Golf / Rich Tosches : Martin Develops Into a State Champion

If you are ever in dire need of a big laugh, the kind that makes your temples throb and leaves you just a few seconds away from hyperventilating, hand a golf club to the average 7-year-old kid, drop a couple of golf balls on the grass, then stand back and watch.

What ensues resembles Manute Bol trying his luck in gymnastics. The coordination level of most 7-year-olds just isn’t well-suited for a precision game such as golf.

Stephanie Martin was different.

“The first time she picked up a club, you could see it,” said Lee Martin, Stephanie’s father and the head golf pro at Saticoy Country Club in Camarillo. “Right away she had the basic understanding of the swing and just great hand-eye coordination. And she just really enjoyed it, really loved the game.”

Eleven years have passed since the day that golf had such a big impact on Martin. Today, she is starting to make a big impact on golf. Winner of dozens of junior tournaments in the past five years, Martin capped her high school career 10 days ago by winning the CIF state championship.

And in August, after a standout career at Rio Mesa High, she will leave for Oklahoma State where she has accepted a golf scholarship. She opted for the sprawling campus in Stillwater over USC and the University of New Mexico, which also offered her golf scholarships.

“I had heard so many great things about Oklahoma State from golf pros who went there,” said Martin, who is competing this week in the American Junior Golf Assn.’s Desert Classic at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

“So I went for a visit but never really thought I’d go to school there. But I went with an open mind and was really impressed. The people were so nice. I really like what they have to offer . . . the other players on the golf team, the coach, the courses they play. I just fell in love with it.”

Her parents, who also watched son Lee excel at golf and then leave home for the University of New Mexico where he just completed his junior year, aren’t eager to see Stephanie leave.

“We were hoping she wouldn’t go quite that far from home,” said Lee Martin, “but that was a decision we couldn’t make for her. She saw Oklahoma State and she really liked it, and that’s that. It’s a nice feeling to see her pursue the same game I have made a living from. She made the decision to play golf on her own, but it’s still nice to see.”

And, possibly, the first blast of frigid air across the frozen Oklahoma plains that hits the California native and stands her hair on end like the quills on a porcupine will bring her back home. USC would probably welcome her.

“I grew up here, but I’ve skied in the mountains around here and I don’t mind the cold,” she said. “I know how it is. I’ll be OK.”

Raring to go: Paul Ladin of Westlake Village remembers well the last time he tried to qualify for a prestigious national golf tournament. It was last summer in Milwaukee and at stake was a berth in the U. S. Amateur Championship. But Ladin became ill the day the final qualifying rounds began and felt fortunate just to get off the course.

“I was so sick and sneezing so hard I could barely stand up,” said Ladin, 57. “It was really bad.”

The sickness has passed. And so has the disappointment. On Monday, Ladin shot a strong round of 72 at Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach to qualify for the U. S. Senior Open, June 29-July 2 in Ligonier, Pa.

Ladin, a member at North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks, was one of just seven golfers to qualify from the field of 132 players.

“When I realized I was going to make it I got excited. Awful excited,” Ladin said. “I remembered how sick I was last year at this time, but now I’m healthy as a horse and ready to go. I’m really looking forward to this. It’s the biggest event I’ve ever played in.”

Ladin has played before large galleries in both the old Crosby tournament on the Monterey Peninsula and the Bob Hope Desert Classic in Palm Springs but always as a paying partner in those pro-am events.

This time, he will be playing against Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gary Player and other legends of the game.

And that noise you hear probably is his knees knocking together.

“What a thrill this will be,” he said. “I got nervous after I qualified just thinking about playing with those guys, and against those guys. The crowds won’t make me nervous, but those big names will.

“I’d just like to make the cut and be able to play all four rounds. That would be my dream come true.”

Not just nocturnal: Rick Pendergast, the assistant pro at Woodland Hills Country Club who surely earned a spot in somebody’s Hall of Weirdness last summer by playing more than 30 consecutive hours of golf, including an evening of smacking glowing, chemical-filled golf balls around under the stars, is proving he can also play a little under the sun.

Pendergast, 29, finished fourth Monday in a Golden State tour event at his home course, finishing three strokes behind winner Brian Mahon of San Diego and just a shot behind USC golfer Mike Blewett of Westlake Village. His round of 70 earned him $500.

“The Golden State tour events are worthwhile to play in because of the money,” Pendergast said. “And besides, it’s the only game in town. It takes a pretty good score to win.

“They don’t just give the money away. There’s some strong competition out there.”

Pendergast, who said he has played in about 15 one-day tournaments this year, said that he feels fortunate just to be allowed to play.

“Normally, assistant pros like me get buried in the shop,” he said. “They are not allowed to play in many outside tournaments.”

Pendergast will play next week in the Nevada Open.

In the same tournament, Tony Chieffo of Granada Hills took honors for low amateur with a 68, a score that would have given him second place and brought a check for more than $700.

More amateurs: Southern California Golf Assn. amateur champion Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys and SCGA mid-amateur champion Buz Greene of Thousand Oaks head a field of 50 of Southern California’s finest amateur golfers against 50 from Northern California in the 78th California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship starting Monday on the Monterey Peninsula.

The field of 100 will be cut to 32 after the first days. Two days of match play over the tough Pebble Beach layout will follow with the championship match of 36 holes being contested at Pebble Beach next Friday.