Angel’s 1st Is Worst at City Final : Golf: Granada Hills standout struggles in opening round of high school championship.

Darren Angel stood on the 13th hole and laughed, even though the irony never dawned on him.

A scruffy, black cat was chased in madcap fashion through the tee box by a noisy, dive-bombing bird, which pretty much summarized Angel’s afternoon.

Angel struggled to his worst round of the year Tuesday in the first round of the City Section golf championships at Rancho Park Golf Course in West L.A.

Hunter became hunted.

Conditions were cool and breezy. Angel’s game was cold and clammy.

Angel, the two-time defending City individual champion, struggled to an eight-over-par 79, his poorest round of ’95 by six shots.

“I’m missing greens with 9-irons and wedges?” said Angel, who has signed to play at Arizona State. “That’s not the course, that’s me.”

Angel won the City championship last spring with consecutive three-under 69s at Knollwood Golf Course in Granada Hills. To win the title for the third time--the second and final round is set for Monday at Rancho--he’ll need to charge from the pack.

Greg Goodfried, a wiry, talkative sophomore from Birmingham who played in Angel’s foursome, shot a scrambling 75 to take a two-shot lead over Jordan Dinapoli, a junior from Grant. A pair of Angel’s teammates, Brian Vranesh and Ben Krug, checked in at 78.

Angel will be playing in the third group Monday, hardly well-trod territory for a guy who averaged 68 in competition for the year.

Yet he wasn’t exactly sweating bullets. Told he might need to shoot 70 or thereabouts in the final round, he said coolly: “So?”

Granada Hills, seeking its third consecutive team title, finished with a five-man total of 402 to take a commanding 30-shot lead over Birmingham. The individual title is considerably more unsettled.

Goodfried, who this year transferred to Birmingham from Brentwood “to get more golf exposure,” will get plenty in the final round.

Goodfried told Angel that he was shaking so badly from nerves on the first tee that he could hardly hold the club.

Didn’t matter much, since Goodfried had a solid grip on his putter. He one-putted four times in a five-hole stretch en route to an even-par 36 on the back nine.

Included in the streak was a head-shaking 95-footer for birdie on the par-3 16th hole.

“I just had that feeling on the putts, like I could make everything,” Goodfried said.

Angel, on the other hand, hardly made anything.

Angel one-putted once, hit just six greens in regulation and sprayed the ball all over the lot off the tee. He was the lone member of his foursome who didn’t record a birdie, in fact.

Goodfried, for one, isn’t expecting Angel to take a similar header next week. He expects the 6-foot, 200-pound senior to be back in stalk mode.

“I’d never count him out,” Goodfried said. “He’s such a solid player. I sure don’t like the idea of looking behind me and seeing him.”

Things were so bad that Angel wasn’t much looking forward to the final round--which was rescheduled when Monday’s round was rained out.

“It’s another day off from school,” Angel said. “But the way I’m playing, I’d rather be in class.”