GOLF / SHAV GLICK : New Tijeras Creek Course Instant Success

With a population reaching toward 2.5 million and only 15 public-fee courses, Orange County is one of the most golf-starved areas in the country.

South of Irvine, there have been only San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Shorecliffs and the Links at Monarch Bay for players unable to get invitations to such private courses as Mission Viejo, El Niguel, Laguna Hills and the newest group that includes Coto de Caza, Dove Canyon, Marbella and Pacific.

Tijeras Creek, an 18-hole course that opened last Monday, offers an indication of the need for more courses. Designed by Ted Robinson in the instant community of Rancho Santa Margarita, every starting time was booked for a solid week almost before it opened.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the way play has gone,” said Bill Donovan, the former Loyola basketball player and coach whose Donovan Golf Course Management Co. is running the facility. Donovan was coach at Loyola from 1953 to 1961 before turning his attention to golf. His firm also owns the Willowick course in Santa Ana and Western Hills in Chino.

Play has been so brisk at Tijeras Creek that the greens fees of $30 on weekdays and $55 on weekends and holidays may be increased before long.

Tijeras Creek is the second golf community development of Tony Moiso, great-grandson of Richard O’Neill, whose family-owned Rancho Santa Margarita once extended from Aliso Creek in South Laguna to Oceanside, including what is now the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. In 1963, Moiso opened the Mission Viejo course and community, but sold the project in 1972 to Philip Morris, Inc.

Although Tijeras Creek is a public course, Robinson gave it a private course look, and the possibility exists that it could become a private club down the road. It is not, however, the back-breaker Mission Viejo was in the days when it was called “Mission Impossible.”

“Unfortunately, publicity is often given to the difficult courses that are designed by pros,” Robinson said. “In reality, very few people can play and enjoy these courses. The real challenge is to build courses with flexibility in order to accommodate all calibers of players.”

Tijeras Creek meets that criterion.

Al Geiberger and Dave Stockton, who went on to become PGA champions, have been inducted into the Southern California PGA Junior Golf Hall of Fame, along with two administrators, Lou Bastanchury and John W. Brown.

Bastanchury is honorary president of the SoCal Junior Golf Assn. after many years as full-time president. Brown founded the San Diego Junior Golf Assn. in 1952 and served as its president until 1985.

Geiberger is most famous for having shot a 59, 13 under par, in the 1977 Memphis Open, but he also won 11 PGA Tour events, among them the 1966 PGA. Stockton was Geiberger’s playing partner the day Geiberger shot the 59. Stockton also won 11 tour events, including the PGA in 1970 and 1976 and the Los Angeles Open in 1974.

Stockton is also captain of the 1991 Ryder Cup team. He and Geiberger both attended USC after illustrious junior careers.

With the Wilson course at Griffith Park reduced to nine holes because of unplayable greens, the 39th annual Los Angeles City Senior Men’s tournament has been moved to the Woodley Lakes course in Van Nuys. The 36-hole event will be played Oct. 18-19.

The winner last year was Dr. O’Neal Hadnott, who died a few months later of a heart attack while hitting balls at a driving range.

The Griffith Park men’s club championship, scheduled to start Thursday on the Wilson course, has been moved to the adjacent Harding course.

A bulletin posted at Griffith Park says the cause of the lost greens is a new strain of fungus that could not be stopped. However, Marty Tregnan, president of the Municipal Golf Assn., claims that a powerful grass killer was mysteriously mixed with the fertilizer used on the greens.

Another event for old-timers, the Southern California PGA Seniors, will be played Oct. 18-19 at Jurupa Hills Country Club in Riverside, where it has been held for the last 20 years. This will be the 30th anniversary of the tournament, which began in 1960 with Paul Runyan winning the first of his three championships at Whittier Narrows.

The tournament had been moving around, looking for a permanent home, when the late Joe Robinson invited the senior pros to his Jurupa Hills course in 1970. This year, the host pro is Joe’s son, Ron Robinson. A pro-scramble will be played Oct. 17.

Chuck Green, head pro at the Sea Bee course in Port Hueneme, is defending champion. Green, who also won in 1985 and 1986, will be attempting to become the tournament’s first four-time champion.

Golf Notes

Bill O’Connor of Riviera and Craig Anderson of Vista Valley combined for a 203, 13 under par, and won the 10th annual Trans-Mississippi four-ball championship at Rancho Santa Fe Farms. They won by three shots over Pat Duncan, the newly crowned Southern California Amateur champion from Rancho Santa Fe and Randy Reznicek of Vista. . . . Jerry Barber bettered his age by six shots when he fired a 68 in the final round of the Space Coast Classic senior tour event last week in Melbourne, Fla.

Pepperdine will be the host school at a tournament Oct. 29 at North Ranch CC in Westlake Village to raise funds for student scholarships. Al Geiberger, Steve Pate, Loren Roberts and former national long-driving champion Mike Gorton are slated to play. . . . Chi Chi Rodriguez and Gary Player have entered the Security Pacific Senior Classic Nov. 2-4 at Rancho Park. Proceeds of the 54-hole tournament, plus a two-day pro-am Oct. 31-Nov. 1, will go toward the Centinela Hospital’s Children’s Charity Fund.

The eighth annual Academy of Country Music celebrity tournament will be held Oct. 15 at Burbank’s DeBell course for benefit of the T. J. Martell Foundation for cancer, AIDS and leukemia research for children. . . . The Jocks Invitational, for benefit of the Children’s Hospital of L.A., is also set for Oct. 15 at South Hills CC in Covina.

Santa Barbara County will hold its 18th annual championship this weekend with play Saturday at Sandpiper and Sunday at La Purisima. . . . The Rose Park Scholarship Foundation to help Mexican-American high school graduates is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 19, at San Dimas Canyon. . . . Former Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe will be among the players in the 16th Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce Invitational Thursday at the Montebello course. The $65 entry fee makes it one of the area’s best tournament bargains with flights for men, women and seniors.

Claude Akins will host a celebrity tournament on Oct. 22 at Porter Valley CC for the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly. . . . Maggie Hathaway and the L.A. County Minority Associated Golfers will hold a junior tournament Saturday at the Jack Thompson course in Jesse Owens Park in South-Central Los Angeles.