Berry’s Good, and He’ll Let You Know It : Golf: Confident about his abilities, Esperanza standout plans to show off talent at section individual championship today.

Chris Berry approached the first hole at Western Hills Country Club in Chino Hills exactly as he has so many others: with confidence to burn.

It was a par-four dogleg left, playing nearly 400 yards, nothing overly challenging for Berry, one of the top high school players in Southern California.

In his most recent competition, he won the Empire League individual title by 16 strokes, shooting a course-record four-under 67 from the blue tees and three-over 74 from the black at Cypress Golf Club.

On May 10 at Western Hills, Berry was playing for his team, hoping to help Esperanza High advance to the Southern Section team championship, and he felt invincible.

“It was weird,” Berry said. “After shooting 67 at Cypress, if I didn’t shoot in the 60s, I was going to be disappointed.”

His first shot went out of bounds. He teed up another ball and hit it in the same place--straight right, out of bounds. When he finally sank his putt on the hole, Berry marked a 10 on his scorecard.

“I thought I had the game down, and once you think that, it’ll come up and bite you,” Berry said. “I made two bad swings and from then on it was hard to stop the bleeding.”

Berry finished with a 12-over 84, and Esperanza, ranked third in Orange County, finished four strokes out of third place and the final spot in the team championship.

“I felt really bad about that, and I’m kind of looking for some revenge Monday,” Berry said.

Berry will seek that revenge on the Canyon Country Club course in Palm Springs, where the Southern Section individual championship will be contested today.

If Berry has any self doubts, he isn’t letting on. He expects to do well--the top 22 players advance to the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. Championship June 7 at Stockdale Country Club in Bakersfield--and continue his success this summer.

“I think I’m going to do really well this summer,” he said. “I think I’m going to win a national junior tournament--that’s my goal. I have high expectations for myself.”

So high that his mother, Jan Liolios, sometimes wishes he would be a bit more quiet about them.

“He’s so self-confident it just scares me sometimes,” Liolios said. “I tell him he should be a little more humble, but he tells me, ‘If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will?’ ”

Berry started taking himself seriously on the golf course before most. Tom Sargent, the head professional at Yorba Linda Country Club, said when Berry first signed up for lessons about five years ago, he was an average player who thought he was better.

“He was a hot dog,” Sargent said.

That brashness caused some problems with other young players, but Berry has matured and is less likely to tell an opponent how badly he is going to beat him.

“I think you have to have some cockiness to be a good player and he’s got some,” Sargent said. “It’s not offensive. He believes that he is good and wants to win. Some people swagger. He doesn’t do that.”

Berry quickly started backing up his talk with results. Two summers ago, he qualified for the U.S. junior amateur and made the cut at the Insurance Youth Classic, one of the major junior tournaments.

Earlier that summer, he quit youth baseball, against his mother’s initial wishes, because he said playing baseball was hurting his golf swing.

Sargent said Berry’s work ethic is without peer.

“He goes out and plays any chance he gets, in any kind of conditions,” Sargent said. “There is no other kid around here who practices as much as he does. He wants it and he’s steadily gotten better.”

Berry, who plays to a one handicap at Yorba Linda Country Club, is currently top-ranked on the Southern California PGA’s junior golf list. He has won three local tournaments this spring and hopes to hang on to the ranking by playing locally as often as possible between American Junior Golf Assn. tournaments this summer.

Today, Berry returns to the site of his best post-season high school performance. As a freshman, he finished in a tie for third at the individual championships on the Canyon course. He shot three-under 32 on the front nine, before finishing with an even-par 72, four shots back of the winner, Western’s Tiger Woods.

“That was the first time I ever really broke par on a tough golf course,” Berry said. “It was really exciting. I didn’t know what to expect.”

Now he does.

“I like the golf course,” Berry said. “I just want to show everybody how good Esperanza really is.”