the list and left plenty of room for names of those players who would equal that torrid number.

Wishful thinking.

Ditto with 71, 72, 73. . . . you get the idea. Only six players broke 80 at Griffith Park’s Harding Course, and only one broke 75.

“The numbers aren’t exactly low, are they?” said Tony Bordwell of El Camino Real High, who is in a three-way tie for second after shooting a four-over-par 76.

Brad Nielsen, a junior from Eagle Rock, birdied the first and 18th holes en route to a two-over 74, far and away the day’s most consistent round. Nielsen, who works in the Griffith Park pro shop and whose team plays its home matches on Harding, is seeking to become the second consecutive Eagle Rock player to win the individual title.

The team competition was close--that is, for two teams. Granada Hills (417) and defending champion Taft (418) are the overwhelming favorites to advance to the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern California Golf Assn. finals June 11 at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana. The low 10 individuals, in addition to the low two teams, advance.

Birmingham, led by the play of twins Yasu and Aki Amaya--who fired 78 and 79, respectively--is third at 442. Also making the team cut in the 36-hole event are El Camino Real (443), Monroe (446), Grant (453), Eagle Rock (454), Chatsworth (461), Marshall (466), Palisades (468) and North Hollywood (469).

Nielsen and Bordwell, who placed third individually last year, will be grouped in today’s first foursome with Josh Oring of Granada Hills and Young Nam of Marshall, both of whom shot 76.

Today’s round will be played on the Wilson Course, which is rated two strokes harder than Harding and is 454 yards longer. Catching Nielsen, who at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds is the largest player in the tournament, might not be easy.

“I like Wilson even better,” Nielsen said. “Long courses don’t bother me much.”

Granada Hills’ position is no upset. Earlier this season, the Highlanders snapped a Taft streak of 93 league wins in a row.

In addition to Oring, Granada Hills was led by Kevin Kurhajec (81) and Kelly Brockway (84).