Golf / Rich Tosches : Case Undaunted by Hazards on Australian Tour

A year ago, former Thousand Oaks High, Westlake High, USC and Moorpark College golfer Wayne Case was recovering from the shock of having a 200-pound kangaroo flying pouch-over-snout across the windshield of his dusty old car as he roared his way across the Australian Outback on his way to another not-so-big golf tournament.

Back in Thousand Oaks for a brief respite between sojourns to Australia and, later this month, to England to try to qualify for the British Open, Case updated his golfing career.

“Same stuff,” he said. “Still driving all over Australia and playing a lot of golf.”

His latest stay in Australia lasted 10 months. His best finishes on the main Australian PGA Tour were sixth and ninth places, performances for which he earned about $3,800 each. But the main tour is not where Case is making his real money.

“I’m making a little money on the big tour, but I’m really making money on the mini-tour and playing in pro-ams all over the country,” said Case, 27. “In my three years in Australia I’ve won about 20 of those pro-am tournaments, including nine this past season.”

He has made enough money, he said, to support himself and start a savings account that he hopes will bankroll his endeavor to earn a United States PGA card next year.

In the meantime, however, he will take a crack at qualifying for the British Open and then return to Australia in September for another season of golfing and other madness.

He shot a superb round of 59 on a par-70 course near Melbourne last year. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, he almost drowned and got caught in a raging brush fire, too.

“The floods came as I was driving from Canberra (in the Australian Capital Territory) to Adelaide (the capital of South Australia),” he said. “I was alone and I came up over a hill. Down in front of me, the road was gone. Just washed out. So I had to get into the nearest town and ask the police for directions. Eventually, I got where I was going by driving miles and miles on dirt and mud roads.

“And then, after a tournament in a little town south of Sydney, a fire caught us and we couldn’t get out. We were trapped on the beach for eight hours as the fire just circled around us.”

Enough to make a Southern Californian homesick.

Golfer’s bible: A Burbank-based company, Recreation Sales Publishing, has come out with a book listing every public 18-hole and par-3 golf course in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The book includes details of each course as well as maps and directions to each, greens fees and the telephone number for each starter.

The author, John McKinney, said that over a period of several months he played each of the 95 courses listed in the book just to gather accurate information.

Tough job, but no one should have to do it.

Fore a cause: The 10th Matador Golf Classic will be held Aug. 7 at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge. Proceeds will go to the Cal State Northridge athletic department.

Tournament director Joe Buttitta said that the event is open to the first 144 golfers who pay. The cost is $150 per player, which includes golf, dinner and prizes.

Information: 818-885-3215 or 885-3208.