Handegard Top Seed in Escondido Finals : Bowling: Senior PBA tournament title to be decided today.

John Handegard spent many a day in his native Oregon cutting plywood and thinking about better places to be. Mostly, he dreamed about being on the road with the Professional Bowlers Assn. tour.

His dream came true when he turned 50 in 1988 and joined the Senior PBA. Then he found the pressure was a nightmare.

“I would beat myself to death when I bowled poorly,” he said. “I filled my head with so many negative things. Finally, I said, ‘Hell, here I am out on the road. I’m doing exactly what I want to do. I’m feeling good, physically. What should I get upset about?’ ”

That sudden turnaround of thought has helped make Handegard, 54, now living in Thousand Oaks, one of the fiercest competitors on the tour.

After three championships in 1991, here he is again at the $75,000 Escondido Senior PBA Open at Palomar Lanes, the No. 1 qualifier in today’s stepladder finals, which start at 4:30 p.m. and will be televised live on ESPN.

He scored 200 or better in 11 of 16 match-play games Wednesday, including a 265 and a 256 that bumped John Hricsina off the top spot after a block of eight games in the morning. He carries a 214.45 average to today’s show.

Handegard was the 1991 PBA Senior Player of the Year, earning $52,220 to make his career total $112,670 while re-establishing himself as one of the best pressure bowlers on the rapidly growing 50-and-over circuit.

“Now I’m talking to myself in a friendlier manner,” he said. “I know I have the ability, and I have enough faith. You have to enjoy the pressure and realize if you don’t make the shot, you’re not a failure.”

Here are the other four bowlers, who qualified second through fifth and will battle for the chance to meet Handegard for the title:

--Mike Samardzija, 50, a pro-shop owner from Farmington Hill, Mich., who was 10th after eight match-play games. He led the Toledo (Ohio) Open in 1977 but was beaten in the final by John Denton.

--Hricsina, 54, the iron-pumping letter carrier from rural Pennsylvania who has racked up $95,910 in career earnings, can get the monkey off his back today. This is his ninth stepladder since the beginning of 1991. He has been beaten in seven of the previous eight finals by bowlers who have rolled in the 240-260 neighborhood.

--Delano “Hobo” Boothe, 55, an accountant from Canoga Park, who cashed in eight of the nine tournaments he entered in his rookie 1991 season.

--Robert Gibbs, 52, who took a leave from his Abilene, Tex., body and paint shop to test the tour. After winning the Woodside Open and finishing second three times last year, he hasn’t returned.

The pairings are hard to predict, even after 41 of the 42 games that lead up to it. Palomar’s final hour Wednesday was no exception, with four players bunched together vying for the fifth spot.

Handegard, in first position, led Hricsina by 14 pins. Hricsina was only 27 pins ahead of third-place Samardzija. Booth and Gibbs sat precariously in fourth and fifth, with Bill Bahny only 19 behind Gibbs and Gene Stus just one back of Bahny.

Each held their positions in Game 42 except Hricsina, who flip-flopped with Samardzija, who rolled a 238. Hricsina posted his second lowest score of the day, a 172.