GOLF / STEVE ELLING : Injury Puts Drive Back in Chang

Sit-ups, knee bends, toe-raises and jumping jacks are a part of Jerry Chang’s daily regimen, which makes him an unqualified anomaly.

Chang is a golfer, mind you.

Most players don’t like to sweat involuntarily, much less on a voluntary basis. It isn’t exactly a sport where guys are nicknamed No-Neck.

For Chang to continue to play the game, exercise must remain a constant. Six nights a week, he visits the gym, because he has no choice.

Rough is not the cursed, club-twisting grass that parallels the fairway. Rough is being 20 years old and not being able to tie your shoes.

“It’s been a rough couple of years,” Chang said. “Real rough.”

Eighteen months ago, Chang wrenched his back, and the Westlake High graduate’s playing career at Stanford came to a screeching stop, just when it had started to gain momentum.

Earlier this month, the rebuilding process continued when Chang won the California Stroke Play Championship at La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc. Chang made up a nine-shot deficit under windy conditions in the final round and won the title with a birdie on the first hole of a sudden death playoff.

“I just felt I was lucky to be there,” Chang said, admitting his nerves were frazzled from the long layoff. “I kept thinking, ‘I’m here for fun,’ and tried to keep the pressure off myself.”

The most pervasive injuries on the PGA Tour are to the hand, wrist and back. Those, of course, are play-related, largely attributable to wear and tear associated with the swing and the club’s impact with the ground.

Chang isn’t sure how he hurt his back. It might have happened when he crashed his bicycle, or when he got banged around while playing touch football. It might have happened on the golf course.

At any rate, soreness gradually gave way to stiffness. Before he knew it, he could hardly bend over to get his ball out of the cup.

After making the Stanford team as a walk-on in the fall of 1991, Chang began making appearances in the varsity lineup as a true freshman. Stanford eventually won the Pacific 10 championship and Chang was one of the starters. By his sophomore year, he was a regular.

After the injury in 1993, Chang was advised to take a year off to rehabilitate. Funny thing about deprivation. Taking something away from a player often creates renewed hunger.

“I definitely have a new appreciation for golf,” Chang said. “When you can’t do something you’ve always been able to, it’s really hard.”

The timing of the injury was terrible. Stanford won the NCAA Division I title two months ago. Chang lost his spot on the team, which lost one player to graduation heading into next year and already has landed the nation’s top junior, Tiger Woods.

“It might be difficult to get back in that lineup,” Chang said.

No worries.

Chang is thrilled to be playing at all. After strengthening his back muscles, Chang began to play when the spring semester ended. Already, he has chalked up a tournament victory.

Who knows, if Chang gets stronger, this might have a happy ending. Most important, though, he isn’t taking the sport for granted.

“My passion to play was lost,” he said. “When I play now, I really enjoy it. I look forward to it.”

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Holding pattern: Heidi Voorhees of Valley Village is unable to pinpoint the reason she doesn’t feel ready to take a crack at the LPGA Tour’s qualifying school. Truthfully, there’s probably more than one.

Playing earlier this month in the Lady Ping Championship in Canton, Mass., Voorhees shot 72-71 and was the lone amateur to make the 36-hole cut. Things didn’t proceed quite as smoothly thereafter.

On the 11th hole of the third round, Voorhees was penalized two shots for slow play. Voorhees was even par for the day at the time but ballooned to a 79.

“The LPGA Tour is so political,” Voorhees said. “Three holes later, play was all backed up again.”

The next morning was worse.

The field after the cut was an odd-number total, and the tour sent players out in twosomes. Voorhees was the odd woman out. Rather than designate one threesome, tour officials elected to send Voorhees out alone in the final round.

She was the first player to tee off, shot 80, and finished last. Some experience.

So it isn’t surprising that Voorhees, who graduated from USC in the spring and turns 22 Saturday, has decided not to enroll in Q-school, a three-stage process that begins Aug. 30 in Venice, Fla.

She planned to use her performance in various tournaments over the summer as a yardstick. She doesn’t feel ready.

“It really isn’t any one reason,” Voorhees said. “I just feel I need some more tournament experience under my belt. I’ve got plenty of time to turn pro.”

Call the next 12 months her season of seasoning. Voorhees said she plans to play in several mini-tour and amateur events over the next year.

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On the other hand: Emilee Klein of Studio City, a former teammate of Voorhees at Notre Dame High, advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship last week in Hot Springs, Va., her final amateur event.

Klein, the NCAA individual champion last season at Arizona State, will attend LPGA qualifying school as planned.

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Role reversal: What’s wrong with the following statement?

Hey, Duffy, when you’re through spit-shining my spikes and wiping down the clubs, put the bag in the trunk and go get me a beer. And lose that obnoxious hat.

Duffy Waldorf, caddie?

Waldorf, a PGA Tour standout and a Taft High graduate, carried the bag of a friend last week at a U.S. Amateur qualifier at Rio Bravo Country Club in Bakersfield.

Waldorf lives in Saugus. His buddy, Mike Nubel, plays out of Valencia Country Club.

Great advice from the caddie.

So-so execution by the player.

Nubel shot 75-78 and failed to advance.

“The only problem was that I couldn’t use him to hit some of my shots,” Nubel told the Newhall Signal. “Nobody would buy that.”

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On further review: Mitch Voges of Simi Valley finally got off the fence.

Voges decided to use his exemption to play next week in the U.S. Amateur in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Voges, the 1991 Amateur champion, hasn’t played seriously in months but decided he couldn’t pass up the event.

Because of the lengthy competitive layoff, he was uncertain whether his game was in shape. It probably isn’t. Voges started practicing 10 days ago.

He’s going anyway.

“It’s just an opportunity where if I looked back, I’d have wished I’d gone,” Voges said.

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Home cooking: Here’s to familiarity.

David Saylor of West Hills has won a pair of prestigious qualifying events at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley in a span of two months. Last week, he won a U.S. Amateur qualifier and earlier this summer, he won a State Amateur championship qualifier.

If he could only do as well when the championship flag drops: He missed the 36-hole cut at the State Amateur in Pebble Beach.