Riverside Poly’s Wooding Is a Cut Above

Josh Wooding came to the Southern Section Individual golf championships looking only to survive the cut. He left hauling the hardware of a champion.

Wooding, a junior from Riverside Poly, birdied his last three holes in the shotgun tournament Monday at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs, and shot four-under-par 68 to win by two shots.

Henry Liaw of Hacienda Heights Los Altos, Kyle Dowden of Camarillo and Jay Choi of Cerritos Gahr each shot 70. Liaw finished second and Dowden was third after a two-hole playoff.

Wooding, 17, battled through the gusting winds that took a toll on scoring. His winning score is the highest since Brian Sinay of Irvine University won with a 69 in 1997.

Wooding made the turn at two under before the winds peaked at around 25 mph, but he adjusted and finished strong.

“The main goal was just to get through,” Wooding said. “You always think about winning, but when you get here, you put your tee in the ground and just try to survive.”

The top 22 advance to the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. Championships on June 4 at the SCGA Members Club in Murrieta. Five players advanced through a six-way playoff that lasted two holes.

Wooding, who hit within eight feet on No. 13, within five feet on No. 14 and made a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 15 to close out, didn’t think his score would hold up to win.

“I was just hanging around most of the round,” Wooding said. “I thought with this field any of these guys could shoot way under par. The greens were so pure, I thought it would be a 65 or 66 easy, but it’s nice to see your name up there with [past champions] like Tiger Woods and Billy Casper.”

Liaw, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion, battled a balky driver most of the day, but stayed in the round with hot putting. He birdied the final two holes to get in the playoff for second place.

“I just kept thinking positive,” he said. “I had winning on my mind, but I figured that no matter how bad I play, I have to get through.”

Dowden, a junior, came with a go-for-broke attitude. He made four birdies, including a 25-foot putt from the fringe on No. 16, to go with two bogeys.

“I went at a lot of pins,” Dowden said. “I figured with this field--this is national quality--someone would shoot in the 60s. To me, it feels great to be in third.”

Peter Yoon

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In tennis:

City Section Individuals--Top-seeded Jason Nguyen of Chatsworth and No. 2-seeded Nima Roshan of Granada Hills, the defending singles champion, remained on a collision course for this year’s title as each advanced to Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the City Section individual boys’ tennis tournament with fourth-round victories at Balboa Sports Complex in Encino.

Nguyen, a senior, beat Jefferson’s Edward Gonzalez, 6-0, 6-0, and Roshan beat Los Angeles University’s Arthur Chou, 6-0, 6-0. Nguyen will face El Camino Real’s Dan Nguyen, a 6-0, 6-1 winner over Elizabeth Learning Center’s Mario Munoz, in the quarterfinals, and Roshan will take on Cleveland’s Jared Drucker, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Narbonne’s Henry Chung.

Palisades freshman Chris Ko, also advanced, along with Fairfax’s Artyom Fatkhiev, Cleveland’s Calvin Chan and Venice’s Jeff Melnick.

The No. 1-seeded Belmont doubles team of brothers Norman and Bobby Tam advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over El Camino Real’s Carlos Delgado and Andrew Engelstein.

Three doubles matches were not played because of rain. They are scheduled for Wednesday.

Lauren Peterson