SAN DIEGO CITY AMATEUR TOURNAMENT : Riley is Quick to Win Championship : Golf: High school player shoots 72 for win. Five-time champion Duncan finishes third.

Chris Riley appears to be a kid who doesn’t give much thought to what he’s doing. He just seems to want to get things done and move on.

With such a demeanor, the last place you would expect to find Riley, 18, is at a golf course. But his rushed, seemingly careless approach to the game of golf won’t soon be forgotten.

Not after he shot par 72 on the 7,000-yard Torrey Pines South course Sunday to capture the San Diego City Amateur Tournament. He finished the tournament at three-under-par 285, beating John Lovett by two strokes.

Pat Duncan, a five-time champion, said to Riley afterward, “You gotta slow down, Bud.”

Duncan, 36, and Riley entered the final 18 holes tied for the lead. But Duncan shot an uncharacteristic 78, double putting and double-bogeying the 12th hole, and faltered to third at 291.

Riley, who attends Patrick Henry High, never finished over par, putting together rounds of 72-72-69-72. But his final round wasn’t easy. Riley bogeyed holes one and seven. Duncan opened with three bogeys and a birdie. By the eighth hole, both had surrendered a two-stroke lead to Lovett.

But Duncan and Lovett each had a disastrous hole on the back nine. Lovett, who shot 73 for the round and 287 for the tournament, double-bogeyed 14. Duncan tapped the ball twice with his first putt on 12, and went on to bogey 16 and 17. Riley never broke his brisk stride, birdieing 10 and 13 and parring out.

“Run golf . . . that’s his game,” Lovett said of Riley. “But I like playing with him. He handles himself great for a young kid.”

So anxious was he to get to the clubhouse, Riley was ready to hit on 18 as soon as Duncan sank his bogey putt on 17.

Riley hardly stopped for congratulations at the scorer’s table before he slipped into the coffee shop. There he appeared to savor a sandwich and french fries more than his victory.

“Did I win?” he asked. “Did anybody catch me?”

No one came close, except Lovett, who will play in a U.S. Open qualifier in Daly City today. Ed Cuff, who had a low-round 69, tied Craig Anderson, Jim Myers and Victor Zayas for fourth, seven strokes back at 292. Riley’s older brother, Kevin, was eighth at 295.

“When everybody else is hitting their shots, I’m visualizing my shot,” Riley said. “So when they’re done, I just get up and hit it.

“My dad’s been telling me that I’ve got to take more time.”

Riley’s father, Mike Riley, was a two-time city champion himself, and a three-time All-American at San Diego State. He coaches Chris and Kevin, yet he wasn’t on the scene Sunday. He never watches his sons in competition. Chris says it’s for fear his presence will break their concentration.

So when he struggled with a 38 on the par-36 front nine, Riley turned to caddie Scott Arthur for support.

“He told me not to get down on myself and not to give up . . . just grind it out,” Riley said. “I made some good, clutch putts at the end.”

He regained his composure with a big drive and a good chip to birdie the 521-yard ninth hole and he pulled even with Lovett while birdieing 10, thanks to a big wedge chip that landed a foot from the hole.

Lovett kept the pressure on, as both birdied 14. But Lovett’s two-foot putt on 15 lipped out, resulting in his double bogey and Riley’s two-stroke lead. Riley swirled in his two-footer on 15, buried another two-footer on 16, sank a four-footer on 17 and tapped in on 18--all for par.