Golf : Top Amateurs Play in L.A. This Week

When the Pacific Coast Amateur tournament starts at the Los Angeles Country Club this week, it will have the most talented field in its 19-year history.

Three Walker Cup players, Sam Randolph of Santa Barbara, Duffy Waldorf of Tarzana and Randy Sonnier of Woodland, Tex., will be in the 72-player field for the tournament starting Tuesday on L.A.’s tough north course.

On Aug. 25, Randolph, Waldorf and Sonnier will join seven other U.S. golfers to compete against a team from Great Britain and Ireland in the 30th Walker Cup matches at Pine Valley, N.J.

Jack Nicklaus II, who won the North and South Amateur this year, and Sonnier head an imposing list of out-of-state players. Others include Bob Rawlins, U.S. senior amateur champion, from Dallas; Kurt Bowen, defending Pacific Coast champion, from Bountiful, Utah, and Brian Henninger, a former USC player from Eugene, Ore.

Randolph, a junior at USC, and Waldorf, a senior at UCLA, shared collegiate honors last spring, Randolph winning the Fred Haskins Award as the top college golfer of 1985, and Waldorf being named golfer of the year by the College Golf Coaches Assn.

They will still be on opposite teams, so to speak, in the Pacific Coast. Randolph, the state amateur champion, heads the Southern California Golf Assn. team. Waldorf, the 1984 state amateur champion and winner of nine college tournaments this year, leads the Southern California Public Links Golf Assn. team.

Randolph’s SCGA teammates are Brad Greer of Huntington Beach, two-time Southern California amateur champion; Dick Runkle, 57, of Los Angeles, runner-up in the last two U.S. senior amateurs; Lee Davis of Thousand Oaks; James Myers of Oceanside; Mark Phillips of Studio City; Ed Cuff Jr. of La Mesa, and Ted Richards Jr., 62, of Los Angeles, a four-time Southern California senior and 18-time Bel-Air club champion.

Waldorf’s public links teammates are Greg Bruckner of Manhattan Beach, the Southern California public links champion; Oliver Rheinfurth of North Hollywood, and David Hamilton of Van Nuys.

Golf Notes The 84th Women’s SoCal Amateur, the oldest women’s tournament in the country, will be played Monday through Friday at El Niguel CC in Laguna Niguel. Cindy Scholefield of Los Angeles CC is defending champion in the match-play event. An 18-hole qualifying round Monday will also determine the Anne Trabue Trophy winner, which goes to the team of two from the same club who post the lowest combined net score. Last year’s winners were Patricia MacCallum and Marilyn Wilson from Bel-Air. Challengers include former winners Candy Meyers and Ruth Miller of California CC, senior champion Millie Stanley of Wilshire, Tamara Rehurek of Via Verde, winner of the Gloria Fecht scholarship, and Karen Engberg, El Niguel’s home course favorite.

The 27th Lee Hammil Memorial tournament for juniors is set for Monday and Tuesday at Los Coyotes CC. The tournament raised more than $75,000 for leukemia research at the USC School of Medicine in its first 25 years. In 1983, the charity was redirected to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Past boys’ winners include Corey Pavin, Tony Sills, Phil McGleno (now Mac O’Grady), Jeff Hart and the late Gary Sanders. Among the girls’ winners were Laura Baugh, Amy Alcott, Beverly Klass and three former Los Coyotes junior members, Debbie Meisterlin, Mary Bea Porter and Kellii Doherty.

After 27 years, Bob Hope has gone commercial with his tournament name. Next year it will be the Bob Hope-Chrysler Classic with a $655,000 purse, up $100,000 from this year. . . . California CC will have a benefit tournament Monday for the Downtown Women’s Center, a home for transients. . . . Golden State Tour seniors will play Monday at Rainbow Canyon CC in Temecula and Friday at Lakewood CC. . . . Fred Sherman will be the host at the North (San Diego) County Women’s tournament Monday and Tuesday at Escondido CC. Linda Morrison of Pebble Beach is the defending champion.

Big-money opportunities for area pros start today with the $15,000 San Diego County Open at Cottonwood, to be followed by the $40,000 Tijuana International Pro-Am at the Tijuana CC Thursday through Saturday, the $50,000 California State Open at Olivas Park and Buenaventura in Ventura Aug. 12-16, and the $60,000 Queen Mary Open at Lakewood CC Aug. 21-25. The Queen Mary will contribute $15,000 to the Exchange Club’s program to fight child abuse. Defending champions are Barry Mahlberg in San Diego, Greg Twiggs in the State Open and Ernie Gonzalez in the Queen Mary. The SoCal PGA will slide its stroke-play championship in between the State Open and the Queen Mary, playing it Aug. 19 at Mesa Verde CC.

Sectional qualifying for the U.S. Amateur is scheduled Aug. 12 at San Luis Obispo CC and Lomas Santa Fe. The tournament will be played Aug. 27-Sept. 1 at Montclair, N.J. . . . The future book: Southwestern Intercollegiate, featuring defending champion Sam Randolph and U.S. Amateur champion Scott Verplank of Oklahoma State, Oct. 14-15, at North Ranch CC in Westlake Village; and U.S. National Senior Open Golf Assn. fall championship, Oct. 9-11, on three Reno courses.

Bruce Crampton, winner of 15 tournaments and more than $1 million on the pro tour, ended an eight-year retirement this week by playing in the Seattle-Everett Open at the Everett CC. Crampton is preparing his game for the senior tour when he turns 50 next month. The Seattle-Everett tournament marks the end of the PGA’s Tournament Players Series, an experiment for players not on the regular tour. . . . The 31st Palos Verdes Women’s Invitational tournament is set for Aug. 15 at Palos Verdes CC. . . . Gene Philpott and Howard Culver were winners in the Boys Club of Hollywood Celebrity tournament at Riviera.