This Name May Become a Big One in Golf : Los Altos High School Star Bob May Will Attempt to Qualify for U.S. Open Tuesday

Shhhhh. Be very, very quiet. Bob May, a senior at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, is teeing off.

Behind the tee, two silver-haired gentlemen in a golf cart are peering out behind thick dark glasses. They look like they might be there to ask for quiet.

They don’t.

Gentleman No. 1: That’s him .

Gentleman No. 2: Yep, that’s him, all right. The little guy. Watch this drive.

May addresses the ball, settles in.

Whoooosh. 260 yards, down the middle, 30 yards past the nearest drive.

Gentleman No. 2: Look at that! Look at that! That’s at least 250 yards!

Gentleman No. 1: The kid’s 17 years old!

Gentleman No. 2: It’s humiliating, that’s what it is.

May is on the green in two, misses a 30-foot putt for birdie and settles for par. He will finish 18 holes on the Mission Hills’ new course at 69, 3-under par.

Many are impressed when the big junior tournaments come to town. Like a squad of mini-pros, these teen-age golfers arrive at a course, shotgun start at 7 a.m., and regularly roll back into the clubhouse with sub-par rounds from championship tees. They possess handicaps less than 3. Some are scratch players.

For the past four years, the most humbling among them has been May, a 5-foot 7-inch blonde who spends nearly every day of the week humiliating--in an unintentional way--silver-haired gentlemen who also play five, six days a week.

Just watching can make the average golfer feel as if he’s been given two left hands and hockey sticks, while May has spring-loaded clubs.

There are others like him. Jason Bittick, a senior at Anaheim Esperanza last year, was a bigger hitter than May. Ken Tanigawa of Loyola, who won the Southern Section individual title in 1985 over May, perhaps has a more cosmetic swing.

But there are very few that do it the May way--with his style and patience. When May is playing, it is impossible to tell if he is winning, losing or just getting by.

“People can never tell how Bobby’s doing,” says his mother, Muriel, who follows her son in most of his tournaments and is one of those who keeps quiet while he plays. “He’s so calm, so easy on the course that it’s hard to tell. He’s still joking, even when he’s not playing very well.”

He always appears content on the course, never overly angry or emotional.

He never looses his cool.

“I don’t want people to think I’m a jerk out there,” May said. “I don’t want people to think that I have a temper, which I don’t, really.

“I watch professional golfers and I don’t like seeing them do it, so there’s no reason for me to do it.

“I want to be a gentleman of the game.”

What May doesn’t want to be is misunderstood, for his talent or confidence to be taken as conceit. “I don’t want them to say, ‘He thinks he’s hot,’ ” May said.

But May is hot, markedly better on most days than his peers and able to play with professionals.

Tuesday, May goes for the U.S. Open in qualifying at the San Francisco Golf Club.

At the local Open qualifying at Industry Hills, May was second, shooting 71-72 for a one-under 143.

Today, May will practice in San Francisco.

May’s Los Altos High team did not qualify for today’s CIF Southern California Golf Assn. tournament at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake.

May, who will attend Oklahoma State in the fall, carried the red and blue Los Altos bag for the last time two weeks ago at the Industry Hills Eisenhower course, where his one-under-par 71 was the low round on a day when only 14 of 72 golfers broke 80. It was not enough, however, to place Los Altos in the top four, which would have qualified the team for a trip to the SCGA.

May is currently on somewhat of a tear, with several important low rounds turned in the last month. After three tournament rounds at Industry Hills--one of the area’s most difficult courses--May was two under. Three weeks ago, he broke the Edgewood championship course record with a six-under 66 in winning his second straight Lake Tahoe Junior Memorial.

At last Monday’s Southern Section individual championships at Mission Hills, he shot a three-under-par 69 to finish regulation in a three-way tie for first. Jeff Manson of Long Beach Millikan won the playoff, with May, the defending champion, finishing second.

“I’ve been playing pretty well,” said May, who has won every major high school and junior event in the area except the SCGA.

May qualified for the L.A. Open at age 15, played last year in the San Diego Open, and has won the Junior Tournament of Champions in Georgia. “I haven’t really played that much in the last week. I mean, I play every day, but this week has been mostly practice.”

May credits much of his maturation as a golfer to Eddie Merrins, the pro at Bel-Air and May’s personal coach.

Said Muriel May: “When Bobby’s been with Mr. Merrins, you can just tell. He’s very calm and confident. Mr. Merrins has taught Bobby so much about attitude towards the course and how to prepare mentally.”

Sometimes, it can seem like too much: the ability, the consistency, the presence, and the name--Bob May, a golfer’s name if there ever was one. But beyond prodigal success such as this one finds few options, and they all fall under the spotlight.

Matter-of-factly, May said: “No, I’m not going to burn out. Never.

“I enjoy the game too much, and when I’m playing bad I don’t worry about what I shoot. I know it’s going to get better.

“A guy with a temper could burn out. A guy who’s head is not in the game like it should be. But I don’t get mad over what happens one the course, and I love the game.”

As he did when he first picked up a club at age 8, at when he won his first tournament at age 11. But the attitude is different now, a more relaxed perspective.

Being a gentleman on the course is more important than physical attributes, even than winning.

“The last few years I’ve noticed the difference,” May said. “I’m not as high and low. It’s changed my attitude, and I’ve been winning more too, now that I’ve realized that. You can tell.”