It’s Time Again to Swing Along With Mitch : Golf: Simi Valley’s Voges to play in state amateur championship for 13th time.

The 79th California Amateur golf championship begins Monday along the Monterey Peninsula. And although it seems as if Mitch Voges of Simi Valley has played in every one, he has not. He has played in the state championship only 13 times.

“I was playing in the tournament at Pebble Beach a couple of years ago,” Voges said, “and an old guy, about 80 or so, is sitting on the first tee. He looks at me and starts mumbling my name. I walked over to him and he says, ‘Mitch Voges. You’ve been here as long as I can remember.’

“That made me feel pretty good. I guess.”

Voges, 40, has qualified for the event every time he has tried. His best showing is an appearance in the quarterfinals of match play. But winning isn’t the most important part of the tournament for Voges anymore.

The raccoons are.

“I started playing in the state amateur when I was 16, and I was pretty excited about it,” he said. “But now I’m 40 and this year there will be just 11 guys in a field of 102 golfers who are older than me.

“But now I take my family with me and spend a week in Carmel. We take picnic dinners out along the 17-Mile Drive and the raccoons come by and we feed them. Let’s just say I don’t take the tournament quite as seriously as I used to. I don’t have any illusions of winning it. But . . . if I can make some putts I know I could still make a run at it.”

Leading the contingent of local qualifiers is Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys. The 32-year-old optometrist advanced to the quarterfinals in 1988 and 1989 and made it to the semifinals in 1982. He is the 1989 Southern California Golf Assn. amateur champion and will be making his 11th appearance in the state championship.

Also playing in the tournament will be Paul Stankowski of Oxnard. It will be his first appearance in the championship. A student at Texas El Paso, Stankowski, 20, has been unable to return to California in the spring for the qualifying tournaments. He is playing this year because he won the 1989 Southern California Amateur championship, thus earning an exemption for the state championship.

And, unlike Voges, Stankowski isn’t going to spend much time feeding small mammals.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Stankowski said. “And I wouldn’t play at all if I didn’t think I had a chance to be around on the final day to win it. I’m mentally ready. If I don’t win, it will be because I just didn’t play well, not because I was not ready.”

Bob Veeh of Glendale will be playing in the tournament for the fourth time. Veeh, 35, did not begin playing golf until he was 22. He has not advanced past the two rounds of stroke play.

“I’ve never made it to match play, and never really been close,” Veeh said. “But it’s a great tournament and I know a lot of guys who would love to be there in my place. It’s discouraging not to make match play, but each time is a good learning experience. Each year I improve as a player. My goal this year is to make the match-play field. After that, anything can happen.”

George Gottschalk, 34, of Lancaster, made his debut in the state championship last year. He did not advance past stroke play, either, but is thrilled to have qualified for another chance.

“The prestige of going is enough,” he said. “A lot of very good golfers don’t make the cut and advance to match play.”

Gottschalk moved to California from Kansas five years ago and played a few times in the Kansas Amateur championship.

“There’s no comparison,” he said. “The California amateurs are the best group in the world. Texas and Florida might argue with that, but everyone else knows it.”

Also playing in the tournament for the second time is Paul Holtby of Simi Valley. Holtby, 23, graduated from UC Santa Barbara this month. The state tournament will be his last amateur event.

“I am turning professional on July 1,” he said. “I played four years at Simi Valley High and four years at UCSB. I’m ready to move on. And to be honest, I think I can win it. I’m very fired up for it. It would be a nice way to finish my amateur career.”

Other local golfers who qualified for the tournament, which is played at Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Cypress Point, include Jim Netto of Glendale, Kevin Eden of Granada Hills, Dave Berganio Jr. of Sylmar, and Chris Etue, Chad Holden and Chris Zambri of Thousand Oaks.

On Wednesday, Charlie Wi of Westlake Village, the first alternate for the tournament, learned that he too would be playing. His chance came when Phil Mickelson, the 1989 and 1990 NCAA champion who finished at even par last weekend in the U. S. Open, passed on the amateur tournament because of an NCAA awards dinner scheduled next week in New York.

Wi missed an outright berth in the tournament last month when he lost in a three-hole playoff for the final qualifying position.