ORANGE COUNTY GOLF NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Booth Squeezes In a Break Between Events

Kellee Booth hasn’t had much chance to relax this summer, but this week she’s giving it a shot.

Worn out after playing 17 competitive rounds in 14 days, Booth of Coto de Caza returned home Monday with some definite plans for the week.

“I’m going to try to get together with some of my friends because I haven’t been able to do that all summer,” she said. “I’ll play some golf, hang out and try to be a kid again. It’s hard when you’re gone so much.”

She’s leaving again Friday. She is accompanying her mother, Jane, a USGA committee member, to Longmeadow, Mass., where the U.S. Junior girls’ event will start Monday.

Kellee, a 1994 graduate of Santa Margarita High, will play a little golf and try to get acclimated to the heat and humidity before she plays in the U.S. Women’s Amateur a week later at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Booth, who won the girls’ Junior in 1993 at Mesa Verde, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Amateur last year. This time her goal is to advance further and challenge for the title.

Considering how she has been playing this summer, that is a distinct possibility. Twice she has reached the match-play final of an amateur event. She made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, before struggling on the final day to finish in a tie for 57th.

The only thing missing in her game has been the strong finish. After helping Arizona State to the NCAA title in late May in Wilmington, N.C., Booth moved over to Pinehurst, where she advanced to the 36-hole final of the North-South amateur. Unfortunately for Booth, she was up against Laura Philo of Amelia Island, Fla., who made 10 birdies in 30 holes and beat Booth, 7 and 6.

Booth then took about nine days off from competition, before playing in the Western Women’s Amateur in Minneapolis. She lost in the quarterfinals to Sarah LeBrun Ingram of Nashville, Tenn.

She got another match-play opportunity at the Transnational, which ended Sunday in Nashville. Booth and Anne-Marie Knight of Australia met in the 36-hole final.

Knight was 3-up after 15 holes in the morning round, but Booth rallied to trail by one going into the afternoon. Booth took the lead with a par on the 31st hole, but she bogeyed the 33rd, 34th and 35th holes to give Knight a 2-and-1 victory.

“I finally got up in the match toward the end and I think fatigue caught up with me and I couldn’t make any key putts coming in,” Booth said. “You can’t win a tournament if you miss short putts all day.

“I played 17 rounds in 14 days and it kind of eats on your mind. Between the Open and playing in the Transnational, I just think I was mentally and physically tired. I think it was the same thing at the North-South because I was coming straight from the NCAAs.”

A warning to the Women’s Amateur field: Booth should be fresh for this championship.

*

Booth, who is exempt from Women’s Amateur qualifying this year and next because she advanced to the quarterfinals last year, will be joined by at least two other Orange County players Aug. 7-12 at The Country Club.

Sue Ewart of Seal Beach and Amy Bubon of Westminster were among 12 to qualify for the championship Tuesday at San Gabriel Country Club. Ewart shot four-over-par 79 and Bubon shot 80. Leeann Wong of Los Angeles was low qualifier.

*

So you watched the finish of the British Open on television Sunday and wondered if getting out of the green-side bunker on the Road Hole is as tough as Costantino Rocca made it look? Then you quickly dismissed playing the Old Course at St. Andrews as a pipe dream?

San Clemente’s Pete Glasheen would tell you neither feat is out of reach. Actually, Glasheen, who plays to an eight handicap, avoided the Road Hole bunker, but he did chip over it during an April trip to Scotland with his wife, Carol.

Glasheen says he shot 82, taking a bogey five on the infamous No. 17 after hitting the Plexiglass windows on the hotel with his drive.

“The ball bounced into the rough, luckily in bounds,” Glasheen said. “I hit my second shot to the left of the Road Hole bunker and I just popped over it and two putted and got my five. I thought, big deal.”

Glasheen and his wife spent a week in Scotland and also played Turnberry, Prestwick, Muirfield and Royal Dornoch. Including room, board, gas, car rental and golf, the couple spent nearly $1,700 on the trip.

They walked each course and played brisk rounds in less than three hours.

“The most wonderful thing is we saw only one golf cart in all of Scotland,” he said.

The Orange County Golf Notebook will run regularly throughout the summer. Readers are encouraged to suggest items. Call (714) 966-5904 or fax (714) 966-5663.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Drives

Here’s a look at the features that make one golf hole in Orange County stand out:

Course: Imperial

Hole: No. 17

Yardage: Blue, 182; White, 162; Red, 117

Description: The longest par-3 hole on the course is made tougher when the pin is on the right side. A pepper tree guards that side of the green and makes it difficult to get the ball near the hole.

Hint: Stay left, but not too far because your ball could roll down the hill and go out of bounds.

Quote: “If the pin is on the right side of the green it’s almost a dogleg par 3. If your ball lands behind that tree, sometimes you can’t even chip onto the green.”

--Matt Mallars, assistant professional