Wi to Return to Site of His Finest Win : Golf: Fond memories of 1990 state amateur victory linger as he again prepares for the tournament at Pebble Beach.

Charlie Wi sat in the living room of his parents’ house in Thousand Oaks on Sunday and watched Pebble Beach devour some of the world’s greatest golfers in the U.S. Open.

He watched 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson shoot a wild round of 88, a full 20 strokes higher than his score the day before amid howling winds.

Wi recalled 1990, when he toured the same course in a week of near-perfect golf to win the prestigious California Amateur championship. And he smiled.

“Such a great memory,” Wi said.

Then he remembered he has to return to the course next week for the 81st state amateur tournament.

And he did not smile.

“It’s kind of scary, actually,” Wi said. “What they’ve done to that course for the U.S. Open. And now we have to play it.”

What the U.S. Golf Assn. did in preparation for its biggest event last week was to let the rough at Pebble Beach grow wildly. They then stopped watering the greens, turning them into a surface much more like marble than grass.

“The best players in the world can’t stop the ball on the greens,” said Raymond Floyd, who took himself out of contention with a final-round 81. “Do you know what these greens are like? They’re like a parking lot. That’s how hard they are.”

But just to get to the greens, one must negotiate the snake-wide fairways. And the rough bordering it. “The first thing we should do is be allowed four caddies each,” Wi said. “One for the clubs and three to help us find the golf balls.”

Southern California Golf Assn. spokesman Bob Thomas said this week that Pebble Beach officials plan to leave the rough intact for the state amateur tournament.

Wi will begin play Monday for the first of two rounds of stroke play. After 36 holes, the top 32 golfers from a field of 102 advance to match play Wednesday and Thursday with the championship match set for Friday.

Wi’s victory two years ago has not faded from memory, he said, despite two subsequent seasons on the Nevada golf team and scores of other tournaments.

“I can still, today, remember every shot I hit in that championship match,” said Wi, who had graduated from Westlake High two weeks before his stunning win. “Every single shot. I can still picture each one.

“Winning the state amateur made a difference in my life. People bring it up all the time. Golfers know my name because of that one week. Just a few weeks ago in the Pasadena City Championship, I was introduced on the first tee as ‘the former California amateur champion.’ I didn’t tell anyone. People just remember.”

After the state amateur, Wi will try in August to qualify for the U.S. Amateur championship, to be played at the end of that month in Muirfield, Ohio.

“Maybe someday people will introduce me as the former U.S. Amateur champion,” Wi said.

U.S. Amateur champion Mitch Voges of Simi Valley also is in the field for the state tournament next week. He was battered by the Pebble Beach layout in the U.S. Open, struggling to rounds of 78 and 77 and missing the cut.

Also overmatched by Pebble Beach last week was Bob Burns of Granada Hills, who shot rounds of 75 and 76 and missed the cut.

Faring a bit better were Tom Lehman, the former assistant pro at the Westlake Country Club, and Duffy Waldorf of Valencia. Lehman was briefly in contention in the Open but a final-round 77 left him seven strokes behind winner Tom Kite. Waldorf also was in contention heading into the final round but was knocked out by a whopping 83 and finished 14 strokes behind Kite.

The Valley area also will be represented in the state amateur by Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, who has played consistently well in the tournament for the past decade, Dave Berganio Jr. of Sylmar, Chris Zambri of Thousand Oaks and Kelly Morman of Granada Hills.