GOLF / RICH TOSCHES : Confident Burns Planning to Take His Best Shot at Pebble Beach

At the age of 24, Bob Burns of Granada Hills has pounded his way into one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments, the U.S. Open. On Thursday, when he sets his ball on a tee on the first hole at much-storied Pebble Beach, forgive him if his hands are shaking like a paint-store mixing machine.

Even if he were to let out a nerve-snapped yelp loud enough to make the resident sea otters plunge to the kelp in terror, you’d have to forgive him.

Playing in the tournament on the course where Tom Watson in 1982 made a stirring and miraculous chip shot to thwart a Jack Nicklaus charge and where in 1972 the charged gallery drowned out the thunder of the ocean with its own roars as Nicklaus won the title has been enough to make even tournament-toughened veterans twitch and shank.

And now a brief message from Burns: Don’t count on his being nervous.

“I’ve been playing well and hitting the ball as well as I ever have,” he said Monday, hours after arriving on the Monterey Peninsula. “Now I’m just waiting for my putter to get hot. If it does, I can finish in the top 10 here with no problem.

“Confidence is everything for me. Right now, I’ve got plenty of it.”

Of course when he spoke, he hadn’t been tested by the stunning Pebble Beach layout. A howling wind, as common on the course as rich people, had not yet swallowed one of his shots, turning 150 yards into 220 yards.

He hadn’t been faced with the treacherous, ocean-lined 18th hole under the glaring lights of the U.S. Open or other conditions that have frayed the nerves of some of the best to play the game.

Another brief message from Burns: Pebble Beach, Schmebble Beach.

“I’ve played Pebble just a few times, but long ago,” he said. “Nothing recent at all. It has the super tradition and all of that, but I’ve played competitive golf all year on tough courses. This will just be a few more tough rounds on a tough course. The only real difference is that Pebble is in such perfect condition that it gives you fewer excuses.

“But on Thursday, it’s just me and the golf ball.”

Nail-tough words for a guy making his U.S. Open debut. But Burns has talked this way before. And then produced.

In 1990, in his final season at Cal State Northridge, the All-American golfer talked confidently of winning the national championship in Division II. And then he did it.

“It’s all a confidence game for me,” he said.

He has had plenty of chances to lose confidence in the past two years. Unable to qualify for the PGA Tour, he has played the decidedly less posh Ben Hogan Tour.

In 1991 he struggled, barely making enough money to continue. But this year he has started to emerge as a contender. In February, he finished in a tie for first place in a tournament in Corpus Christi, Tex., although he lost in the playoff.

He stands 22nd on the Hogan money list with $20,205 for the year. Sponsorship, he said, has made a big difference. His Hogan Tour expenses are covered by the Valencia Country Club, where Burns served for several years as a cart barn attendant.

He tried to qualify for the U.S. Open the last four years, but never made it past the first round.

But this year his heart jumped a bit when the sterling Valencia layout was chosen as a qualifying site.

Burns said he has played the course more than 300 times and he holds the course record with a stunning 63 that he shot in April.

With the home-course advantage, he routed a field of 102 potential qualifiers May 18, shooting a 36-hole total of 138 to grab first place.

In sectional qualifying June 8, he grabbed the fourth of five available berths in the Open with rounds of 68 and 72 at the tough Sharon Country Club course in Cleveland.

More than 6,000 golfers nationwide attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open this year. One hundred made it. Burns believes he is more than just one of them.

“The competition is tough, but I’m used to tough competition,” he said.

“If my putter gets hot, I think I can play with anybody here.”

And the others: Also playing in the U.S. Open will be 1991 U.S. Amateur champion Mitch Voges of Simi Valley, Duffy Waldorf of Tarzana and Tom Lehman, a former teaching pro at the Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley.

Voges has by far the most experience of the local contingent playing Pebble Beach, having played in more than a dozen California Amateur championships on the course.

Upcoming: The American Cancer Society Classic will be played at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village on July 27. The scramble event will start at 9 a.m.

Information: 805-983-8864.