Greens Turn Pale in Summer for Calvert : Golf: Senior, among the top players at Estancia, would rather fish than compete on the junior circuit in the off-season.

Around the time most promising young golfers are making their reputations in summer junior tournaments, Ken Calvert, one of the top high school golfers in Orange County, has gone fishing.

Instead of chipping and putting at the finest country clubs, Calvert of Estancia High School has spent the last two summers baiting and gaffing as a deckhand on a Newport Beach sport fishing boat.

But come each high school season, Calvert has risen to the top of the Estancia leader board. His coaches say he has been the medalist in about 85% of the Eagles’ matches in the last three years. And this season, Calvert, a senior, has been the leader in eight of the 12 rounds played by Estancia, the defending Southern Section champion.

Even with all of Calvert’s success, teammate Austin Maki, who was named player of the year by California Golf Digest after finishing second in the U.S. Junior Amateur tournament last summer, is recognized as Estancia’s top golfer.

“It’s just a shame (Calvert) doesn’t play in the summer because that’s where the national notoriety is,” said Chuck Perry, who co-coaches Estancia’s team with his brother, Art.

But Calvert, 18, has other interests. “Golf is great, but there are other things in life, too,” he said.

Calvert, who first played golf at Maki’s invitation when they were in the eighth grade, said he fights his tendency toward boredom by surfing and fishing.

“I kind of get burnt out easily, so I have to have other things to do,” Calvert said. “That’s why I take the summer off: to prevent burnout. When June and the state finals come around, I’m just about ready to put the clubs in the closet.”

Maki takes the opposite attitude, considering the high school season the off-season, and this view has led to national recognition and a scholarship to Arizona.

An average student with a 2.2 grade-point average, Calvert is being recruited by Cal State Long Beach, Fresno State and UC Irvine. He sees golf as his ticket to college and a business degree, which, he says, will help him get a job as a country club professional.

If there is a rivalry between Calvert and Maki, it isn’t heated--at the moment.

In his second year of golf, Calvert finished his freshman year as the sixth player on the varsity. But after attending a week-long camp on scholarship during the previous summer, he qualified first on the team as a sophomore, ahead of Maki, who was the No. 3 player his freshman year.

Also as a sophomore, Calvert was the medalist in the Southern Section southern regional team competition, an event that Maki, a slow starter in the high school season, won last year.

Calvert said it was important for him to be the best in his sophomore season, his first serious year of golf, because he was envious of Maki’s summertime success.

“Now it doesn’t really matter,” Calvert said. “I just go out and play. (Being No. 1) doesn’t cross my mind. I would like to stay there, but if I don’t, no sweat.”

Said Art Perry: “I think at the end of their sophomore year it was less friendly. But I think they are getting along together well and they are doing things together.”

Maki and Calvert became friends in junior high school after Calvert’s family moved to Costa Mesa from Hesperia, Calif. Calvert had excelled at youth baseball but became more interested in surfing after moving to Costa Mesa, and then Maki introduced him to golf.

Calvert played some with his grandfather but set out to master the sport on his own.

His mother, Karma, remembers her son spending his nights as a sophomore at the driving range after practice.

“He still does that, in fact he’s been doing that at least three nights a week,” she said. “After dinner he goes back to the driving range and hits balls until nine or 10 at night--bucket after bucket of balls.”

But Ken Calvert downplays how much work it took and takes for him to stay at the top.

“Once I got everything down, it was not that hard to remember,” he said.

When he has problems with his game, Calvert works them out by himself, much to the amazement of Chuck Perry.

“He doesn’t have a teaching pro,” Perry said. “He does it all alone because he’s so aware of (his swing).”

Said Calvert: “I go out on the range and hit a couple of baskets of balls and usually it comes back. I just figure out what’s going wrong. It doesn’t really take much.”

Because of his nature, Calvert doubts he could be dedicated enough to play on the professional tour.

“(It takes) 365 days a year of just pounding balls,” he said. “I mean it’s a good life and there’s a lot of money in it, but if you’re not in the top 50, you’re struggling.”