GOLF / SHAV GLICK : SoCal Amateur Begins With a Field of 1,370

A record 1,370 golfers will tee off this week on 10 courses in the 92nd Southern California Amateur Championship.

Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe is defending champion in what is the nation’s oldest continuously contested amateur golf championship. The 35-year-old landscape architect, who defeated 1989 champion Paul Stankowski by a stroke last year at Wilshire Country Club, is also a four-time San Diego City Amateur champion.

Duncan will try to become only the second repeat champion in 40 years. Brad Greer, now a touring professional, won in 1984 and ’85. Before Greer, no one had done it since Jim Ferrie in 1950 and ’51.

In the championship flight, 408 golfers will play Monday for 64 spots in the 72-hole tournament, which will start Friday at Bel-Air Country Club. Another 26, including Duncan, are exempt from qualifying. Qualifiers will play 36 holes Friday, after which the field will be cut to 32 for 18-hole rounds Saturday and next Sunday.

The other 936 players will play Monday in three handicap flights, with 32 players qualifying in each flight for 36-hole finals Saturday and next Sunday at Bel-Air.

Championship flight qualifying will be at Industry Hills (125 players for 19 spots), Green River in Corona (66 for 11), San Clemente (73 for 12), Bakersfield (42 for six), Chula Vista (61 for 10) and River Ridge in Oxnard (41 for six).

Two other former champions--Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, who won in 1988, and Dave Sheff of San Marino, the 1986 winner--also are exempt. Two other former winners--Brian Gaddy of Pasadena, who won in 1978, the last time the tournament was played at Bel-Air, and Bud Ardell of Bakersfield, the 1980 champion--will attempt to qualify Monday for another shot at the championship. Gaddy will play at Industry Hills, Ardell at Bakersfield.

Ted Richards, a Bel-Air member who won the championship in 1954 and again in ’61 and lost in a playoff in 1974, is also in the tournament in the President’s Flight. Richards, 68, is also a four-time Southern California Senior champion. He will attempt to qualify at Brookside.

Among the other exempt players are Charlie Wi of Thousand Oaks, the 1990 California State Amateur champion; Mitch Voges of Simi Valley, Southern California Mid-Amateur champion; Mark Johnson of Barstow, Tournament of Club Champions winner; and Jack Brogan of Helendale, Southern California Senior champion.

This will be the fourth time that Bel-Air, site of the 1976 U.S. Amateur, has played host to the tournament. Gibson Dunlap won in 1929, Charles Seaver in 1934 and Gaddy in 1978. Seaver is the father of former major league pitcher Tom Seaver. Bel-Air is the host this year because it is the home club of Marion Farmer, president of the Southern California Golf Assn.

Golf Notes

Tiger Woods, who has won five Junior World age-group championships in the last seven years, will move up to the highest class this year when the 24th annual Optimist-sponsored tournament begins Tuesday on four San Diego courses. Woods, 15, the Los Angeles junior champion, has been given an exemption into the 15-17 division. A field of 790 from the United States and 32 foreign countries are entered in the 54-hole event, according to tournament Chairman Norrie West. Woods is the first player exempt from qualifying since the event started. A sophomore at Western High School in Anaheim, Woods won the 10-and-under title twice, the 11-12 once and the 13-14 twice.

Monty Blodgett, head professional at Newport Beach CC, was honored as national club professional of the month in the PGA. . . . Bernie Kirkpatrick of Wilshire CC is the new president of the California Golf Assn. . . . Paul Hinkle, 17, a senior at Estancia High in Costa Mesa, and Kellee Anne Booth, 15, a sophomore at Rancho Santa Margarita High, will represent Southern California in the Maxfli PGA National Junior Championships Aug. 20-23 at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. They qualified by winning a regional tournament played at Jurupa Hills CC in Riverside and Moreno Valley Ranch GC. . . . Marge Callahan won her 19th women’s club championship at Brookside, defeating Lee Edmiston by eight shots. Marge’s father, the late Billy Bell, designed and built the Pasadena municipal course.

Victor Regalado, a two-time winner on the Spalding Golden State Tour, heads the field for the $50,000 Temecula Creek Open, which will start Thursday at the Temecula Creek Inn course. A field of 120 professionals and 12 amateurs will play in the 72-hole event, ninth of 15 events on the tour. Other recent winners entered include John Schneider, Pasadena Open; Ted Lehmann, Nevada Open; John Flannery, Riverside County Open; Bryan Gorman, Santa Barbara Open; Greg Cesario, Sierra Nevada Open, plus Eric Woods, 1990 U.S. Amateur champion who has been playing on the Asian tour. Spectators are welcome with no admission charge.

Golf Enterprises, headed by former American Golf executives Sandy Burns and Bob Williams, has taken over Jim Colbert Golf, which includes operation of the Tustin Ranch, San Dimas Canyon and Shandin Hills courses. Colbert will remain with the company but is busy pursuing gold on the Senior PGA Tour. . . . H.B. Barnum’s third Adopt-a-Senior tournament, a charity affair to raise money to feed low-income senior citizens, will be held on July 29 at California CC. . . . U.S. Amateur champion Phil Mickelson of San Diego has been named to the Walker Cup team, which will meet a British-Irish team Aug. 18-19 at the Interlachen course, near Minneapolis.

Claudine Rubin, a Wilshire member who won the California State Women’s Amateur Championship last year after moving here from France, returned to her homeland to win the French Senior Women’s title. . . . The 33rd Lee Hammil Memorial tournament, to benefit the Children’s Hospital in Orange County, will be held Aug. 5-6 at Los Coyotes CC. The junior event is open to boys and girls 11-17. . . . Nine Southland players will compete this week in the 66th U.S. Public Links Championship at Otter Creek GC in Columbus, Ind. David Berganio Jr. of Sylmar, Karl Stewart of San Bernardino and Steve Woods of Upland will represent Los Angeles, and Mark Strickland of El Cajon, John Wardrup of Corona del Mar and Tom Kroll of Carlsbad will represent San Diego in team competition. Also entered are Chris Miyahara of Fountain Valley and Marcus Meloan of San Diego.