Golf : UCLA Will Defend Title in Bryant Tournament

Pacific 10 champion UCLA will open defense of its Bill Bryant Invitational Tournament championship Monday on the Eisenhower course at Industry Hills.

The 54-hole tournament honoring the memory of the founder of the Industry Hills golfing complex has attracted 14 schools from six conferences, among them Western Athletic Conference champion Texas El Paso. Washington is the only other Pac-10 school competing.

San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton are also entered.

Individual favorites are UCLA freshman Ken Tanigawa, recent winner of the Mexican Amateur, and UTEP senior Rick Todd, a third team All-American last season. USC, with U.S. Amateur champion Sam Randolph in his senior year, is not competing because of a new NCAA rule that limits schools to 30 days of competitive golf in a semester.

The winning trophy is a bust of Bill Bryant, which will be presented by his widow, Jean Bryant.

Golf Notes The Golden State tour for both amateurs and professionals will start Monday with an 18-hole tournament at Mountaingate CC, site of the Johnny Mathis Senior tournament. The following Monday, Jan. 27, they will play at Calabasas CC. The pros will be tuning up for a series of 10 36-hole tournaments, each with a purse of $25,000, starting March 20-21 at Valencia CC.

Dave Sheff, one of the two amateurs to qualify for the L.A. Open, was the NCAA long drive champion in 1971 while playing for Arizona State. The other qualifier, Eric Woods, attended UC Irvine on a football scholarship after quarterbacking Corona del Mar High.

American Golf Corp., which doubled play within two years at Oceanside Municipal after improving the course, will try to do the same for the two Brookside Municipal courses in Pasadena. American Golf will take over the Brookside operation Feb. 1. It will be the organization’s 25th course operation in California. . . . Joe Caraway of Laguna Hills and partner Mike Flynn won the SoCal Lefty-Righty tournament at Fallbrook.

When George Johnson, 84, shot his age at Santa Anita Dec. 26, it was the 100th time he had equaled or bettered his age and he had done it for the 16th consecutive year. The Arcadia octogenarian carries a 15 handicap and still walks the course. When he was 68 his handicap was four and he shot a 68 at El Rio GC in Tucson.

Pearl Sinn received the first Amy Alcott Award for Excellence during Amy Alcott Night last Thursday at Riviera. The award will be given to an outstanding female junior golfer between the ages of 15 and 17 from Southern California. Sinn, American Junior Golf Assn. player of the year and a Bellflower High graduate, is attending Arizona State.

The 14th annual Scotch championship of the Women’s Golf Assn. of SoCal is set for Monday and Tuesday at California CC. Thirty-five golfers will participate. . . . Calvin Peete will conduct a junior clinic Tuesday at Phoenix CC, site of the Phoenix Open, in which Peete is defending champion.