GOLF / STEVE ELLING : Berganio Can Cash In Without Going Pro

Dave Berganio has a decision to make. To wit, measuring the pros and cons of turning pro.

Last week, Berganio, 24, won the U.S. Public Links Championship for the second time in three years. He arrived back in his hometown of Sylmar over the weekend and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.

Included among the callers was a representative from International Management Group. The high-powered group represents top professionals in a variety of sports, stars such as Greg Norman, Nick Price, Curtis Strange, Darryl Strawberry and Monica Seles.

It seems the group would like to add Berganio to their honor roll and has been pestering him for months.

As exciting as this may seem, Berganio can’t sign with an agent without losing his amateur status. Besides, he isn’t sure he wants to turn pro yet, even though he admit it’s his “lifelong dream.”

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I’ve got to make a decision.”

Berganio was a first-team All-American and the Pacific 10 Conference player of the year last spring at Arizona, but his college eligibility has expired. The biggest amateur carrot dangling in front of him at the moment is an exemption to play at The Masters in April, which he earned with the Publinks victory.

If he decides to turn pro, he will attend PGA Tour Qualifying School in the fall, but participation in the school would nix the Masters exemption.

“I don’t know whether to (turn pro) now or wait another year,” he said.

Something that could push him toward the ranks of the professionals also came via telephone this week. Berganio was contacted by Vinny Giles, captain of the U.S. Walker Cup team.

Berganio’s long-range goal for months has been to earn a berth on the Walker Cup team, composed of 10 of the nation’s best amateurs. Selection to the team is the crowning achievement of many amateur careers.

The Walker Cup is held every two years and pits the U.S. team against a squad of top Europeans. Those who have participated in the event, such as Mitch Voges of Simi Valley, claim the thrill is second to none. This year’s Walker Cup matches will be held Aug. 18-19 at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn.

Berganio was denied a spot on the Cup team after winning the Publinks in 1991, in part because of his fiery demeanor, but seems to have the inside track this time.

Nothing is official--the U.S. Golf Assn.’s announcement on team membership is scheduled for Aug. 8--but Giles said that a team uniform has been ordered in Berganio’s size.

“That’s always a good sign,” Berganio said.

*

Canadian club: Four players from the region will compete next week in the 27th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Shaughnessy Golf Club in Vancouver, B.C.

Longtime area standouts Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, Mike Turner of Woodland Hills, Charlie Wi of Thousand Oaks and Jim Lundstrom of Mission Hills are among 90 players entered in the event, one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments played on the West Coast.

The Pacific Coast is a four-day, stroke-play event. Each of the golf associations in the West sends a team of representatives, with the number of players depending on the size of the organization. The populous Southern California Golf Assn. is sending Wi and Steinberg, among its group of eight representatives. Turner and Lundstrom represent the Southern California Public Links Golf Assn., which is sending four players.

Also, each organization designates three of its players to compete in the Morse Cup, a team event that pits the organizations against one another. The Morse Cup is played over the first two rounds and a player’s score counts toward both his team and individual scoring.

Steinberg will play for the SCGA Morse Cup team along with NCAA champion Todd Demsey of Rancho Santa Fe and Craig Anderson of Fallbrook. The Public Links threesome hasn’t been announced. The four-day tournament begins Tuesday.

Berganio won the Pacific Coast individual title in 1991, but this year will play in the Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, N.Y.

*

Don of a new day: Don Baker of Canoga Park turned in the top individual performance among area players in last weekend’s SCGA Amateur at Brentwood Country Club.

Baker, 41, shot a four-round total of 294 to finish tied for 10th.

To say that Baker is accustomed to the rigors of tournament play would be an understatement. Baker played at USC with a guy named Craig Stadler, then turned professional. He played on the PGA Tour from 1977-78 before realizing he “needed to get a real job.”

Baker’s best finish was 38th at the 1977 Southern Open in Columbus, Ga. He later regained his amateur status.

“I wasn’t making a living on tour,” Baker said with a smile. “That’s why I’m out here. But it was a lot of fun.”

*

Encore performance: Second verse, same as the first.

Armed with the two-year exemption he earned as the U.S. Amateur champion in 1991, Voges played in the 122nd British Open last week at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England.

Hero Sandwich, he wasn’t.

Voges missed the cut for the second time in as many appearances, despite playing some pretty solid golf. If the preceding sounds somewhat contradictory, then you don’t understand the capricious nature of the British links courses.

“I landed in London and when we drove to the course, it looked like we went through Sherwood Forest,” Voges said. “When we got there, it looked like the surface of the moon.”

Howling winds can change holes from a driver/eight iron to driver/two iron in a matter of minutes. Pot bunkers and fairway moguls can swallow or misdirect shots in the blink of an eye. Good shots repeatedly bounce into nasty places, Voges said. Blind shots abound.

The topography around Sandwich is barren and bland, to say the least. Voges said that Seve Ballesteros, standing on the first tee, asked aloud, “Where’s the golf course?”

Voges said he generally struck the ball well, and in fact, birdied the first two holes in the opening round Thursday. But before officials could place his name on the leader board, he went on a bogey binge and finished with a 10-over-par 80. He followed with a second-round 75 that included--just to send him packing with a bitter taste in his mouth--a four-putt disaster on the 18th green.

Alas, others struggled as well. Steve Pate, a Ventura County resident and a former UCLA star, recounted part of his first-round misery to Voges afterward. Pate, one of the PGA Tour’s top earnings leaders over the past few years, made a quadruple-bogey seven on the par-3 third hole.

Voges: “What happened?”

Pate: “I hit it in the bush.”

Voges: “You know, I don’t remember seeing a bush on the whole course.”

Pate: “There’s one bush, I was in it, and it took me four shots to get out.”

Pate shot 79-69 and also missed the cut.

*

City slickers: Its title may be the Ventura City Championships, but it was a pair of interlopers from Camarillo who stole the show.

Alan Stearns shot rounds of 70 and 69 to edge Jim Tassano by five shots last weekend at Buenaventura and Olivas Park courses in Ventura. Both are from Camarillo.

Stearns, 20, grabbed the lead early and wouldn’t let go. His total of 139 surpassed the tournament record by one shot. On the back nine of the final round at Olivas Park, Stearns, a Rio Mesa High graduate, needed only 10 putts and held any last-minute hopefuls at bay.

“He made everything he saw,” said Robert Capelli, an assistant pro at Olivas Park.

Tassano’s entry was a bit of a surprise.

All things considered, Tassano, 35, would rather have been elsewhere. On Friday, Tassano fired rounds of 77 and 81 in the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship at Brentwood Country Club.

As a result, Tassano missed the 36-hole cut. Had he qualified for weekend competition in the SCGA, he couldn’t have played in the Ventura City tournament.

*

Pavin the way: The doors at Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club in Camarillo have been opened for only a few weeks, but a famous area player already has left his stamp on the private track.

PGA Tour veteran Corey Pavin, a former UCLA standout and the best player Ventura County ever produced, played a round at the par-71 course earlier this month.

He shot a course-record 66.

*

Cha-ching: At the Media City Center mall in Burbank, a golfer will drive away in a showroom-new Nissan Sentra.

As a fund-raiser for the American Red Cross, golfers donate 50 cents for a shot at the car. Players who sink a 32-foot putt on one of the indoor greens is handed one of 500 keys to the Nissan.

On July 31, the player holding the key that opens the car door gets to keep the vehicle. Information: 818-842-5295.