SOUTHERN SECTION INDIVIDUAL GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP : Dickey Gets Nervous but Finishes Seventh : Preps: Huntington Beach High player is among nine from county to qualify for CIF-SCGA individual tournament.

Huntington Beach High junior Perry Dickey didn’t feel much pressure before the Southern Section individual golf championship Monday.

The pressure came later. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect too much from myself,” Dickey said. “Then I realized I was doing well and I got nervous.”

Dickey, the Sunset League champion, held on to shoot one-over-par 73 on the 6,869-yard course at Canyon Country Club. Dickey, playing in the same group as champion Vic Placeres of Whittier La Serna, was two-under par after 13 holes, but hit his drive off the fairway behind a tree and hit the tree on his next shot trying to split a gap in the branches. He took a double-bogey six. He scrambled to save par with a nice chip and five-foot putt on his 17th hole, then bogeyed his 18th.

“I’ve been practicing a lot, and it’s finally starting to pay off for me,” Dickey said.

Placeres, who plays in the junior program at Fullerton Municipal Golf Course, had four birdies and no bogeys for a 68. The score, four shots better than any other player, equaled the rounds Western’s Tiger Woods shot on the same course when he won in 1991 and 1993.

Without Woods, who is now at Stanford, Orange County lacked a presence high on the leaderboard, but nine players from the county qualified for the CIF-Southern California Golf Assn. championships June 7 at Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego.

Dickey finished in a three-way tie for fifth, but left before the playoff and finished seventh.

Mater Dei’s Scott Jordan, the South Coast League champion, and Santa Margarita’s Greg Pittenger shot 74. Valencia’s John Lee, Santa Margarita’s Nicholas Fritz and Esperanza’s Ryan Donovan had 75.

Servite’s Jeff McGraw, Golden West League champion, Valencia’s James Wooley shot 76.

Sunny Hills’ Terry Noe, who finished in a tie for second last year, played in an American Junior Golf Assn. tournament in Phoenix over the weekend, finishing second after making a playoff. Monday, Noe shot 77 and then won a playoff by making a birdie on the first extra hole.

Noe was one of 12 players at 77, competing for the final two spots in the CIF-SCGA individual tournament. San Clemente’s Jason Gross and La Quinta’s Alex Yi also were among that group but did not qualify.

Donovan flirted with a lower score. He shot two-under 33 for the front nine, but it slipped away on the back. He bogeyed 10, 12, 14 and had a double bogey on 17. Still, he had four birdies in his round and advanced.

The last two years, Donovan missed by coming up short in the large playoff.

Sunny Hills’ Jenny Lee, the only girl in the competition, shot 78. She won the girls’ division of the AJGA tournament in Phoenix last weekend. Eric Wang of Cypress, Bill Bodensteiner of University and Chris Porter of Valencia also shot 78, the only other county players to break 80.