Southern California PGA : Former Oklahoman Wins Title in First Local Outing

Jim Woodward, a big Oklahoman who moved here only a year ago, won the 61st annual Southern California PGA match play championship Thursday. He beat Jerry Wisz of Alhambra, 2 and 1, in 36 holes over the hilly North course at the Los Angeles Country Club.

Woodward, 28, came West last August from the Oak Tree Country Club in Edmund, Okla., to become director of golf at the new Wood Ranch course in Simi Valley. This was his first tournament as a Southern California PGA member.

Woodward, who seems to wear a perpetual smile, outdrove Wisz consistently, sometimes by as much as 50 yards, but Wisz kept scrambling back to keep the match tight.

On a hot and humid day, the lead changed 11 times before Woodward broke a deadlock by winning the 9th and 10th holes of the afternoon 18. Wisz made bogeys after hitting both tee shots into bunkers.

The new champion went 3-up when he sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole. Wisz rallied to win the next two holes, helped by a 25-foot putt from off the green for a birdie on No. 16 and was only one down with two to play.

The rally ended when Woodward closed out the match on No. 17 with a 10-foot putt for par. Wisz made a bogey on the 416-yard, par- 4 hole when he drove into a ravine, hit the branch of a tree on his recovery shot and failed to sink a par putt after reaching the green on his third shot.

The win was worth $2,000 to Woodward as well as entry in the Bob Hope, Los Angeles and San Diego opens, and the PGA’s club professional tournament. Wisz collected $1,200.

The finalists from the field of 72 were playing in their first sectional championships. Woodward is a 1979 graduate of Oklahoma State where he played on two national championship teams with David Edwards, Bob Tway and Willie Wood, all touring pros.

“I tried the tour for about a year, but my numbers (scores) weren’t low enough, and I couldn’t stand flying from one tournament to another,” said Woodward, who looks as if he could have been a tight end for the Cowboys instead of a golfer. “After four days out here, I’m physically and mentally beat. This is one tough course. Right now I’d like to get some feet transplants. Mine are just about gone.”

Wisz, 32, is a tall, slender graduate of UC Irvine, class of ‘76, who has been at the Alhambra municipal course for about 3 1/2 years.

“I came there when it was called Almansor and was only nine holes,” Wisz said. “Then it was closed for a little over a year while they enlarged it to 18 holes, and I worked at Alta Vista in Placentia. When it reopened as Alhambra municipal, I came back. It’s going to be quite a facility next year when the $5 million clubhouse is completed.”