GOLF / STEVE ELLING : O’Brien’s Present to Grandpa a Big Hit

There haven’t been many smiles lately around the Jones household in Van Nuys.

Biff Jones, the kind of guy who won’t go to the doctor unless someone is dragging him by the collar, has been laid up with heart trouble for some time.

Cabin fever has set in.

“He loves to play golf,” said Susan O’Brien, Jones’ daughter. “He really misses not being able to get out.”

Sunday was a boffo day for Biff, not to mention his grandson, Shane O’Brien of Valencia.

Late that afternoon, O’Brien walked through the door of his grandparents’ home and handed Jones the trophy he earned earlier in the day for winning the L.A. City Men’s Championship at Rancho Park Golf Course.

O’Brien’s mother Susan said her son was “on cloud nine.” His gesture gave the entire family a big lift.

It was Jones’ 72nd birthday.

“It made my mom cry,” Susan O’Brien said.

Shane acknowledged his grandfather’s support when he presented the trophy.

“He was very inspirational,” Shane said. “He’s done a lot for me over the years, you know, being my grandpa.”

The present was a big hit. So are most of O’Brien’s tee shots.

O’Brien, a 1991 graduate of Hart High who attended College of the Canyons for the past three years, has achieved a measure of notoriety for his startling performances in long-drive contests. Opponents half-jokingly refer to the 6-foot-4, 240-pound golfer as “that football player,” which he isn’t.

Neither is he a lumbering masher on a baseball team, though he calls himself a “power hitter.”

O’Brien, 20, can jolt a golf ball more than 300 yards.

But acreage aside, that’s only a small fraction of the game. Sunday, he put it all together with a scintillating seven-under-par 64 at Rancho, his lowest competitive round ever.

Imagine what the afternoon was like for Bob Valerio of Hawthorne, the 54-hole leader at 214 after rounds at Harding, Wilson and Rancho golf courses. Valerio, paired with O’Brien, started Sunday with a two-stroke lead, shot 69 . . . and lost by two shots.

“I kind of felt sorry for him,” O’Brien said. “He played great. I bet if you’d have asked him if he’d take 69 in the final round, he would have taken it and walked off the course.”

Instead, O’Brien ran him off. Through 12 holes, Valerio still held a one-shot lead. But O’Brien promptly birdied the next three holes.

Valerio walked a few yards ahead of O’Brien on the par-four 15th hole as the latter hit a wedge to the green. It stopped four feet from the stick.

Give Valerio credit, he knows when his goose is cooked. After O’Brien hit the approach shot, Valerio grabbed a white towel, waved it over his head and yelled, “No more, no more.”

By the time O’Brien got home, his mother said he was “just glowing,” which is only appropriate, since O’Brien nuked the back nine with a five-under 31.

Keep in mind that during a pro tournament at Rancho, Arnold Palmer once made a 12 on the par-five 18th.

Asked how he made a 12, Palmer said: “I missed a three-footer for an 11.”

There were no lapses for O’Brien. His name will be inscribed on a perpetual trophy that includes previous champions Al Geiberger, Duffy Waldorf and Corey Pavin. Geiberger once shot 59 in a PGA Tour event.

O’Brien, who has signed a letter of intent to play next fall at Cal State Northridge, experienced the same sense of infallibility.

He hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation Sunday, recorded six birdies, an eagle and needed a mere 27 putts. He routinely hammered the ball off the tee in the 315-yard range.

“I couldn’t do anything wrong,” O’Brien said.

“I’ve played golf for a lot of years and you always think you’re capable of something like this if everything goes right. Then you do it, and now I can’t even describe what it feels like.”

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Grass is greener: Icy, hard and unpredictable.

Putting greens at a tough country club course? Nope, Heidi Voorhees’ aborted first sport, ice skating.

Voorhees’ mother, Joanie, was born in Canada and skated in the Ice Capades for a decade. When Heidi happened along, it was only natural that mom had her fitted for skates.

Heidi, who lives in Valley Village, started skating when she was 3.

Voorhees, one of the nation’s top female amateurs, didn’t exactly warm to the sport. Then, not many Californians do.

“I guess I like being outdoors,” she said.

Said her mom: “Maybe I pushed her too hard. She used to cry.”

Voorhees does the pushing now, on the course. Last weekend, she placed second in the Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship at Tam O’Shanter Golf Club in Canton, Ohio.

Voorhees, 21, was beaten in the match-play final by former USC teammate Jill McGill of Denver, 6 and 4. Both completed their eligibility in the spring.

McGill is playing in the Walker Cup matches later this month in Chattanooga, Tenn., on an eight-member U.S. team that includes Emilee Klein of Studio City. Voorhees is an alternate.

Obviously, even mother has to admit that things worked out for the best.

“Nobody ever got a scholarship to USC for ice skating,” Joanie cracked.

McGill’s victory in the Publinx marked the second time this summer that she knocked off an area player in a national tournament.

Earlier this month, she defeated Andrea Gaston, 36, of Canoga Park in the match play final of the 53rd Broadmoor Women’s Championship in Colorado Springs with a 3-and-2 decision.

Gaston won the Long Beach City Women’s Championship over the weekend with a 54-hole total of 220.

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A leg up: Jim Patterson of Camarillo failed to make the cut at last week’s 3rd State Senior Amateur Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach. He missed by one stroke.

Heck, being there at all ranks as a notable achievement.

Patterson, 68, has had both knees replaced with artificial joints over the past five years, which doesn’t exactly make a difficult game any easier. Particularly in a damp coastal climate.

“Cold weather’s miserable,” he said. “They feel pretty good when it’s warm, though.”

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Pied Piper of Pebble: Apparently, Charlie Wi’s popularity knows no bounds. It even transcends bloodlines.

When Mark Johnson of Helendale walked off the driving range last Friday moments before facing the affable Wi in the match play round of 16 at the 83rd State Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links, he found his children milling around Wi on the practice putting green.

Wi, who lives in North Hills, was dispatched by Johnson, 4 and 3. But there’s still some doubt as to who is more popular in the Johnson household.

“They told me (Thursday night), ‘Dad, we want Charlie to win,’ ” Johnson said. “I told them, ‘Aw, just root for both of us to play well.’ ”

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Upon further review: The men’s course record of 64 at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills, according to a book called “California Golf,” was held by current pro David Berganio Jr. of Sylmar.

It was broken last spring by Granada Hills High standout Darren Angel, who shot a nine-under-par 63.

Then again, maybe not.

Dr. George Fee, a chiropractor from Canoga Park and a former captain of the Granada Hills golf team, says a teammate shot 61 during a round at Knollwood in 1973.

Fee said the round by Bruce Jacobson was verified by his playing partners and that a note on Jacobson’s feat appeared in Golf Digest magazine. But at public courses, tracking records isn’t the No. 1 priority.

“The course record is as good as the memory of the cashier,” Fee cracked.