Golf : Two PGA Tours Share La Costa This Week

Professional golf’s best two-for-the-price-of-one bargain, the $400,000 MONY Tournament of Champions and the $100,000 Senior Tournament of Champions, will bring together 36 winners from the two PGA tours this week at the La Costa Resort course in Carlsbad.

Bernhard Langer, the West German who won the Masters and then followed up with a victory last Sunday at Hilton Head, will be making his first appearance in the Tournament of Champions. Two other foreign winners, Greg Norman of Australia and Denis Watson of South Africa, will also be making their debuts.

Yet two more foreign winners, Peter Thomson of Australia and Roberto de Vicenzo of Argentina, will be making their first start in the senior event. Thomson won five British Opens and has won four of the last eight senior tour events. De Vicenzo is a former British Open champion and winner of 100 international tournaments.

Only nine seniors will be shooting for the $100,000 prize. Besides Thomson and de Vicenzo, they are Orville Moody, Dan Sikes, Miller Barber, Arnold Palmer, Don January, Gay Brewer and Lee Elder.

The 33rd annual Tournament of Champions, as its name implies, is the most exclusive in golf, being open only to winners of tour events in the last year. It will start Wednesday with an 18-hole pro-am in which all of the professionals will participate.

The 72-hole tournament will begin Thursday for both groups.

Tom Watson is defending champion in a field that includes Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Fuzzy Zoeller, Seve Ballesteros, Calvin Peete, Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange and local favorites Craig Stadler, Mark O’Meara and Scott Simpson.

Twenty-seven players have qualified for the tournament with today’s winner of the Houston Open also eligible.

Golf Notes Ground-breaking ceremonies for a course at Coto de Caza in Trabuco Canyon were held Friday. Robert Trent Jones Jr. is the architect. . . . Quail Ranch CC (formerly Quail Lake) was named golf course of the month by Golf Gazette magazine. The course, originally built in 1967 by Desmond Muirhead, has been revamped by new owner Jack Kirby. . . . Bonnie Holmes retained her Western Hills CC championship, with Holly Combs the runner-up. . . . Jodie Martin Kulp won her fourth straight Candlewood championship, defeating Shirley Beard. . . . Geoffrey Mason has replaced Ray Mulligan as executive director of the Nabisco Dinah Shore Invitational.

Qualifying for the 74th California State Amateur is scheduled for May 14 at Los Serranos GC in Chino. The tournament will be played June 23-29 at Pebble Beach and Cypress Point. Duffy Waldorf of UCLA is the defending champion. He defeated Mark Phillips of Lakeside, 2 and 1, in the final. . . . Entries will close May 6 for the 62nd annual L.A. City Women’s tournament scheduled May 16-17 at the Griffith Park courses, and May 8 for the U.S. Women’s Public Links qualifying May 29 at Green River GC in Corona. The tournament is scheduled for June 19-23 at Flanders, N.J. . . . UCLA, with Waldorf, and USC, with Sam Randolph, U.S. Amateur runner-up, are favorites in the Pacific 10 tournament starting Monday at Walla Walla, Wash. Waldorf recently won the Stanford U.S. Invitational by 13 strokes after shooting 67-67-65--199. In the SoCal Intercollegiates, however, it was Randolph who prevailed with a 68-67--135 to Waldorf’s 69-67--136 at Torrey Pines.

Marianne Bretton, a finalist in the 1976 U.S. Amateur and the California State champion the same year, has regained her amateur status after a brief fling at pro golf and as Mrs. Marianne Godwin won the Bel-Air club championship by 40 strokes. She shot a 74-77-75-72--298. Her husband, Bill, is a former Bel-Air men’s champion. They met when Bretton and Nancy Lopez were the first women amateurs invited to play in the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, and Bretton was paired with Bel-Air pro Eddie Merrins. Godwin caddied for Merrins in the tournament. . . . Shirley Spork will open the Gil Enterprises School of Golf May 5 at Whispering Palms GC in Rancho Santa Fe. . . . The Golden State tour pros will play a 54-hole tournament starting Wednesday at Soboba Springs CC in San Jacinto, and another 54 holes May 7-10 at Rainbow Canyon CC in Temecula. . . . Qualifying for the 61st Long Beach match-play tournament is set for next Saturday and Sunday at Recreation Park. The championship flight will start play May 11, with the final May 19. Jim Ream of Cerritos is the defending champion.

The National Football League Alumni charity tournament will be played Monday at Oakmont CC in Glendale with Hall of Famers George Blanda, Danny Fortmann, Elroy Hirsch, Don Hutson and Ollie Matson expected to play, along with Heisman Trophy winners Tom Harmon and Les Horvath. The charity recipient is the Positive Parenting Network. The winning fivesome will qualify for the Super Bowl of Golf next year in Florida. . . . Other charity dates: Nolan Cromwell-Sunset Builders tournament Monday at Los Coyotes for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Long Beach City College Foundation tournament Thursday at Lakewood CC for LBCC men’s and women’s athletic program; the third annual George De Mayo Invitational Friday at La Canada Flintridge CC for the La Canada Flintridge Youth House, Tournament of Roses Assn. and Foothill Service Club for the Blind; John Madden Celebrity tournament, also Friday, at San Luis Bay GC in Avila Beach for the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football program and alumni association; Inland Empire Magazine tournament Friday at Indian Hills CC in Riverside for the Riverside Boys and Girls Clubs; Knights of Columbus Catholic tournament Saturday at Rio Hondo CC for St. John’s Seminary Fund; Little Company of Mary Hospital tournament May 6 at Palos Verdes GC for the hospital fund; World Trade Week tournament May 9 at Brookside GC in Pasadena.

Jack Nicklaus and 18 other touring pros will play in a pro-am Monday at Nicklaus’ Bear Creek course at Murrieta. Mark O’Meara, Fred Couples, Calvin Peete, and Scott Simpson are among those entered in the $10,000 event. Another $10,000 will be donated to the National Chapter of the Junior Golf Foundation. . . . Glendora CC’s 14th annual Pride of the Foothills Invitational is next weekend. Defending champions in the 54-hole handicap event are John Sitter of Glendora and Bart Campbell of Oakmont.