Lay of Land Needs Little Work by Duncan : Golf: Landscape contractor defeats Stankowski by one stroke to win Southern California Amateur.

Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe, a landscape contractor who built a small golf course in the four-acre back yard of PGA star Craig Stadler, did a little work on the landscape of the Wilshire Country Club Sunday and won the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship.

Duncan carved it up for an opening-round of 69 and three subsequent rounds of one-under-par 70 to win by a stroke over 20-year-old Paul Stankowski of Oxnard, the 1989 champion.

The two battled for 18 holes over Wilshire’s 6,531-yard layout, and the tournament was not decided until the 18th hole when Stankowski, trailing by a stroke, hit his second shot behind a palm tree five feet from the green. With no shot at the pin, he was only able to pitch within eight feet of the hole.

After Duncan, who also had tree trouble earlier on the hole, had to settle for a bogey five, Stankowski’s putt for a par and a playoff hit the lip of the cup and spun out.

Duncan, 34, who was the SCGA Amateur runner-up in 1986 and finished third in 1984, said he won with solid play--he parred 10 consecutive holes before bogeying No. 18--and a little luck.

“I really hate to win with a bogey,” Duncan said.

“Paul got a bad break on 18. Those palm trees shouldn’t even be there. But that’s golf. And today, the golf gods were looking down on me.”

Stankowski began the final round with a one-stroke lead over Duncan, but lost it when Duncan made an 18-foot birdie putt on the second hole. Stankowski, a senior and a top player at Texas El Paso, regained the lead on the fourth hole when Duncan bogeyed, but he lost it at No. 6 when he bogeyed. Although Stankowski never regained the lead, he tied the match two more times.

Stankowski evened the match at the 16th hole with a three-foot birdie putt after nearly holing out with a pitching wedge from 60 yards. But Duncan took the lead for good at No. 17 when Stankowski missed a five-foot par putt and took a bogey.

“I had my chances,” said Stankowski, who lost in the semifinals of the state amateur championship at Pebble Beach last month.

“I kept fighting and kept getting back into it. I had it in my grasp, but couldn’t squeeze it.”

The victory gave Duncan no great aspirations.

“I’m just a weekend golfer,” he said.

“I don’t practice much and I only play regularly on Sundays. I play with Craig Stadler and some other pros, and I see that level, how good those guys are, and I know I could never make that sacrifice. I love my family too much. I am an amateur golfer.”

Mitch Voges of Simi Valley birdied four of the final six holes and tied for third place with Bob Clark of Santa Ana at 283, four strokes behind Duncan. Chris Gonzales of Montebello, a member of the USC golf team, was fourth at 285 and Craig Anderson of Fallbrook finished fifth at 286.

Charlie Wi of Thousand Oaks, who beat Stankowski in match play at the state amateur tournament and went on to win that championship, finished at 289.