Romeo Juarez was ready for anything Wednesday at the City Section Golf Championships, except maybe a change of course.
Expecting to play Harding, where the finals are held every spring, he arrived to find out he would be on Wilson — which he had played only once before two years earlier as a freshman at Crespi.
“I was well prepared for Harding,” Juarez said. “I found out we were playing Wilson 20 minutes after I got here. I didn’t let that bother me. It’s just a golf course so I wasn’t going to complain I just had to birdie the first hole because it’s a par five.”
The Reseda High junior did just that on his way to firing a two-under-par 70 to become his school’s first City individual champion.
“My drive on the first hole was the best shot I hit all day,” he said. “It was right down the middle. That’s the way you want to start a round.”
Romeo Juarez blasts out of a greenside bunker on his way to a birdie on the 14th hole.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
In addition the first hole, Juarez birdied the seventh, ninth, 12th and 14th to make up for bogeys at the second, fourth and 13th, all par fours.
Despite his three-foot birdie try on 18 lipping out he still won by three shots and was the only player to finish in the red.
“I’m not satisfied, I feel like I could’ve played a lot better,” he said of Wilson, which at 7,002 yards is nearly 300 longer than the adjacent Harding. “I was scrambling a lot and left at least three out there but I put my wedges in close and gave myself opportunities to birdie. It’s definitely a challenge if you’re not accurate. And if you’re not a good putter you’ll be three-putting a lot on these sloped greens.”
Playing in the second group, Juarez was one under through 13 and blasted out of a frontside bunker to within four feet of the hole at 14 before sinking his birdie putt. He had a tap-in at 15, a three-footer at 16 and another tap-in at 17 to give himself a comfortable margin.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself, I practice everyday in the backyard or at Encino or Balboa,” Juarez said. “It’s not pressure to perform but to prepare.”
When told he was the first Regent to win the City championship he vowed to be back next season to defend it.
“That’s why I came here,” he said. “To win it.”
City Section Commissioner Vicky Lagos thought the permit was for Harding per usual: “I didn’t even know they switched it on us until I went to pay and they said we were playing Wilson.”
Palisades’ Finn Viles was the runner up with a 73 and teammate Jake Norr (74) was third for a second straight year as they led the Dolphins to their third straight team title, 25th overall and fifth in six years. They were 27 over par — 29 shots clear of second-place Venice, which edged Granada Hills by one stroke.