GOLF : Army Stint Put Price on Course to Success

Lisa Price of Ventura took a pretty typical route into professional golf.

You know the one. Don’t play any golf at all as a kid or even as a high school student, join the military and play the slide trombone in the U. S. Army band, get coerced into playing a round of golf--finally, at the age of 19--with your sergeant, leave the Army and become a walk-on member of a college golf team, turn pro, qualify for the LPGA Championship, etc.

Geez. How many times have we heard that story?

Price, 31, who works as a teaching pro at the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club, overcame her relative lack of a golfing background to win the LPGA’s Western Section Teaching Championship in Phoenix in May, thus earning an exemption into the LPGA Championship, one of the most prestigious women’s golfing events. The tournament runs from July 26-29 at the Bethesda (Md.) Golf Club.

Price is quick to admit that she really had no intention of bringing her game to this level.

“I had no desire to try the LPGA Tour,” she said. “I thought about all the traveling and all the work it would take and just decided it wasn’t for me. Unless you’re a superstar right away, it’s pretty tough to make a living on the tour.”

After learning golf on the courses of Fort Ord on the Monterey Peninsula, Price brought her game--and the money she earned for college under the GI Bill--to Cal State Fullerton, where she walked into the golf team’s first meeting of the season and was immediately told she had made the squad.

“They needed a fifth player to make a trip into Mexico for a tournament,” she said. “I happened to walk in at the right time.”

She played golf for four years at Fullerton and became good enough to entertain the thought of turning pro. She did in 1983, but quickly became the kind of pro who gives a few lessons and sells a few golf sweaters.

She was content with that. And then the qualifying tournament for the Western Section Teaching Championship came along.

“I had no expectations of winning the qualifying event,” said Price, whose husband, Ken, also is a teaching pro at Ojai Valley. “I had played in it four or five times and finished in the top 10, but never really came close to winning it. I figured this year I’d just play it again and maybe I’d finish fourth or fifth. I would have been happy just finishing in the top 10 again.

“My expectations were definitely lower than they had been the other times I played in it. After having a baby 18 months ago, my attitude about golf and life has changed a lot. A bad shot on a golf course is no big deal now. There are things much more important.

“But I went in with that easygoing attitude and found myself shooting well and winning it.”

Price does not, however, have dreams about winning the LPGA Championship.

“I’ll try to go into that with the same easy attitude,” she said. “But the stakes are so much higher. I’m sure my knees will be knocking on the first tee. I just hope not to let the tournament overwhelm me.

“Realistically, I’d like to make the cut. I know I’ll have to shoot very well--not out of my head, but just very well--just to make the cut against those women. I’ve thought a few times about what will happen if I get beyond that, if I get anywhere near the leaders, but realistically, the chances of me playing four straight days of exceptional golf . . . well, it probably won’t happen.”

Probably not.

But just qualifying to play in the LPGA Championship is a huge accomplishment. Especially for a slide trombone player.

Southern California Amateur: Ten Valley-area players qualified Monday for the 91st Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship, joining eight others who received exemptions into the event this weekend.

The SCGA Amateur is the oldest continuously contested amateur golf tournament in the country. The field of 86 players will play 36 holes Friday at Wilshire Country Club, with the top 32 players advancing to the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday.

Qualifying for the event were John Denny of Glendale, Don Baker of Canoga Park, Steve Brubman of North Hollywood, Mike Haney of Glendale, Chris Etue of Canoga Park, Dennis Ryan of Glendale, Jim Breen of West Hills, Jimmy Chang of Westlake Village, Ed Watts of Camarillo, and Andy Bishop of Oxnard.

Players receiving exemptions from qualifying included Charlie Wi, 18, of Thousand Oaks, the surprise winner of the 1990 California Amateur at Pebble Beach; veteran Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys; Oxnard’s Paul Stankowski, a golfer at Texas El Paso; Mitch Voges of Simi Valley; Lee Davis of Thousand Oaks; George Gottschalk of Lancaster; Chris Zambri of Thousand Oaks; and David Olsen of Sherman Oaks.