CIF-SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GOLF ASSN. CHAMPIONSHIP : Santa Margarita Deep Enough to Win Title : Golf: Eagles’ freshman Steve Wagner shoots 73; teammate Kellee Booth wins girls’ competition again.

Mark Foster and Kellee Booth, the top two golfers in Santa Margarita’s lineup, compared scores Monday as they walked back to the clubhouse at Stockdale Country Club. They didn’t like what they were hearing.

Foster shot four-over-par 75; Booth shot 79, and both feared their team’s chances for a CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. championship might be ruined.

Needless stress.

Saved by the bottom of its lineup, Santa Margarita had a 20-over 375 total, giving the Eagles the team title by five strokes over second-place Del Mar Torrey Pines.

Palm Desert, the team that beat Santa Margarita by 10 strokes at the Southern Section title two weeks ago, finished third with 386.

“This has been a great week,” said Foster, a senior. “Graduate Saturday and win State on Monday.”

Later in the afternoon, Booth added to Santa Margarita’s celebration by defending her girls’ individual title. Booth, a junior who was the top-ranked girl in the nation last year, shot a three-over 74 from the women’s tees to beat 1991 winner Betty Chen of Palm Desert by two strokes.

Chen, who also shot 79 in the morning, and Booth were the only golfers to play 36 holes Monday.

It was the second consecutive season that a team from Orange County has won the CIF-SCGA title. Defending champion Trabuco Hills, which finished the season ranked No. 1 in the county coaches’ poll, finished fifth Monday with 390.

Santa Margarita was ranked second in the county poll and several players mentioned the rankings between congratulatory handshakes.

The Eagles won with depth--all five of their scorers shot in the 70s. Steve Wagner, a 14-year-old freshman, led the way, shooting two-over 73, the low score for a county golfer, on the 6,400-yard course.

Wagner has played solidly all season, so his score wasn’t a surprise, but junior Ben Bost and senior Mike Laity, who have been erratic, each shot 74.

“We didn’t know what to expect from them,” Foster said. “They’ve been up and down. These are the best scores either of them have had all year.”

Santa Margarita Coach Dave Duran was absent because he is in Hawaii playing in a golf tournament. Junior varsity coach Tim O’Hara filled in for Duran, a golf professional at El Niguel Country Club. O’Hara said the tournament in Hawaii was a professional obligation for Duran.

“He’d rather be here, really he said he would,” O’Hara said. “But he predicted that since he wouldn’t be here, they would win it and I’m sure he’ll be excited.”

Although Trabuco Hills wasn’t able to defend its title, the Mustangs had four players in the 70s: seniors Mark Mignone (75), Zachary Allen (76), Brett Poulos (79) and Justin Grandy (79).

With Southern Section individual champion Tiger Woods of Western at Valencia Country Club trying to qualify for the U.S. Open, the boys’ individual title was won by Mike Samoles of San Diego Patrick Henry with a three-under 68.

Esperanza junior Chris Berry shot 74, finishing in a four-way tie for seventh. Terry Noe, a freshman from Sunny Hills, and Jeffrey McGraw, a freshman from Servite, each shot 75.

Notes

Laguna Hills’ Eunice Choi, who will attend UCLA next fall, shot 79 to finish in a three-way tie for third place in the girls’ individual competition. Choi was tied with Jenny Glasgow of Corona del Mar and Linda Ishii of Westlake Villa Westlake. The remaining Orange County girls were Canyon’s Jessica Stiles (85), Trabuco Hills’ Candida Kim (89), Laguna Hills’ Stephanie Donihue (90), Trabuco Hills’ Brandi Harms (90) and Rosary’s Heidi Ann Horvath (101). . . . Other county boys were Valencia’s John Lee (77), Esperanza’s Ryan Donovan (78), Irvine’s Rick Redding (78), Los Alamitos’ Bret Yunker (78) and Marina’s Paul Ohshima (82).