GOLF / SHAV GLICK : Ex-Chef Mark Curley Cooks Up Big Win

Mark Curley, the newest Los Angeles City men’s champion, is a 30-year-old political science student at USC who stands 6-feet-4 and weighs 285 pounds.

Curley, who played high school football at Lake Tahoe, won the championship in a playoff with Travis Williams, a sophomore at New Mexico State, when he sank a 45-foot birdie putt on the seventh playoff hole. Curley knew the line of the putt because he had taken three putts from almost the identical spot during regular play earlier in the day.

He shot 74-74-70-73 over two weekends at the Griffith Park and Rancho Park courses to finish in a tie with Williams and Tim Todd of Yorba Linda, who dropped out of the playoff on the fourth hole.

Curley, who gave up a career as a chef in Santa Barbara to return to college, practices with the USC golf team but does not play as a member.

“This has been a good summer for me,” Curley said. “I rewarded myself with a lot of golf because I worked hard at school and finished last semester with a 3.5 grade-point average.” Curley also won the Oxnard City title.

When Dave Berganio Jr. of Sylmar won the U. S. Public Links Championship last week, he became the 11th titlist from Southern California, dating back to Pat Abbott of Pasadena in 1936. However, he is the first in more than 20 years.

Berganio, 22, a junior at the University of Arizona, defeated defending champion Michael Combs of Kennewick, Wash., 4 and 3, in the final on the wooded Otter Creek course in Columbus, Ind., to bring the blue-collar golfing championship back to this area.

He is already feeling the perks of being a national champion. He will start play Tuesday in the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Flagstaff, Ariz., and three weeks later he will be in the U. S. Amateur at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Berganio first made an impact on the local amateur scene in 1989 when he won five tournaments in a row, including the L.A. City and Pasadena City championships. The other three tournaments were junior college events that he played as a member of the Mission College team--the Southern California Championship at Singing Hills in San Diego, the San Diego Golf Academy Invitational and the Taft Invitational.

He was introduced to the game at 14 by a golfing priest, Father George Miller, while in the eighth grade at Guardian Angel Catholic School in Pacoima. Five years later, Berganio graduated from Alemany High School as a four-time Del Rey League champion and was rated among the top high school players in the state.

Southern California dominated the U.S. Publinx tournament in the 1950s, when local players won four years in a row, but until Berganio’s victory, the last Southland champion was Bob Risch of Gardena in 1970. The other former champions from this area were Bruce McCormick, Los Angeles, 1937; Smiley Quick, Los Angeles, 1946; Mike Ferentz, Long Beach, 1948; Dave Stanley, Los Angeles, 1951; Omer Bogan, South Gate, 1952; Ted Richards, Santa Monica, 1953; Gene Andrews, Pacific Palisades, 1954, and Arne Dokka, Studio City, 1965.

Golf Notes

Six Southland professionals were listed among the country’s 50 best teachers by Golf magazine. They are Mike Austin of Studio City, Derek Hardy of the Duda Teaching Center in Highland, Eddie Merrins of Bel-Air, Jim Petralia of Annandale, Kip Puterbaugh of the Golf Academy at La Costa and Dean Reinmuth of San Diego. . . . For the record: Eric Meek, not Eric Woods, was the 1988 U. S. Amateur champion from Southern California who played in the Temecula Creek Open last week. Woods is playing on the Canadian tour. . . . Former Ram Charlie Cowan will be the host of the Cadillac Invitational benefit tournament on Aug. 5 at Mission Viejo CC. The National Kidney Foundation of Southern California is the beneficiary. Winners in the scrambles tournament will qualify for a national tournament at the Grand Cypress course in Orlando, Fla.

Ian Baker-Finch’s British Open victory advanced him to 13th position in the Sony world rankings. Still No. 1 is Masters champion Ian Woosnam of Wales. The only Americans in the top 10 are No. 6 Payne Stewart, No. 7 Paul Azinger and No. 8 Fred Couples. Couples became the first player to clinch a berth on the U. S. Ryder Cup team with his third place in the British Open. The full team will be named after the PGA Championship Aug. 8-11 at the Crooked Stick GC in Carmel, Ind. . . . Regional qualifying for the U. S. Amateur, which drew a record 4,987 entries, will be held Thursday at Western Hills CC in Chino, where 102 players will battle for six spots, and on Aug. 5 at Calabasas CC (102 for six) and at Carlton Oaks CC in Santee (96 for six). The fortunate 18 will compete in the 91st annual event Aug. 20-25 at Chattanooga, Tenn., along with defending champion Phil Mickelson of San Diego.

Low-income senior citizens will benefit from H. B. Barnum’s third Adopt-a-Senior celebrity tournament Monday at California CC. Among the celebrities playing will be Pat Boone, Jim Brown, Walt Hazzard, Mike Garrett and Rogie Vachon. Proceeds will go to the L.A. senior nutrition program, which provides hot meals for needy senior citizens. . . . The 63rd San Diego County Open, which has been won by the likes of Leo Diegel (1930-31), Sam Snead (1943), Gene Littler (1949 and 1952) and Billy Casper (1953-54) will start Wednesday on the South Course at Torrey Pines, with a purse of $65,000 for the 54-hole tournament. . . . Fred Sherman’s 16th annual North San Diego County Women’s Open is set for Aug. 5-6 at Escondido CC.

Chairman Charles Coniglio expects his Rancho Los Amigos celebrity tournament on Aug. 5 at South Hills CC in West Covina to raise $100,000 for the facility’s Medical Center. Coniglio’s son, Steve, was injured a year ago in a high school wrestling accident and was taken to Rancho’s spinal cord injury unit. “Initially, he was unable to move his arms and legs, but after four months of very hard work, Steve walked out of the hospital on his own,” Coniglio said. . . . The team of Russ Hampshire and Mike Esposito of Chatsworth, Gary Fox of Sun Valley and Jack Gallagher of Manhattan Beach won the International Guiding Eyes Foundation tournament at Brookside GC in Pasadena.