Tidland’s Work Ethic on a Par With the Best : Prep golf: Valencia senior has set his sights on a second consecutive Southern Section individual title, and eventually the PGA Tour.

To say he spends most of his spare time on the golf course doesn’t begin to tell how dedicated Chris Tidland is to his sport.

His answer to a question in the Valencia High School student newspaper comes closer. Asked what his ideal first date would be, Tidland said it would be hitting a bucket of balls at the driving range.

His single-minded pursuit of golf has paid off. Tidland will be attending Oklahoma State on a golf scholarship in the fall. But today, he will be shooting for his second consecutive Southern Section individual championship at the Mission Hills Resort course in Palm Springs.

If he is successful--and he is one of the favorites on a course he has played twice this season--Tidland will be only the second golfer to win back-to-back individual titles since Bob Boughner of Downey won in 1956 and ’57.

If there is daylight and Tidland isn’t in school, it’s a good bet he is golfing. He estimates that he practices about five hours a day during the week and eight to 10 hours a day on weekends during the high school season. During the off-season, he cuts down to about three hours a day, but rarely stays off the course entirely.

Tidland practices so much because he loves the game, but also because he has committed himself to becoming a professional. That desire was a big part of his decision to attend Oklahoma State instead of Illinois, Miami, Fresno State, UC Irvine, USC or Pepperdine.

Oklahoma State, the top ranked NCAA Division I team in the nation, has been among the top five teams in the country for the past 16 years.

The school has the type of golfing atmosphere that Tidland believes will help him make the PGA tour. He plans to major in business, and his 3.75 grade-point average at Valencia is an indication of his academic ability. But he is going to school for golf. If he doesn’t make it as a pro, he hopes the contacts he makes in Oklahoma will help him work in the business of golf.

But Tidland, 17, believes he’ll be able to make it on the tour.

“I think I work as hard or harder as any of them,” Tidland said of his competitors.

“I think if I keep at the pace I’m going now, I’ll have a good shot at it.”

When he was 8, Tidland was introduced to golf by his grandfather. Tidland remembers hitting plastic golf balls in the back yard. He played mostly on the public courses of Fullerton, about 10 minutes by car from his family’s house in La Habra.

He quickly became a proficient player, but because of his small size he couldn’t drive the ball as far as other players his age. To make up for that deficiency, he honed his putting and short game.

But it was his family’s move to a house next to the Alta Vista Country Club in Placentia that was the breakthrough. Living on the first fairway at Alta Vista--coincidently Valencia’s home course--allowed Tidland to practice every day instead of only four or five days a week.

Those extra days of practice and the hours he spends hitting, chipping and putting have made him very consistent.

In 234 holes of play for Valencia, Tidland is 11 over par. Six of those shots over par came during one week when he had a sore neck. He has hit the fairways on 76% of his tee shots, and shot par or better on 76% of his holes.

“Every golf course looks like this to Chris,” said Valencia Coach John Winek, motioning to the wide open driving range at Alta Vista. “He hits the fairway every time. He doesn’t know what a tree looks like.

“He’s just super steady. You never get to see all of his talent because he’s always down the middle.”

Winek said Tidland is more dedicated to his sport than any other athlete he has coached. Tidland has been known to practice chipping in his house and has written essays about golf for school, Winek said.

Even six months on crutches couldn’t keep him idle. Tidland had surgery to improve blood circulation in his left knee during his freshman year. That kept him off the golf course, but he still worked on his game.

“I was real bored,” Tidland said. “But I still practiced my putting a lot. I still had one leg, so I could still putt.”

Southern Section golf notes

Chris Tidland will be among the first group of golfers to tee off at 7 this morning at Mission Hills, which means he likely will be off the course before noon. Local coaches say a number of golfers will challenge Tidland. Other favorites are Ken Calvert, who tied with Tidland for first in the Southern Section southern regional competition, and Austin Maki, the Sea View League champion, both of Southern Section team champion Estancia; and Westlake’s Charlie Wi, who was the medalist at the Southern Section team championships. . . . If Dana Hills sophomore Scott Richardson wins the title, it will be the second for his family. His father, Kemp Richardson, then a junior at Millikan High in Long Beach, won the title in 1963, shooting a 69 at the San Clemente Country Club.