PREP PREVIEW 1993: GOLF : Work Ethic Keeps Trabuco Hills’ Allen in the Swing of Things : Golf: Senior’s night shift at local course allows him to prepare year-round to help Mustangs defend their CIF-SCGA championship.

Rogue golfers at the Lake Forest Golf and Practice Center beware: Zachary Allen is watching you.

By day Allen, 17, is a senior at Trabuco Hills High, one of the best golfers on a team that won the Southern California team championship last year. But two nights a week, Allen bundles up, climbs into a golf cart and patrols this nine-hole executive course to ensure that etiquette rules are followed.

As a marshal, Allen has witnessed the lows and highs of the sport, everything from a golfer who fell into a creek to one who made a hole in one.

It’s not a job he especially relishes; sure, he enjoys spending time on the golf course but . . .

“It’s probably not the best job for me because I’m always just watching people play golf, and I would rather be playing,” Allen said.

The job, however, is a means to that end. Allen receives no salary for his four hours a week, but is allowed unlimited free access to the driving range, practice facilities and course.

“It’s a good deal for me for as many balls as I hit,” Allen said.

Trabuco Hills Coach Gary Sabella said Allen’s work ethic is among the best he’s ever seen.

“Zach probably spends more time practicing than any of the players I’ve ever had,” Sabella said. “He just loves to play golf.

“He’s not a kid who puts his clubs away in the off-season, he just continues to play golf all year around.”

Those practice habits have caused his parents to be concerned that he should play a little less and study more. Allen admits that golf takes time away from his studies. Even so, he maintains a better than B-plus grade-point average.

Except for the location, Allen’s introduction to golf was not unlike that of many others--his father, Leon, took him out on a course in Thailand when he was about 5.

Until the Allen family settled in California in the late 1980s, they led a globe-trotting existence because Leon Allen worked for a company that maintained military bases overseas.

Zachary was born in Thailand and spent most of his early years living in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He attended schools for international or American children and spent his spare time taking karate lessons and riding horses.

Golf--not the sport of choice in the Middle East--barely entered his mind.

“I had just seen pictures of me playing when I was about 5,” Allen said. “I really didn’t even know what the game was all about.”

He rediscovered the sport when his family moved back to California when he was in the seventh grade, and by the time he entered Trabuco Hills two years later, he was good enough to play for the varsity much of the season.

Clearly, Allen had been captivated by the sport.

He played every chance he got, chances which were improved when his family joined the private Pacific Golf Club in San Clemente, a membership the family recently gave up.

As a sophomore, he was an integral part of the team that tied Estancia for the Pacific Coast League championship. Last season, he and Mark Mignone were Trabuco Hills’ most consistent golfers after senior Mark Christensen as the Mustangs advanced to and won the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. team championship.

Allen and Mignone each shot 77 and Christensen shot 74 on the par-72 course at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista as the Mustangs beat runner-up Poway by two strokes.

Although Christensen, who was the team’s No. 1 player for four years, is now at UC Irvine, Allen, Mignone and another senior, Justin Grandy, likely will help make Trabuco Hills a contender again this season.

Allen, who won six Southern California junior tournaments last summer and has lowered his handicap to 0.7, will be prepared.

“I think we’re going to be just as strong,” he said. “Everyone has improved a little bit, so hopefully that will make up for losing Mark Christensen.”

Golf at a Glance

Top players: Zachary Allen, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Alicia Allison, Foothill, Jr.; Mike Artiglio, Estancia, Sr.; Chris Berry, Esperanza, Sr.; Kellee Booth, Santa Margarita, Jr.; Ryan Chavez, El Dorado, Jr.; Eunice Choi, Laguna Hills, Sr.; John Cone, Los Amigos, So.; Jeff Farley, Huntington Beach, So.; Mark Foster, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Ben Garner, El Toro, Jr.; Justin Grandy, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Eric Hegarty, San Clemente, Sr.; Cory Laughery, Loara, Jr.; John Lee, Sunny Hills, Sr.; John Lee, Valencia, So.; Ryan McLaughlin, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Brian Madden, El Modena, Sr.; Mark Mignone, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Robert Nelson, La Quinta, Sr.; Cody Neptune, Valencia, Sr.; Jeff Odorico, Los Alamitos, So.; Paul Ohshima, Marina, Sr.; Mike Peterson, Brea-Olinda, Jr.; Brian Rea, Marina, Sr.; Rick Redding, Irvine, Sr.; Brian Sherian, Pacifica, Sr; Robert Son, Sunny Hills, So.; Matt Stafford, Los Amigos, So.; Steve Sugarman, Sunny Hills, Sr.; Tiger Woods, Western, Jr.; Alex Yi, La Quinta, So.; Bret Yunker, Los Alamitos, Jr.

League favorites: Century: El Modena. Empire: Esperanza. Garden Grove: Toss up. Orange: Valencia. Pacific Coast: Trabuco Hills. Sea View: Santa Margarita. South Coast: Dana Hills. Sunset: Huntington Beach.

1992 final poll: 1. (tie) Huntington Beach, Trabuco Hills; 3. El Toro; 4. Estancia; 5. Irvine; 6. Dana Hills; 7. Santa Margarita; 8. Western; 9. Los Alamitos; 10. Laguna Hills.

Key dates: May 10--Southern Section Southern Regional, Western Hills Golf and Country Club, Chino, and Southern Section Northern Regional, Santa Maria Country Club; May 17--Southern Section team finals, Sandpiper Golf Course, Goleta; May 24--Southern Section individual finals, Canyon Country Club, Palm Springs; June 7--CIF-SCGA championships, Stockdale Country Club, Bakersfield.

Notes: Western junior Tiger Woods, who last year at age 16 became one of the youngest people to play in a PGA Tour event at the Los Angeles Open, has received sponsor’s invitations from four more PGA events this year. Woods plans to play in three--this week’s L.A. Open at Riviera Country Club, the Honda Classic in Ft. Lauderdale in March, and the Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Tex., in May--but because of his commitment to his studies will probably have to turn down the Kemper Open in late May, according to his father, Earl. Like last year, Woods, who won the Southern Section and CIF-SCGA individual titles as a freshman, will pass up the CIF--SCGA individual championship because it conflicts with qualifying for the U.S. Open.