Golf : Los Angeles Open to End West Tour Again in 1987

The sponsoring Junior Chamber of Commerce’s hopes that the Los Angeles Open might get a better date on the 1987 PGA Tour schedule were dashed when Commissioner Deane Beman revealed that it would be in the same spot next year.

Only one change was made on the winter tour schedule, switching the Hawaiian Open dates with the Shearson-Lehman Bros. Andy Williams San Diego Open.

The San Diego tournament at Torrey Pines will be Feb. 12-15, just ahead of Los Angeles, which will once again be the final West Coast tournament before the pros head for Florida. Traditionally, the final California event is not well attended by name players, who like to take the week off to move East.

This year, however, it made little difference as a record crowd of 41,000 swarmed over Riviera on the final day to watch Doug Tewell run away with the tournament.

The MONY Tournament of Champions at La Costa will again be the leadoff event, Jan. 7-10, ending, as it did this year, on a Saturday. The first-quarter schedule:

Jan. 7-10--MONY Tournament of Champions, La Costa.

Jan. 14-18--Bob Hope Classic, Palm Desert.

Jan. 22-25--Phoenix Open.

Jan. 29-Feb. 1--AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Pebble Beach.

Feb. 5-8--Hawaiian Open, Honolulu.

Feb. 12-15--Shearson-Lehman Bros. Andy Williams Open, Torrey Pines, San Diego.

Feb. 19-22--Los Angeles Open, Riviera CC.

Feb. 26-March 1--Doral-Eastern Open, Miami, Fla.

March 5-8--Honda tournament, Coral Springs, Fla.

March 12-15--Hertz Bay Hill tournament, Orlando, Fla.

March 19-22--USF&G; tournament, New Orleans.

March 26-29--Tournament Players Championship, Ponte Vedra, Fla.

April 2-5--Greater Greensboro Open, Greensboro, N.C.

April 9-12--Masters, Augusta, Ga.

The late Bill Bryant, who was more responsible for the success of the junior golf program in Southern California than anyone else, will have his memory perpetuated with the Bill Bryant Memorial Junior Golf Scholarship Foundation Tournament.

The inaugural will be held March 27 at Industry Hills, the 36-hole golfing complex created by Bryant. There will be a noon shotgun start on the Eisenhower course.

The tournament will be a team event with four adults playing a scrambles format, combined with the score of a ranking junior player. The $150 entry fee will be a contribution to the tax-exempt Bill Bryant scholarship foundation.

Julian (Labo) Lobosky is tournament chairman. Actor Claude Akins will be master of ceremonies at the awards party.

Golf Notes Newell Pinch has been promoted to chief executive officer and Tom Gustafson to executive director of the SoCal Golf Assn. in a move preparatory to the SCGA building its own members’ course.

Pinch, 57, will be CEO of two newly formed corporations, Fore Properties, Inc., which will hold the land on which the course will be built, and SCGA Golf Course Management, Inc., which will construct and operate the facility. The site has not been determined.

Gustafson, 36, will take over Pinch’s former responsibilities of running the 115,000-member SCGA. Pat Patman, SCGA president from Hillcrest CC, will assume the presidency of the two new corporations also.

The seniors will move into the spotlight this week with the $300,000 Vintage Invitational, a 54-hole PGA senior tournament at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells. Next week the seniors will be in Los Angeles for the Johnny Mathis Seniors tournament at the MountainGate CC, another 54-hole event that will start with a two-day pro-am March 27 and 28.

Tom McHugh has one rule for his sixth St. Patrick’s Day tournament Monday at L.A. Royal Vista CC: No orange balls. . . . The Golden State tour’s $25,000 spring championship tournament is set for Thursday and Friday at Valencia CC. . . . California CC will hold the Whittier Open March 27-28. . . . GST pros and amateurs also play Monday at Shadowridge CC in Vista, and March 24 at South Hills CC in West Covina. . . . Greg Huarte and Dan Diel of South Hills defeated Hank Aguirre and Russ Howard of Riverside after each team had shot a net best-ball 62 in the Los Serranos Invitational.

The 36th annual L.A. City junior championships are set for March 24-25 at Griffith Park. Last year’s champions, Chris Robinson of Bakersfield and Pearl Sinn of Bellflower, are not eligible. . . . The 1989 U.S. Junior Boys tournament will be at Singing Hills CC in El Cajon. . . . The Coors Pro-Am Invitational is scheduled for March 30-April 1 at Sahara CC and Calvada Valley CC in Las Vegas.

Newell Morris, who died shortly after he was elected president of his club, was a member of Griffith Park Men’s Club and not Rancho Park, as reported. Harold Kramer is in his third term as president of Rancho Park GC. . . . The two Brookside courses in Pasadena are now being operated by American Golf Corp., with Steve Hughes the new general manager.