For Girls, the Only Golf Game in Town : High Schools: If you’re female and want to compete at this level, you have to tee it up with the boys and play on their terms. Some do it very well.

Aisha Gaut started playing golf last summer as a means of spending extra time with her father.

Nearing her 13th birthday, Gaut says she’s not very good, but she practices--at least her swing--every day. She wants to play when she enters high school in two years. And then, who knows? “My dad wants me to grow up and be a big millionaire golf pro,” she jokes.

But because there is not enough interest to warrant separate girls’ golf teams in state high schools, Gaut will have to try out for the boys’ team.

That’s fine, she said. None of the girls she knows play anyway.

There aren’t many in the high schools, either. The 50-plus county golf programs include only about 20 girls.

Most of them are products of the junior golf system--San Diego has one of the nation’s finest, and Torrey Pines is the annual site of the Junior World Championships.

A few of these girls are very good players, better than most of the boys. This isn’t much of a surprise, perhaps, but consider that the girls play on equal terms. No handicaps or red tees: The girls tee off from the same spot--either the whites or blues--and get no strokes.

“It’s such a handicap for (the girls),” Poway Coach Mark Miller said. “Depending on the course, some of them are physiologically unable to reach those greens (in regulation).”

Added USDHS Coach David Thoennes: “Most of the girls don’t have the strength the guys do. Their distance isn’t as long, so they have to make up for that with their short game.”

There are pros and cons of having girls compete with boys.

Many of the positives are the same as with any other extracurricular activity, but the girls also benefit from the competition and course time that might not be available elsewhere.

Golf can be an expensive hobby, and the high schools help cut down that expense. “The golf courses and their cooperation with the high schools are really what’s saving the golf programs,” Mt. Miguel Coach Carl Broselle said.

But Gordon Severson, U.S. International’s women’s coach, said, “I’m not sure if playing from the blue tees is such a good idea (for the girls). It forces them to swing a lot harder and not concentrate on their form. The game as it is played in the pros and colleges (for women) is more of a plotting game. It’s where you hit it as opposed to how far.”

And then there’s what University City Coach Ed Yandall described as the “macho element with the guys that they don’t want to lose to the girls.”

“In golf, that doesn’t always work to their advantage,” he added. “Most of the time, if a guy hasn’t played against a girl before, the first thing they do is they try to pump their drives. They try to hit it long. Quite often, if they don’t play much golf, they’ll hit a bad shot.

“The good golfers--whether it’s a guy or a girl--stay within themselves.”

Christine Guarrasi, a player at University City, said, “Sometimes, the guys get upset. It’s not serious, like I’m-going-to-kill-you upset, but . . . “

And how about girls competing against the boys?

“OK, OK. I admit it,” Guarrasi said. “I like it when I beat the guys. It’s a total challenge. I may not play well, but as long as I beat one of the guys, I feel better.”

Picture a girl--tiny in this foursome--lining up a tee shot and aiming for a pin approximately 500 yards away.

No other girls in this group. And the boys are probably whispering among themselves that there is no way she reaches the green in five, much less make par.

Now picture the same girl lining up a birdie putt, a gimme.

It is easier to imagine if you’ve seen Leta Lindley play. You still may not believe it, but somehow she can do it.

Lindley, 17 years old and 5-feet-4 and 107 pounds, plays for Carlsbad High, with and against boys. And she does quite well, often medaling for a team ranked 12th in the county coaches’ poll. Many say she is California’s best high school girl and the favorite to win the state individual tournament in June, the only CIF-sanctioned tournament for girls.

“My coach seems to think so, and I guess that’s nice to know,” Lindley said. “But I don’t like to think about things like that. I might jinx myself.”

Monte Vista graduate Sharon Barrett, now on the LPGA Tour, won the tournament three consecutive years (1977-79), but Lindley is well aware that anything can happen in a one-round format.

“I’ll just go out and do my best,” she said. “If I win, great.”

She takes a similar stand concerning playing against boys.

“I like the competition,” she said. “But basically, golf is an individual sport. It’s just you against the course, and I like that about it.”

Playing with the boys on her team is a different matter.

“It’s fun,” Lindley said. “It’s like part of being with a really big family. It’s like having eight brothers and sisters. And it’s different for me because I’m an only child.”

Lindley’s father taught her about golf at around age 9. She and neighbor Devon Derieg, who now plays for USDHS, played daily at either Oceanside Municipal or El Camino Country Club. Soon, they were playing in junior tournaments.

“I wasn’t very good,” Lindley said. “In all the early tournaments, I was always last. I’m not a natural. I can’t play any other sports. Basically, I’m a klutz.”

Derieg remembers things differently.

“She was never bad,” she said. “She always hit it straight down the middle.”

That’s her secret and would explain her nickname--Radar. It would also help explain how a 107-pound girl can birdie par-5s from the blue tees. It’s not easy, because Lindley, like many girls, wields a putter or a wedge better than a wood.

“It makes it a little harder, because I don’t hit the ball as far as the guys,” Lindley said. “But I’m getting better. I’m closing the gap.

“It makes me reach, but when I play the (red tees) in the summer, it makes it easier. It makes the course seem shorter.”

Playing from those tees, Lindley has won a number of junior tournaments, including the prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions in Palm Beach, Fla., last August.

Lindley’s golf and a 4.3 grade-point-average in advanced placement and honors courses have earned a full scholarship to Arizona.

“If you’re a decent player, there are scholarships out there,” she said. “I’d like to see more girls playing. There are a lot of opportunities for us, much more than for the guys because there are so many guys playing.”

While Lindley is regarded as the county’s best girls’ golfer, there are other good ones, too.

Derieg is a consistent scorer for USDHS, which is 15-0 and ranked third in the county behind No. 1 Torrey Pines (13-1) and No. 2 Valhalla (13-0).

Many thought that USDHS’s program would suffer when former player of the year Phil Mickelson graduated two years ago. It has not, despite the fact that Derieg is one of only two seniors.

Derieg said most boys are cordial and treat her with the same respect as they would any other golfer.

But there are always exceptions.

“One guy on one team wanted to beat me up last year,” said Derieg, who is also a cheerleader and considering scholarship offers from Pepperdine and Brigham Young. “He took about (eight) shots and said he shot a five. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ Really nice, very politely.

“And he came back and said, ‘Are you accusing me of cheating?’ I wasn’t keeping track of his shots. I have trouble keeping track of my own shots. But he hit at least seven or eight.”

Derieg added that she isn’t convinced the incident happened because she is a girl and was leading at the time.

“He probably would have gotten upset at anybody,” she said.

Mt. Miguel’s Caroline Rasmussen is a foreign exchange student from Denmark. In addition to learning English and experiencing American culture, she came here for the year-round golf.

Good thing for Mt. Miguel (4-8). Rasmussen has been the medalist in five of the Matadors’ 12 matches this spring.

“We are not a great golf school,” Mt. Miguel Coach Carl Broselle said, “but she would still be the top golfer on a lot of teams.”

El Camino has two girls playing--sophomore Jennifer Reither and freshman Jenna Myers. It’s nothing new at El Camino. The Hartley sisters--Lulong, Holly and Polly--did very well there, taking up their father’s pastime; Bill Hartley is a well-known North County teaching pro.

Sisters Michelle and Debbie Kim play for No. 6 Poway. Michelle, a senior, plays on the varsity. Debbie is the No. 1 player on the junior varsity.

Other top freshmen include Mission Bay’s Jill Wery and Hilltop’s Megan Mahoney of Hilltop.

Storm Wery, Jill’s father, coached golf at Mission Bay when his other daughter, Paige, was there. Jill, 14, is No. 1 for the Buccaneers and was medalist for the second time this season on Tuesday.

Mahoney, 14, is already being compared with two former South Bay stars who are now playing for UCLA--Christy Erb (USDHS) and Liz Bowman (Bonita Vista). Mahoney won two junior tournaments during spring vacation.

“She says she didn’t do too well in another one,” Hilltop Coach Jerry Cantwell said, “which means she probably finished second. That’s the kind of kid she is.”