Mayfair Loses Ground as He Makes Final Bid for NCAA Golf Title

Billy Mayfair is still getting used to the attention and perks that go along with being considered the top amateur golfer in the country.

Mayfair, the 1987 U. S. Amateur champion and a senior at Arizona State, played the first round of this year’s Masters in a group that included defending champion Larry Mize. The next day, Mayfair teed off in the same group with Arnold Palmer.

“I was more nervous the second day than I was on the first,” said Mayfair, who missed the cut at Augusta. “I called him Mr. Palmer the whole round.”

Mayfair may never have an army of fans tracking his every move on the golf course, but his progress is being followed closely by fans and opponents alike this week at the NCAA Division I men’s golf championships at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.

And Thursday, after he shot a 3-over-par 74 in the second round of the four-day, 72-hole tournament, Mayfair realized that he needs to make a lot of progress in a hurry if he hopes to catch Washington sophomore O. D. Vincent, who has a tournament-leading two-day total of 138.

“The course is playing hard, the winds are blowing and I think the greens are awfully hard to read,” said Mayfair, who is 12 shots behind Vincent at 150. “That’s the hardest part of the course right now.”

Mayfair--a three-time All-American, the 1987 Haskins Award winner and the collegiate player of the year--won the three-day, 54-hole Southwestern Intercollegiate tournament at North Ranch in the fall with a 5-under-par 208. He also was the only amateur to make the cut last weekend at Colonial National, where he shot a 6-over-par 286.

Mayfair, however, has a history of trouble in the NCAA tournament and has never finished higher than 38th.

Last year at Ohio State, Mayfair pulled a muscle in his back during the second round when he tried to hit out of the rough on the second hole. He finished 59th.

With two rounds remaining this week, Mayfair is not in the position he was expected to occupy before play began.

“I’d just like to play well the next two days,” Mayfair said, “and end all this college stuff on a good note.”

USC leads in NCAA Division I men’s golf. See story, Page 8.