Family Legacy : Prep golf: Memories of a driven father keep Birmingham’s Amaya twins focused on goal of becoming professionals.

Shintaro Amaya was among the strictest of fathers.

He accepted nothing less from his sons than a relentless effort in all of life’s endeavors, and demanded that they conduct themselves with dignity and respect.

But he also was loving and supportive. And in 1983, when his 10-year-old twin sons, Aki and Yasu, announced their desire to pursue careers in golf, Amaya, who worked as an international sake distributor, moved the family from his native Japan to the United States in search of greener fairways.

In the United States, where greater golfing opportunity lay, Amaya served as the twins’ coach. Although never an accomplished golfer, he knew about dedication and perseverance. He read voraciously about the game and instructed his sons in four-hour practice sessions at the driving range.

But while the boys’ backswings improved, their father’s health deteriorated. Over a traumatic two-year period, Amaya battled intestinal cancer, diabetes and leukemia. He returned to Japan to undergo treatment, leaving the twins, their mother, Terumi, and sister, Miki, in Van Nuys.

Throughout the ordeal, Aki and Yasu, at their father’s insistence, continued to practice. In February of 1989, Shintaro died at 55.

“My mother wanted us to go back to Japan with him, but my father told her not to (take us back),” Aki said. “ ‘Stay here,’ he said, ‘because if we return together, your golf would be ruined.’ ”

Today, Aki and Yasu, 16-year-old juniors identical in appearance, mannerisms and textbook backswings, are co-captains of the Birmingham High team and among the best prep golfers in Los Angeles. With 2 handicaps, the twins will compete in the L. A. City Junior Championships Monday at Encino and Balboa golf courses in Encino.

Practice has paid off. Earlier this month, Aki and Yasu, who began playing golf at the age of 4, each shot a one-over-par 71--personal bests this season--at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.

Last summer, they tried out for the U. S. Amateur Championships at Rancho California Golf Club in Murrieta. Neither qualified, but Aki shot a five-over-par, two-round total of 149 to finish ninth among 300 golfers. Yasu shot 156.

And in May, the City Section 5-A Division championships await for Birmingham (10-3).

“They could be the two best golfers in the City (Section) this year,” Birmingham Coach Chick Epstein said. “They have great mechanics and great swings. They practice two hours a day with the team and then another two hours by themselves . . . They have this tremendous drive, tremendous self-discipline.”

Next season, Aki and Yasu will pursue, and likely land, college golf scholarships. Both maintain 3.8 grade-point averages in advanced-placement classes of algebra, chemistry, history and Spanish. Professional careers are long-range goals.

But more important to the well-mannered, articulate and polite-as-punch pair, they have succeeded in honoring their father.

“He spent 12 years of his life with us and golf,” Yasu said. “So, if he worked that hard, the best present we could give him is to become professionals and give him something to be happy about.”

Don’t bet against them. Each Saturday, they awaken at 5 a.m. and travel to Green River Golf Club in Corona to play with adult friends of their father. They play until 3 p.m., practice another two hours, then return home for an evening of study.

During one fervent stretch, Aki and Yasu played golf 35 consecutive days at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills.

A typical weekday includes school, golf practice until 6, a quick meal, then studying until after midnight. “We go to bed at 1 and get up at 6,” Aki said. “It’s been like that since the second semester started. Golf is our recreation.”

Both admit that the Spartan life has aided in coping with the loss of their father. Perhaps it is the manner in which Shintaro Amaya would want them to conduct themselves.

“He was a very strict man,” Aki said. “He was kind of forcing us (to play golf). That’s how he was. We kind of got sick sometimes and took a day off, a week off. But we’d start again. When he passed away, we thought, ‘Who is going to push us now?’ ”

The job was inherited by Mike Hernandez, a teaching pro at Woodley Lakes Golf Course in Encino where Amaya often brought his sons to practice. Hernandez befriended the father, earning his trust and sharing his knowledge of the game.

“Their father had them out there in military fashion, making them practice if they wanted to or not,” Hernandez said. “. . . He had cancer and he didn’t know how long he was going to live. One day, he kind of asked me if I would watch out for them and I said I would.”

Hernandez became the twins’ personal instructor. He has grown close to Aki and Yasu, who consider Hernandez their surrogate father. “First it was like teacher and student,” Aki explained. “Now, he is really like family. He makes time for us.”

Hernandez, however, has declined to push, leaving the responsibility of intense practicing with the twins.

“I believe that both of them, if they continue with it, should do really well in college,” Hernandez said. “They’re learning. Every time they tee it up, they get better and better.”

Aki and Yasu have assumed leadership roles on the team, respectfully offering knowledge to teammates--even Epstein, their high school coach--while leading by example. Etiquette is paramount among the twins, and they admittedly are angered by players with disregard for it.

“They’re really concentrating all the time,” senior Todd Bogart said. “They don’t talk much when they’re playing. But everyone I know likes them. And they’re the talk around town. Any other golfer I meet from another school talks about them.”

Said Hernandez: “(Golf) is a matter of pride with them. If you know the Japanese people, they feel if they don’t play well, they not only let themselves down, they let their whole family down and their friends down. They want to do well for everyone. They don’t want to let anyone down.”

Perhaps that is why Yasu believed he had disgraced himself and his team after a transportation foul-up caused him to miss an early-season match. Epstein excused his young player. But Yasu penned a letter of apology and delivered it to his coach in a sealed envelope.

“It said, ‘This will never happen again and I will accept any discipline you want to give me,’ ” Epstein said. “And, ‘I will definitely continue to progress and work hard and not shame this team again.’ It was touching, really.”

While Epstein was astonished by Yasu’s honorable gesture, the conscientious twins considered the motion par for the course.

“As a golfer, I should never miss a match,” Yasu said. “That was something I should never do. I felt guilty about it because our coach expects us (to play) and I didn’t do what he said. It was my fault.

“If my dad was here, I would miss a dinner or a breakfast or . . . My dad would have forced me to go over to his house and apologize. He would have walked me over there.”

Said Aki: “I’d probably do the same thing. We take golf really seriously. It’s not just a sport.”

Not hardly. Golf is a beloved vocation for both, a craft they will continue to perfect without compromise. Shintaro Amaya would accept no less.

“If he were alive today,” Yasu said, pausing, “he would say . . . he would say, ‘Practice. Keep practicing.’ ”