GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : For Golfer and Caddie, It Was Strictly Amateur

As the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, Mitch Voges was automatically invited to play in the prestigious Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga., last month.

It was an opportunity of a lifetime and since he was playing the lush Augusta National course with its tricky greens for the first time, he was told he should hire a caddie with local knowledge.

Voges, though, had his own priorities, and chose to bring his own caddie, his 13-year-old son, Christian.

“Everybody I talked to said that I had to have a club caddie at the Masters,” Voges said. “I looked at it from a different perspective. I’m 42 years old and I’m a family guy.

“I didn’t know whether I would ever be able to replace the opportunity--my son by my side and playing with Ian Woosnam, in the first round, and Tom Watson in the second.

“If I miss the cut by one or two strokes, I don’t care. Sure, I’d like to make the cut with the opportunity to come back, but the opportunity to play with my son is better than any personal rewards.”

Voges missed the cut by a few strokes but there are no regrets. The memories are so poignant--his son by his side, carrying a small golf bag, so the weight wouldn’t burden him--as they walked the same ground that the golfing legends, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer had strode.

Christian will be with his dad again at the U.S. Open in Pebble Beach June 18-21 and that’s quality time.

Voges said that he first played in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1972, the year Nicklaus won. He has subsequently played there several times in amateur events. An advantage?

“I would hope so,” he said. It’s not purely a ball striker’s course, and not purely a position course. It’s a great blend.

“I remember playing a practice round there in 1972 with Billy Casper and he said it was the most difficult course he had ever played.”

Voges, who lives in Simi Valley, has been getting a sampling of life on the PGA Tour this year. He has played in the Los Angeles Open, the Nestle Invitational in Orlando, Fla., the Heritage at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and the Colonial in Ft. Worth, Tex.

He has made only one cut, at Bay Hill, site of the Nestle tournament.

“I’ve been playing pretty well, but just not scoring very well,” Voges said. “I’m just losing a couple of shots and not making any birdies. It seems I’m shooting 148 (for 36 holes) every time and that’s not getting it done.”

Voges apparently isn’t disturbed, though. He’s thankful to be playing at all. He said his back went out on him in 1974, and he disappeared from competitive play for 10 years.

“I would look at the ball and I wouldn’t even want to swing at it because I knew it was going to hurt,” he said. “I was afraid to get an operation because I didn’t think it would work.”

Voges finally consented to a back operation in 1984, but he wasn’t necessarily motivated by his inability to play competitive golf.

“I had played enough golf that I’d be happy if I never picked up another club,” he said. “But when I couldn’t pick up my 2-year-old girl (Emily), or my 6-year-old son (Christian), my quality of life just wasn’t there.”

Voges said his surgery was a three-level fusion of his spine. Now, he added, the last seven inches of his spin are solid.

He said his back doesn’t bother him except in extremely cold weather, such as an amateur outing in Colorado a few days ago where the temperature was in the 30s.

As an experienced amateur playing part-time on the tour now, Voges said he is seeing a different breed of player than he saw 20 years ago.

“The attitude is like a downhill skier, or race car driver, put my foot to the floor,” he said. “There are 150 guys playing and everyone is firing at every flag. The way the money breaks down, most of the players can make their money in four, or five weeks.

“So their attitude is all out assault and aggression, like, ‘If I miss the cut, OK, I’ll tee it up again next week.’ ”

Voges is now golf director at Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club in Camarillo. The course is expected to open in February.

It’s a 6,800-yard, par-71 layout and Voges said the design is more traditional, in contrast to some modern target-type courses.

Voges began playing golf at Birmingham High School in Encino and he set a school record by shooting a 65 at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.

He graduated in 1968 and enrolled at Brigham Young, where, as a freshman, he was playing with Johnny Miller, who was a senior.

“I met my wife, Rickie, on my first day in class in Provo and I wanted to marry her,” Voges said. “My coach said if I got married, I could never play for him again.”

Voges got married, left BYU and got another golf scholarship at United States International University in San Diego, where he played on an NAIA championship team.

When he didn’t get his PGA Tour card, he played on mini-tours in the U.S. and Europe before encountering his back problems.

Perhaps Voges will get to play in the Masters again. But even if he doesn’t, he says he will always remember how a television network summarized his outing at Augusta.

“They said I made the fatherhood cut,” he said.

And, after all, that is more rewarding.

Golf Notes

Payne Stewart, the defending U.S. Open champion, has been struggling this year. His best showing in 10 events is a tie for 13th at the Players Championship. “Every time I tee off, I say, ‘You’re the U.S. Open champion, you’re expected to play well,’ ” he told the San Francisco Examiner. “It changed my thinking for some reason. My golf game has suffered as a result.”

The 10th annual Vince Ferragamo Special Olympics Celebrity golf tournament will be held Tuesday at the Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park. . . . The sixth annual Monty Hall tournament is scheduled Monday at Calabasas CC. It will benefit the World Maccabiah Games in Israel in 1993. . . . The fourth annual Cystic Fibrosis Dave Taylor tournament will be played June 8 at North Ranch CC in Westlake Village.