Amateur Golf Leader Board Fills With Familiar Names : SoCal championship: Wi, with rounds of 69 and 70, leads six local players in top 13 at halfway mark.

SANTA ANA — Two major freeways are within earshot.

The runways of the John Wayne Airport are a few blocks away.

The Orange County Fairgrounds, with its Ferris wheel twirling full bore, are located across the street.

Yet it was Charlie Wi who created the real buzz on Friday.

Wi put together a pair of superlative rounds and grabbed the early lead at the midpoint of the 96th Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship at Santa Ana Country Club.

Wi, who lives in North Hills and graduated from Westlake High in 1990, shot a two-under 69 in the morning round and followed up with a 70 in the afternoon to take a two-stroke lead over James Lundstrom of Palm Springs.

Wi, who earned NCAA All-American honors this season as a senior at California, is known for his easygoing manner and perpetual grin. And the smile on his face was positively iridescent when his score was posted.

“I’ve been third twice in this thing,” said Wi, who won the Pacific 10 Conference individual title last spring. “Hopefully, I can stay focused and get it done this time.”

He got plenty accomplished on the back nine of the morning round, when he shot a four-under 31 that started the ball rolling. The afternoon round was solid, if uneventful, by comparison.

Think this is a tough game, eh?

“I hit a lot of shots close and made some putts,” Wi said with a shrug. “That’s golf.”

Wi was not the only golfer from the area to reach the leader board. Of the top 13 players, seven are from the region.

Chad Wright of Ventura, Jason Gore of Valencia and former Cal State Northridge standout Jeff Sanday are locked in a four-way tie for fifth at 145.

Crystalaire Country Club member James Camaione (146), Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys (147) and Don Baker of Canoga Park (148) are in the top 13 and within striking distance with 36 holes to play.

Gore, playing in the same threesome as Wi, put together the day’s best round with a three-under 68 in the afternoon. The round included five birdies, and not a white-knuckle moment.

“I kept it out of the water and off the street,” said a smiling Gore, who will play at Pepperdine next season.

Gore, who won the Pac-10 individual title in 1993 and 1994 while at Arizona, didn’t play poorly in the morning, either, despite finishing with a 77 that included three double bogeys. A bit of misfortune played a part.

On the 10th hole, a relatively straightforward 508-yard par-five, Gore’s second shot ricocheted off an inch-thick metal stake that was holding up a scrawny tree. At least, that’s what he was told.

“It was a stake on a sapling or whatever you call a small tree,” Gore said. “I was looking left, but Charlie said it went off into the street.”

The ball caromed right and out of bounds. Gore double-bogeyed the hole.

There are only two saplings on the right side of the 10th fairway. What are the odds?

Pretty good, it seems.

Left-hander Mike Turner of Sherman Oaks, who made the cut at 151, hit one of the same trees on No. 10. His ball also ended up in the street and he made a triple bogey.

“A triple bogey on that hole is ridiculous,” Turner said.

Wright, who plays at USC and finished fifth individually at the NCAA championships in the spring, battled back from a 75 in the morning with a 70 in the afternoon.

Sanday, one of the pre-tournament favorites, headed in the other direction.

The reigning State Amateur champion shot 69 in the morning, good for a share of the lead with Wi and Lundstrom. Sanday birdied the first two holes in the afternoon before a balky driver got the best of him. He finished with a76.

Kelly Schlender of Ventura and Jamey Forsyth of Chatsworth (both at 150) and former Newbury Park High standout Darren Humphrey (153) also made the 42-man cut.