GOLF : Left-Handed Compliments Fade as Turner Receives His Long-Due Recognition

Left-handers on a golf course always have evoked certain reactions from other golfers. Diving behind the shelter of a golf cart while shrieking in terror is a common one. Covering the mouth and smirking is popular. And more than once a startled golfer has watched a lefty stand on the first tee and--not realizing he was a lefty--bellowed, “No, not at the clubhouse!” as the man apparently began to launch his drive backwards.

Mike Turner of Woodland Hills, who has a one-stroke lead halfway through the Los Angeles City Golf Championships, has had the same feeling watching left-handers flail away at a golf ball.

“When I see a lefty, it looks real funny to me,” he said. “You see so few left-handers out there. Maybe it looks even stranger to me than it does to the rest of you. Remember, I see one less lefty playing golf than you do.”

Turner, you see, is a lefty.

When he won the L. A. City championship in 1987, it was the first time in the tournament’s 70-year history that a left-hander had claimed the title. Reporters, Southern California Golf Assn. officials, even Turner’s friends treated the victory no differently than if it had been accomplished by a man using gardening tools as clubs.

Since then, however, people have stopped gawking at Turner. Most now see him not as a man playing golf backwards, but as a man playing much better than they would ever dream of playing.

“It would bother me if that’s all people ever talked about,” Turner, 33, said. “But most of that has subsided now. It used to be that’s all I ever heard. Things like, ‘He’s pretty good. For a left-hander.’ But now I get some recognition just for my golf game.”

As he should.

He shot a blistering four-under-par 68 in the opening round of the L. A. City championships on Saturday at Griffith Park to tie Ken Cruz of Yorba Linda for the lead. A second-round 71 gave him a 139 and a one-stroke lead over Cruz heading into the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday.

Another shot back at 141 is Sepulveda’s Bob Burns, who shot rounds of 70 and 71.

Other Valley-area players still within medium-iron distance of Turner include Jim Lundstrom of Sepulveda and Bob Riggins of Valencia (145), and Les Johnson of Valencia and Jim Jordan of Simi Valley (147).

Turner is a 1981 graduate of Cal State Northridge. He was one of the school’s top two golfers for three years. The man with whom he alternated as CSUN’s No. 1 player was Vic Wilk, another left-hander.

A victory brings a big trophy. But, as Turner points out, not a trophy of him.

“That’s another thing about being a lefty,” he said. “All the trophies have right-handed golfers standing on top.”

Another dance?: Defending champion Paul Stankowski of Oxnard and newly crowned state amateur champion Charlie Wi of Thousand Oaks will head the field in the 91st Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship.

Qualifying begins at 10 courses Monday with the finals to be held July 20-22 at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles.

Stankowski, 20, was knocked out of the 79th state amateur at Pebble Beach two weeks ago in the semifinals by Wi, 18.

Wi has a chance to become only the ninth player to win both the state amateur title and the Southern California amateur championship and only the second to win both in the same year.

More than 1,100 golfers will begin qualifying play, with just 64 advancing to three days of championship play at Wilshire.

Twenty-two others, including Stankowski, Wi, and Van Nuys’ Craig Steinberg--also beaten by Wi in the state amateur--have earned exemptions into the finals. Others who earned exemptions are Thousand Oaks’ Lee Davis, the 1989 SCGA Mid-Amateur champion; Sherman Oaks’ David Olsen, who finished in the top five in last year’s SCGA Amateur championship; Santa Barbara’s John Pate, brother of PGA Tour player Steve Pate of Simi Valley; Simi Valley’s Mitch Voges, who finished in the top five of the SCGA Mid-Amateur last year; and Thousand Oaks’ Chris Zambri, who made it to match play of this year’s state amateur tournament.

Not even close: Stankowski blasted past the field in last week’s Oxnard City Championships. The senior at Texas El Paso had rounds of 68 and 72 at the River Ridge Golf Club in Oxnard to win by eight strokes over Jeff Knight of Camarillo. Brad Halfon of Van Nuys was third at 149.