Dream Almost Becomes Nightmare : After Leading by Five, Sheff Barely Wins Amateur Title

For 15 holes Sunday, Dave Sheff could have been forgiven if he began to dream about his days on the PGA Tour.

Sheff, one of the longest hitters in golf, was blistering the Hillcrest Country Club course, four shots under par and five shots in front in the final round of the 87th Southern California Amateur championship.

Then, abruptly, the runaway became a tense match as the 37-year-old former professional left two shots in a bunker and took six shots on the par-3 16th hole and bogeyed No. 17.

Only a well-executed par on the difficult 415-yard 18th enabled Sheff, who lives in San Marino, to stagger home a one-shot winner over Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe, Buz Greene of Thousand Oaks, Rob Geiberger of Santa Barbara and another former professional, Dennis Iden of Costa Mesa.

Sheff shot 73-72-69-71--285 over the 6,458-yard, par-71 Hillcrest course.

“I was just cruising, hitting fairways and making pars when I pulled my 6-iron into the trap on 16,” the new champion said. “Then all I wanted to do was make a bogey, but I didn’t follow through on my first shot and left it in the sand. On the next shot I just lost my concentration and quit on it.”

The fourth shot came out and landed on the green, but two putts later Sheff had a triple bogey 6.

“I’m sort of glad I didn’t know how I stood with the field, after that,” he said. “I was trying to play each shot as good as I could.”

This was Sheff’s first Southern California championship after being reinstated as an amateur last July.

Sheff turned pro in 1972 after playing at Arizona State, where his teammates included touring pros Bob Gilder, Howard Twitty and Tom Purtzer.

In 1971, he won the NCAA long-driving contest with a 342-yard drive at Tucson National.

“I played the mini-tours with guys like Gary McCord, Mac O’Grady and Roger Maltbie and then I got my tour card in 1976,” Sheff said. “I played two years on the tour, but the most I made in one year was about $15,000.

“After that, I was an assistant pro with Skip Whittet at Mile Square and Oakmont until I got an offer to be a sales rep for the Ping Golf Co. in 1979.”

Once Sheff applied to the U.S. Golf Assn. to regain his amateur status, the USGA made him wait two years before he was reinstated.

Now that he has joined such illustrious golfers as Al Geiberger, Tony Sills, Mark Pfeil and Barry Jaeckel as Southern California Amateur champion, does Sheff plan to turn pro again?

“No chance,” he said. “I chased the rainbow long enough. I have friends out there who keep chasing and never make it, and I wonder how they’ll wind up. I realized that I didn’t have the short game to make it big, so I dropped out.

“I really enjoy amateur golf. I felt great out there today and I’m looking forward to playing a lot more.”

That is Ted Richards’ philosophy, too. He won this tournament in 1954 and again in 1961 and lost in a playoff in 1974 to Jim Porter. And he was out there at age 63 in the final round Sunday.

Richards, who has won the Bel-Air club championship so many times he’s lost count, started the day only four shots off the lead but an ailing back made it difficult to play and he limped home with an 86.

“I was going to finish if it killed me--even if I shot a 90,” Richards said.