Baker golfers post strong showings at Pendleton Invitational

Eli Long was one stroke away from medalist honors, Jocelyn Bork backed him up with a third-place finish, and Baker/Powder Valley left the Pendleton Invitational with another clear sign that its golfers are building real momentum at the right time.

The tournament was played Monday, April 13, at Birch Creek Golf Course in Pendleton, a course owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and located seven miles south of town on Highway 395. On a course that tested players from several Eastern Oregon programs, Long finished second in the boys field with a 75, trailing Prairie City’s Sawyer Quinton by just one shot. Jace Whitford also cracked the top 10 for Baker with an 84, good for 10th, while Dixon Dommeyer shot 101 and placed 34th.

Bork gave Baker another front-end scoring effort on the girls side. She shot a 99 to finish third, tying Pendleton’s Sophie Nelson, while Dufur’s Tygh Timinsky won girls medalist honors with an 80. Together, Long’s near-win and Bork’s podium finish showed Baker had scoring presence in both the boys and girls races, not just one standout result.

The Pendleton finish continued a strong stretch for Bork. One week earlier, she won the girls individual title at the Nels Nelson Invitational at Wildhorse Golf Course near Pendleton with an 83, a round Baker City Herald reported was 11 strokes better than her previous best. Bork said she had shot a 107 just a couple of days before that tournament, then found her rhythm enough to make her first birdie in a high school event and add two more. Long, meanwhile, has been piling up top results of his own, after finishing second at the 2025 Nels Nelson Invitational with a one-under-par 71 at Wildhorse.

For Baker High School, which competes in Class 4A and the Greater Oregon League, the back-to-back results matter beyond one weekend’s scorecard. With Mike Long coaching the program, Baker golfers have shown they can contend with familiar Eastern Oregon opponents and put themselves in position for district and state qualifying runs later in the spring.