GOLF / RICH TOSCHES : Steinberg’s Tract Record Hard to Digest

Craig Steinberg doesn’t want to blame an illness, even an all-night, knock-down-the-bathroom-door kind of malady, for his loss in the quarterfinals of last year’s California amateur golf championship.

Steinberg, 32, an optometrist from Van Nuys, is one of the top amateurs in the state. He has qualified for the state championship again this year and will begin play Monday. It will be his 11th trip to the Monterey Peninsula to play in the prestigious event. He reached the semifinals in 1982 and the quarterfinals in ’88 and ’89.

Last year, however, he encountered an obstacle for which he was no match: a restaurant.

He and other members of the state’s North-South teams--elite groups selected by the Southern California Golf Assn. and its Northern California counterpart--were honored at a dinner the day before the tournament.

Some honor. About 45 people, roughly one-third of those dining that evening, were stricken 72 hours later with an illness that was traced to the dinner.

“It was some sort of contamination from one of the food handlers at the restaurant,” Steinberg said.

In the three days after this meal from hell, Steinberg felt terrific and played marvelously. He opened the tournament with a round of 70 at Cypress Point Club and was in second. He followed that with a 72 on the much tougher Monterey Peninsula Country Club course and finished medal play just a stroke out of first.

He posted a pair of match-play victories on Wednesday and moved into the quarterfinals.

But that night, Mr. Germ paid a visit.

“My wife got sick Wednesday afternoon, and it hit me that night,” he said. “It was your basic intestinal thing. It was awful. I was up all night, in the bathroom. I remember being in there at 5 a.m. and thinking I was just going to drop.

“And I had to tee off at Pebble Beach at 6:30 a.m. I decided to play, hell or high water.”

Somehow, Steinberg thrashed his way over the front nine in good shape and had built a 2-up lead over his rival, Tom Kennaday of Pacific Grove. But after that, it all began to unravel.

“When you’re feeling lousy, it’s hard to think,” he said. “As the round wore on, I got more tired and even more sick and my mind just wasn’t there anymore. I was hitting the wrong shots, choosing the wrong clubs, making wrong decisions.

“Normally when I stand over the ball I think about a part of the swing and I think about exactly where the ball was going. Now, I was standing over the ball and thinking to myself, ‘Just don’t throw up.’ ”

On the 12th hole the illness finally broke Steinberg. He stumbled to a double-bogey on the par-3 hole, and then, playing with blurred vision, bogeyed the 14th and lost the match.

“It was so frustrating,” Steinberg said. “I really felt I had a chance to win it last year. I felt terrific and had never played better. And then I got sick.”

This year, Steinberg has entered four tournaments. He missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by a stroke in one. He was 11th out of a field of hundreds in the U.S. Open local qualifying. He finished second in the Pasadena City Championship. And last weekend he won the Braemar Country Club championship in Tarzana.

Steinberg feels good. He is playing very well. This could be his year to win the state amateur title.

Except . . .

“I was just notified two days ago that I have been selected for the North-South matches again,” he said. “I didn’t ask if there was a dinner involved.”

Wi waits: Charlie Wi of Westlake Village played a bit erratically in the CIF-SCGA Championships at El Caballero Country Club on Monday, shooting an opening-round 72 and coming back with an 82 to finish six strokes behind the winner, Austin Maki of Estancia. Wi’s 72 was the second-lowest round of the day. Only Maki’s opening 71 was better.

Wi also remains on the waiting list for next week’s state amateur tournament. He lost a berth in the tournament on the fourth hole of a playoff during qualifying last month in Chino and is listed as the first alternate.

As of Wednesday, however, no one in the championship flight had dropped out.

Optimistic: Alan Stearns of Camarillo, a junior at Rio Mesa High in Oxnard, has qualified for the Optimist Junior World Championships, to be played at Torrey Pines in San Diego on July 17-20.