Golfers Struggle at City Finals

Looking at the giant-sized leaderboard outside of the Griffth Park clubhouse heading into the final round of last Wednesday’s City Section boys’ golf championships, one might have thought there was a mistake. Palisades High was not listed as one of the contending teams and only two Dolphins were even in the 62-player field. That’s the kind of season it’s been for a perennial power suffering through a “down” year. Still, sophomore Sam Jacoby and junior Jared Rosen were hoping to restore a measure of pride on the par 72 Wilson Course after both had struggled two days earlier on the shorter Harding Course. Jacoby, who fired an opening-round 92, found himself in 44th place when he teed off on Wednesday. After parring the first hole, however, he was unable to control his drives and wound up with three pars (all on the front nine) and no birdies for a final round 99 for a two-day total of 191. “My goal was to shoot in the mid-80s today so I’m very disappointed,” said Jacoby, who played only the second day last year. “It was a pretty frustrating day out there.” Rosen shot the same score on Wednesday, but his enemy was the flat stick. He made par on one hole’the 15th’en route to carding a 194. Neither he nor Jacoby qualified as individuals for today’s Southern California Regionals in Murrieta. “Usually I’m pretty good on the greens, but not today,” said Rosen, who shot 190 last spring when both rounds were played on Harding. “I missed five putts inside three feet and I three-putted eight or nine holes. I was hoping to do a lot better than this.” Chris Ramirez of Cleveland finished two-under par to win the individual title by one stroke over Troix Tonkham of Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. El Camino Real won the team title by 10 strokes over defending champion Venice. Last year, Palisades senior Bo Jacobson shot a final round 76 to finish in a four-way tie for eighth place and qualify for Regionals. The last Palisades player to win the City title was Ed Turner in 1999 and the Dolphins last won the team competition in 2005.