Boys' golf: Highlanders will try to hold lead on longer Wilson course

It's no surprise that Chris Kim of Granada Hills is in contention for the individual title heading into today's final round of the two-day City Section Championships at Griffith Park. After all, he won the 6A League tournament by three shots last week and tied for seventh in the City last spring.

What is surprising is that the Highlanders lead the team competition by a comfortable 14 strokes over pre-finals favorite and reigning champion El Camino Real. Four Granada Hills players posted sub-80 scores Monday on the par-72 Harding Course and Michael Nishida, the Highlanders' fifth scorer, carded an 81.

Kim is tied atop the leaderboard at one-over-par with teammate Dohnte Allison, Brennan Amirkhizi of Taft and Robin Jang of Van Nuys. Eight players are within three strokes of the leaders, so it's still anyone's tournament.

Play switches over to the longer Wilson course today, where scores figure to go up, not down, and it'll take an effort equal to Granada Hills' first-round performance for the Conquistadores to defend their title. The first of 20 groups in today's final round teed off 30 minutes ago and qualifiers for the Southern California Regionals should be determined by early evening.

-- Steve Galluzzo