GOLF NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : New Practice Facility Has Look of Real Course

The fairway is wide open--save for a few immature palm trees about 250 yards away. You step up to the tee and, after a few John Daly-like practice swings, your drive is long and true.

You bag your jumbo-sized driver and take your first steps toward the distant ball.

Stop right there. It might feel like your favorite 18, but it’s not--it’s a driving range.

That’s the impression the MacArthur Place Golf Practice Center is hoping to create in the facility that is expected to be open to the public the first week of August.

“You do get a feeling of being on a golf course,” said Tim Walsh, director of golf at the facility.

Tucked between an 11-story upscale office building and the 55 freeway in Santa Ana, the 16-acre center aims to tap the market of executives who golf.

Amenities such as the fountain in the peach-and-teal courtyard and the executive locker room make it clear that this isn’t just another range.

Like other practice facilities, there is a chipping green, a bunker from which to hone sand-shot skills and a putting green.

But it also features Orange County’s first 18-hole putting course, with greens similar to those you would find on many local courses. It’s a bit like miniature golf, except your putts will break and there’s not a single windmill.

The prices--$5, $6 and $7 for a bucket to hit off mats, $8 and $10 off grass--aren’t prohibitive to the average golfer in search of a up-market experience.

“It’s geared to the executives in the area, but everyone is welcome,” said Murray Hay, the center’s president.

For regular users, there is the executive membership, which entitles members to $1 discounts on range balls, the chipping greens and putting course as well as discounts on pro shop goods. The membership is $360 per year and includes access to the locker room, a T-shirt and hat and a Southern California Golf Assn. membership.

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Hay got the idea to open the center a couple of years ago, after managing the completion of the office building. At the time, he was a vice president for the development company and plans for more buildings in the redevelopment project were put on hold because of the recession.

“I looked at all this dormant land and tried to figure out what could be done with it,” Hay said.

Although he didn’t play golf, Hay figured he would build a driving range, so he left the company, got a 10-year lease on the land and started making plans.

The center is an interim use of the land, until the developer sees demand for the “Urban Village” that is planned for the area.

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The golf professionals--four Professional Golf Assn. Class A pros--who will staff the center’s “golf academy” have strong credentials.

Walsh, the director of golf, was an assistant at Mesa Verde Country Club for four years and was named the assistant golf pro of the year by the Southern California PGA in 1992.

Jim Petralia, who was named national teacher of the year by the PGA, will be the center’s lead teacher. Petralia regularly instructs Tour professionals Steve Pate and Dave Stockton Sr.

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Chris Tidland of Placentia and Kemp Richardson of Laguna Niguel were Orange County’s highest finishers at the Southern California Golf Assn. amateur championship, which was completed Sunday.

Tidland, a first-team All-American from Oklahoma State, and Richardson each shot 295 over 72 holes at Brentwood Country Club to finish in a three-way tie for 12th with Donald Dubois of Indio.

Tidland, who shot 76-70-72-77, and Richardson, who shot 73-74-72-76, are each former Southern Section individual champions--23 years removed.

Tidland won in 1989 for Valencia High and Richardson won in 1963 for Millikan.

Richardson’s son, Scott, a former Dana Hills standout who played for Saddleback College last season, shot 299 (76-76-72-75) as did Bryan Schroeder of Irvine (77-71-75-76), Chris Veitch of Newport Beach (72-76-76-75) and Jeffrey Holt of Huntington Beach (76-75-73-75).