SCGA Amateur : Voges Shoots 72-68--140 to Lead

Aside from a practice round a month ago, Mitch Voges hadn’t played at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana for 20 years.

Friday, however, the 37-year-old player from Simi Valley returned and shot an even-par 140 over 36 holes to lead 35 championship qualifiers into the final two rounds of the 88th Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur.

Thirty-two golfers in three other flights will join the championship qualifiers for 18-hole rounds today and Sunday. The championship flight tees off at 8:32 a.m. today, with Voges and the leaders due to start at 9:46 a.m.

Voges, who learned to play at Braemar, which his family joined before the golf course was finished in 1961, shot a two-over-par 72 in the morning round and a two-under-par 68 in the afternoon.

Greg Starkman of Beverly Hills was one stroke back at 141, while Ken Kirkpatrick, who played with Voges in the first group, was at 142.

Defending champion Dave Sheff was among the golfers to make the 152-stroke cut, but just barely with a 150. Former high school standout Bobby May of La Habra was one of three golfers at 144.

“I do like my chances,” Voges said. “It’s a position golf course, and I was in pretty good position today. I hit a lot of greens.”

Although the trees have grown up around Braemar’s 6,021-yard East Course since Voges was a regular, he said the local knowledge helped on the short course with lateral hazards lining fairways that demand accuracy rather than distance. Pin placement and severe greens frustrated many of the 81 players who started the day.

Ted Norby of Newport Beach, who was tied for fourth with Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe at 143, said every player left in the field has a chance to win.

“Three strokes back is nothing, you can make up three strokes in one hole on this course,” Norby said.

Norby and Duncan were seven-over between them on the par-3, No. 12, where both said anything above the pin was a lost cause.

“It’s like putting on this here,” Duncan said pointing to the cart path.

High, inconsistent scores marked play on a day when the first groups in the morning were greeted by overcast skies and damp course and in the afternoon by swirling winds.

The best rounds of each session were shot by Don Nourse of Irvine with a 68 in the morning and Ed Hummer of San Dimas with 67 in the afternoon. The two were playing in the same foursome, but neither put a good full day together.

Thanks in part to a four-stroke penalty for having a 15th club on his cart, Nourse soared to an 84 in the afternoon, barely making the cut at 152. Hummer’s 67, keyed by an eagle-3 on the 495-yard No. 7, came after a 79 in the morning, good enough to put him in the field for the final two days at 146.

Nourse’s afternoon round spoiled a hole-in-one on No. 12 in the morning.

“I hit an 8-iron four feet past the stick, it took a little bite and went right back in the hole,” Nourse said. “The first thing I said was, ‘Thank you, Lord.’

“The next thing I learn (in the afternoon round) is the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

The rules committee giveth to Nourse when he finished his round. The 15th club, a putter belonging to Nourse’s brother and caddy, Mike, ended up in his bag when Mike put it there after doing some practice putting between the morning and afternoon rounds. It wasn’t until Nourse was going to sign his score card that he learned about the penalty.

“I don’t think it’s fair that they didn’t come out and tell me (during the round),” Nourse said. “Something like that helps you focus, helps you persevere. I would have been hitting it instead of trying to protect my morning round.”

That Nourse even qualified for the first 36 holes at Braemar was no easy task. In his qualifying round Monday at San Clemente Golf Course, he had to use strange clubs and wearing tennis shoes. Nourse realized too late that his own clubs and shoes were locked in the clubhouse at Big Canyon Country Club, so he and a neighbor scraped up 14 clubs in their garages Sunday night. Nourse ended up shooting a 73.

“I’m grateful just to get this far,” Nourse said.

Because of the hills and valleys of Braemar Country Club’s East Course, he’ll be playing two more days.