El Camino Real Finds Golf Titles Where Eagles Fly

David Solomon threw his best now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Houdini move at Jason Gordon, and it still wasn’t enough.

“I kept looking to see if he was feeling any of the pressure,” said Solomon, shaking his head in disbelief. “And he wasn’t.”

Gordon, a junior at El Camino Real High, remembers it a little differently. When Solomon, a Taft senior, eagled the 14th hole of the City Section golf championships at Griffith Park on Wednesday, Solomon took a peek at Gordon.

What he saw was an iceman. Gordon, however, felt more like a melting ice cube.

“Oh, man, you better believe I felt it,” said Gordon, who shot a 2-over-par 73 on the Harding Course to take the individual trophy with a two-day total of 145 and lead El Camino Real to the team title. “At first, I didn’t see it, but they all kept saying it was in.”

It, in this case, was Solomon’s 9-iron shot on No. 14, a par-4, 358-yard hole. Trailing Gordon by five shots, Solomon knocked one close from 136 yards away. Gordon, playing in the same foursome, had just hacked his way out of a fairway bunker. Solomon’s ball, however, was still visible on the green. As it turned out, the ball was leaning against the flagstick and seconds later fell in for an eagle. Gordon, meanwhile, had yet to find the green after three shots.

But Gordon managed to get the ball up and down for a bogey and held off Solomon the rest of the way. Solomon finished second, two shots behind at 73-74--147.

El Camino Real, the champion of the 4-A League, shocked defending City champion Taft of the 5-A League with a final-round total of 386, the lowest 18-hole round for the Conquistadores this season. Tony Bordwell shot 73, followed by Drew Stevens (79), Joe Jensen (81) and freshman Jim Kim (80).

Taft finished second at 799, followed by North Hollywood (827).