Big Youth Player Still On Course : Golf: Christenson has followed his father’s advice. He will compete in the Optimist Junior World Golf Championship tournament.

Five years ago, Chris Christenson and his son Matt had a man-to-man talk. He figured it was time for a little male bonding and a good chance to pick his son’s brain about his future.

Chris was 58 and a year away from a retirement brought on by poor health.

Matt, 9, was mature for his age.

The subject was Matt’s athletic future: should he scrap his budding Little League career and devote his full attention to golf? Chris had recently taken Matt to the driving range, where upon Matt announced, “I want to play this game.”

“He (Chris) told me I had a lot of talent both as a baseball player and a golfer,” said Matt, now 14, who will try to win his first Optimist Junior World Golf Championship this week. “He said I could be good be mediocre at two sports or really good at one. He said don’t try to be like a Bo Jackson.”

Apparently Matt Christenson was ready to make the big decision. He was a big boy for his age. He still is. He is 6 feet 4, 180 pounds and has enjoyed good fortune since he followed his father’s advice.

He has won 23 junior tournaments and finished in the top three of 57. This year, Christenson, who carries a three handicap, has won seven of 12 events, including last week’s International Junior Golf Championships in Menifee.

As a ninth-grader at Rancho Bernardo High last spring, Christenson helped the Broncos finish fifth in the San Diego Section and he qualified individually for the CIF Southern California Championships.

“He’s the biggest freshman I’ve ever seen,” said Jason Paul, who works in the pro shop at Christenson’s home course--Oaks North at Rancho Bernardo Inn--and was a senior on the high school golf team. “He works hard. He has a complete game and he can just dominate his age group because he’s so much more mature.

“You should see him. He averages 280 yards off the tee.”

The 13-14-year-old division of the Junior World tournament--which opens today with boys and girls in four age groups playing at different San Diego area courses--would seem to beckon as his latest conquest. But Christenson said this is not a time to take his 1992 success for granted.

“This is the tournament I’ve always dreamed of winning,” he said, “but I’ve never done well here.”

Those who know Christenson say he could easily overpower the field at Mission Trails, par 71 and 5,604 yards.

Said Deron Johnson, Christenson’s teaching pro, “If he hits the ball straight off the tee, he should win it. He should chew that course up, because he can chip, he has a good imagination with his shots and he’s a great putter.

“His drives are the whole key. He can flat-out kill it. It’s almost unbelievable. At Mission Trails, he’ll have a wedge in his hands all day.”

Christenson’s towering frame, and the fact he doesn’t play any other sport, became a big issue when he attended Rancho Bernardo last fall.

“Some of the football players harassed me a lot, because I’m big and they all expected me to play,” he said. “I always wanted to be a quarterback, because I felt I had a pretty good arm.”

The wrestling coach called Christenson at home three or four times during the winter. But what about basketball?

“I just can’t jump,” Christenson said, laughing.

Christenson might better be an example of how somebody can prosper from hard work and repetition.

Chris Christenson, who jokes that Matt has hit “about a $1 million worth of range balls,” took him to Carmel Highland Golf Course nearly everyday, sometimes dropping him off and picking him up. He would hit 300 balls on the range, then chip and putt for hours. Father has supported son nearly every step of the way.

“We tossed it over and it’s like he said, I don’t think he could be really good at too many things,” Chris Christenson said. “He liked golf from the beginning and I didn’t make the decision . . . he did.”

Matt Christenson, in a sense, is an only child. He has four older sisters, the youngest 10 years his elder. He said golf is what brought he and his father together. For years, golf was part of every conversation.

But in some ways, young Matt is on his own now. Emphysema forced his father to quit both playing golf and his pool building company. Then, eight months ago, his parents divorced. The trips to the golf course have become less frequent now that his father has moved, but his drive to make his father proud has not diminished.

“I miss living with my dad, because we used to have a lot of good times together,” Matt Christenson said. “And my mom works, so sometimes she doesn’t get home until 7:30 at night. Sometimes it gets a little lonely.”

Teeing off this morning, Christenson will be buoyed by the fact that his father will be there to coach him and that, for the first time, his game is consistent. It was erratic play, and a second-round score of 82, that eliminated him from the Junior World tournament after 36 holes last year.

“Right now I feel really good, because I haven’t shot a bad round this year,” he said. “I’ve been real consistent at 74 and 75. So the timing’s perfect.”