Worth His Grandfather’s Time : Bill Lunde Rises Through Ranks in Junior Golf

It doesn’t take much thought for Henry Lunde to answer the question: How important is it for him to spend time with his grandson, Bill?

“It’s very important,” Henry said. “I’m not going to come around again, you know. You only go around once.”

But what a time once can be.

This is the story of Henry Lunde, 71, grandfather, and Bill Lunde, 16, grandson, golfer, champion.

Bill was 8 years old when Henry cut off a pair of his old golf clubs, handed them to the wide-eyed youngster and dashed off to an Escondido golf course.

“I wanted someone to play golf with me in the summertime,” Henry Lunde said. “I thought it would be nice for him to learn how to play. I had no idea he would develop into the golfer that he is--that wasn’t the object. But he kind of took to it and liked it and applied himself and I certainly hope he keeps going, and I think he will.”

Later that year, Henry signed up little Bill for a junior golf clinic at nearby Penasquitos Golf Course. Bill won the tournament held at the end of the clinic.

Those early days sparked the memories of childhood that are most vivid for Bill Lunde. Golf provided him time with his friends, Steve Splavec and Charlie Hoffman. They would go to the course at 7 a.m. and stay until sunset playing rounds of golf and having putting and chipping contests.

It also provided him time with the man he calls Grandpa.

“(Golf) gives me something to look back to,” Bill said. “Without him, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with golf, so I owe him a lot.”

Bill recently completed play in the Marvin K. Brown Match-Play Tournament at Torrey Pines. He finished in the top 16, losing 2-up to Rancho Bernardo’s Lenny Hall. The tournament, for boys 13-17, had nearly 100 entries and is one of the San Diego County Junior Golf Association’s two biggest annual tournaments.

Lunde’s performance comes after finishing the year as Poway High’s top golfer with a 37.6 average over nine holes and helping the Titans finish second in Southern California. His average was only a tenth of a stroke less than Hoffman, a freshman last year with whom he has maintained a competitive friendship.

Typical conversation off the tee:

Hoffman: “Where’s my ball?”

Lunde: “About 20 yards behind mine.”

Not surprisingly, when the Optimist Junior World Golf Championships come to Torrey Pines July 21-24, Lunde, a rangy 6-foot-1, 160-pounder who goes about 270 yards off the tee, will be one of the local favorites in the 15-17 division.

As well as Lunde is playing, and in spite of his recent success, he said the best time he has had with his grandpa was their longest road trip, last summer to the Big I, the national Independent Insurance Agents of America Tournament in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This year, it’s at Pinehurst in North Carolina, Aug. 14-18. Local qualifying is June 30 at Carmel Mountain Ranch.

“That was the first time we went to a tournament away from San Diego,” Bill said. “We stayed in a hotel and he went with me and watched me up there. We played shuffleboard, pool, bumper pool in the lobby there. We went swimming.”

And there was the golf. He missed the cut by one stroke in the 17-and-under tournament.

It isn’t surprising that Henry introduced Bill to golf. He introduced Bill’s father, Eric, to the game in the mid-1960s when he was 17. Henry was the first elected men’s club president for Miramar Naval Air Station’s golf course and played a key role in getting that course built.

Henry is more than just a grandfather to Bill. He serves as the youngster’s manager, picking the tournaments, arranging for travel, making sure everything goes smoothly. And since Bill has his learner’s permit, Henry lets Bill drive Grandpa’s Chevy on their golf excursions.

“Once he gets his license, ol’ Granddad’s probably going to have to drive to the golf course by himself,” Henry joked.

Henry Lunde has been involved with the junior golf program the past eight years, coinciding with Bill’s involvement.

“I just enjoy being with the boys and girls,” Henry Lunde said. “It’s fun to see them progress and watch how their demeanor and manners change. They really become well-mannered young men and women through this program.”

His grandson included.

Bill had a temper when he was a kid, and it was through golf that he settled down. A bad shot would haunt him for entire rounds. Not anymore.

In Tuesday’s morning round at Torrey Pines, Bill bogeyed his first two holes and three of his first five. He finished two under par.

“As a kid, he’d pout,” Henry said. “You knew he was unhappy. He’s learned to keep it pretty much under control now. That’s one of the things I’m real pleased to see.”

Bill got a handle on his anger and frustration when he was 14, and it coincided with Bill’s improved play. He didn’t win a tournament as a 13-year-old, but said he won about a half-dozen after he turned 14. Bill said part of it was controlling his anger. The other part was the coming together of the mechanics taught to him two years earlier by his current instructor, Chuck Courtney of Rancho Santa Fe Country Club.

The middleman in Henry and Bill’s relationship, Eric Lunde, has also seen the young man’s growth.

“Golf has taught him to be relaxed,” Eric said. “When he started, he had a temper. I think he’s matured beyond his years by being around adults and the game. He’s learned to accept defeat when it comes without letting it affect him the next game.

“He’s real mellow: It’s real hard to aggravate him, and I think golf has given him that attitude and outlook, that temperament.”

Nowadays, Bill’s greatest flaw might be his aversion to attention. He was recently the only Poway team member who missed a group photo.

“Probably one of the most frustrating things about him is he doesn’t brag about the things he does,” Eric said. “One time he came home with some awards from Poway High and it was two or three days before we found out he got them.”

But Henry said Bill has become more outgoing, that “it’s easier for him to talk to strangers; he doesn’t have as much trouble now.”

There’s a reason for that improvement, no matter how modest.

“I wouldn’t have my parents or anyone around me, there would just be me and the people in my group,” Bill said. “It got lonely after a while.”

But after every round, there was always Grandpa.