GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Rain Gauges Record Par at These Courses

On Southern California golf courses, does casual water mean no coat and tie?

There’s a lot of water, casual and otherwise, on the fairways, on the greens, in the bunkers and just about everywhere else as a result of the week’s rain.

Among the hardest hit courses were the municipal layouts at the Sepulveda Dam, the Encino, Balboa and Woodley courses.

Encino may open nine holes next week. Balboa and Woodley opened Friday, but not for carts, which are banned because of the soft ground.

The Encino course is no stranger to high water. It was also flooded in 1992, 1989, 1982 and 1978.

Rancho Park, another municipal course, was closed all week. Trees were down on the first, third and seventh fairways. The No. 4 fairway was under water .

There has been 13 inches of rain at Riviera since Jan. 3, according to Bill Baker, the club’s course superintendent. Baker said the course has handled the water well, which is good news since Riviera is the site of two pro tournaments this year--the Nissan Open in February and the PGA Championship in August.

Some cart paths were washed out and one tree was blown over but otherwise Riviera suffered no damage.

“Considering the amount of water, it’s handled the situation very, very well,” Baker said.

Meanwhile, Riviera’s greens may actually benefit from the rain. Baker said it has cleansed the soil profile. The greens were rebuilt in 1993 in anticipation of the PGA Championship, but there have been problems. They were slow to fill in and weren’t solidly established last summer.

“The greens have been a concern,” Baker said. “We’re making progress, though. We’ll be ready for the Nissan and the PGA. The usual response when people see the greens is, ‘Gosh, I thought they were a lot worse.’ ”

*

A Scottish fling: Arnold Palmer plans on taking a trip to Scotland next summer to play in what he says will be his last British Open.

Actually, he was a little more emphatic about it.

“I can promise you it will be my last British Open,” said Palmer. “Unless I win it and go back and defend. But I’m not assuming I’m gonna won.”

Palmer, 65, won the British Open in 1961 and ‘62, at Royal Birkdale and at Troon. This year’s tournament will be played at St. Andrews. The closest Palmer has come to winning at St. Andrews was in 1960, when he was runner-up to Kel Nagle.

Palmer has mapped out a limited schedule, beginning with the Senior Skins Game Jan. 28-29 at the Mauna Lani Resort on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii. Palmer also will play the AT&T; at Pebble Beach and the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in the desert in February.

After the Senior PGA Tour’s FHP Health Care Classic at Ojai and the Nestle Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., in March, Palmer hasn’t committed to anything other than the British Open.

“As someone said, when you get to my age, you don’t even buy green bananas anymore, so it’s hard to plan too far down the road,” Palmer said. “I plan to play (in Scotland).I’m looking forward to it very much.”

FYI: Do you know what John Daly calls duck hooks?

Quackers.

*

Major major: Corey Pavin? The best player never to win a major. That’s what he’s becoming known as. And Pavin doesn’t shy away from the tag.

“Majors are the ultimate tournaments to win,” he said. “I don’t think they’re overrated by any means. They’re the measuring stick, not only for the media, but certainly for the players.

“I’ll feel pretty disappointed if I go through my career and not win a major championship. It’s time to do it now.”

Pavin is the defending champion of the Nissan Open, which will be played Feb. 23-26 at Riviera.

*

Give him Lee-way: Not even three months after surgery for a ruptured disk, Lee Trevino is back playing tournament golf this week at the senior tour opener in Puerto Rico.

Trevino didn’t resume playing until last week, but he plans a full schedule, including the Senior Skins Game with Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd.

He was playing a tournament in Sacramento when he heard something pop.

“I knew the sound,” he said. “I was praying to God it wasn’t what I thought it was.”

But it was. Specialists found part of a kneecap at a bone donor bank and used it in Trevino’s spine. He also has a titanium plate and four screws holding the bone in place in his spine.

Trevino, 55, said he would prefer that he won’t have to quit because of an injury.

“It was the old deal in the back of my mind, ‘Are you finished? Are you through?’ I’ll know when it’s finished. I hope it won’t be when I’m hurt.”

*

Golf Notes

Jay Sigel, the 1994 senior tour rookie of the year, will defend his title in the $750,000 FHP Health Care Classic at Ojai Valley Inn, March 3-5. Volunteers are needed for the event. Details: (805) 640-2800. . . . Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, former President Gerald Ford, Robert Wagner, Yogi Berra, Mickey Rooney, Buck Owens, Gale Sayers, Brooks Robinson and others will take part in the seventh Frank Sinatra Celebrity golf tournament Feb. 24-25 at Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert. The event benefits the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower Medical Center and Palm Springs’ Desert Hospital.

The Nabisco Dinah Shore has increased its prize money from $700,000 to $850,000 for the March 23-26 event at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Donna Andrews is the defending champion. The tournament is the first women’s major of the year, followed by the U.S. Women’s Open, the du Maurier Classic and the LPGA Championship. . . . The Skins Game will return to Bighorn Golf Club in 1995. The development’s three-year deal with Skins Game promoters expired after last year’s event, won by Tom Watson, but the agreement has been extended for a year.

Diana Quint of the San Diego Balboa Park Women’s Golf Club has been elected president of the Women’s Public Links Golf Assn. of Southern California. . . . The 21st Taco Bell Newport Classic featuring pros and Orange Country amateurs will be played Jan. 27-28 at Newport Beach Country Club. The event benefits Hoag Hospital’s emergency care unit. Details: (714) 574-7208 .

Writer Herbert Warren Wind has been chosen to receive the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Wind, 78, is best known for his essays in the New Yorker magazine. . . . The Golden State Golf Tour begins an 11-event tournament schedule March 15-17 with the Montebello Open. There are guaranteed purses on the tour for the first time in six years. . . . The Retired Military Golfers Assn., Inc., opens its 21st year with a membership/scramble at Marine Memorial Golf Club at El Toro, Jan. 23.