Watching While Seniors Swing (Pro Golfers, of Course)

I love golf. Love everything about it. Scatter my ashes at Pebble Beach.

I never leave the course after 18 holes that I don’t feel exhilarated. If I played well, I feel great about it. If I played poorly, I feel great that it’s over.

On my first job interview here years ago, I spent my free afternoon checking out the golf courses. When I had an overnight assignment in Dallas, I used up the only two hours of daylight available to head out to Preston Trail, just to walk along some of the holes made famous by TV.

My cousin Terry loves to tell about the time we drove through Chicago and I made him get out after midnight, flashlight in hand, to see the place where I hit my only hole in one, at the 5th Army headquarters complex.

So you can bet I’ll be around somewhere when the PGA senior tour stops at the Newport Beach Country Club next week. It’s a welcome boost to an economy that needs one, and a nice bonus for the county’s burgeoning golfing community.

Because I’m a baby boomer, my golfing heroes are the fellows on the senior tour--the Lee Trevinos and Dave Stocktons--who played the regular tour when I had more time to follow it closely (before I had kids). Chi Chi Rodriguez was the first pro I ever saw get a birdie 34 years ago. Chi Chi is penciled in for Newport.

George Archer, last year’s winner, is back to defend. Recently our family stopped for lunch at Applebee’s Restaurant in Gilroy, en route to San Francisco. An entire wall there is filled with Archer golfing memorabilia. He’s Gilroy’s favorite son. George must get free meals there when he’s off the road.

The tournament runs Friday through Sunday, March 15-17. But there are pre-tourney events Monday through Thursday, and good golf to watch in practice rounds. If you haven’t been to a pro tournament, be prepared to be amazed. The round bellies, as Trevino calls them, still play a marvelous game.

Remembrances of a Young Girl: One of the most extraordinary stories of our century touches Orange County next week. And I have to confess that when I first heard the name Miep Gies, I had to be reminded who she was. Gies, now 87, was the Catholic who risked her life to hide young Anne Frank and other Jews in the Netherlands from Nazi soldiers. You’d have to be made of stone not to be moved by Anne Frank’s diary from that time, which has since been read by tens of millions in book form.

After Anne Frank and other family members were captured, it was Gies who found the girl’s diary in the attic of the secret annex where the family had been hiding. Gies eventually turned it over to Anne’s father, who had somehow survived the concentration camp in Auschwitz. After learning that his wife and both daughters had been killed in similar camps, he had the diary published.

Gies will speak at the Freedman Forum Theater at Anaheim’s Civic Center on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (admission $12.50). It’s a prologue to the April 13 opening of the “Anne Frank in the World” educational exhibition at the Fullerton Museum Center. That’s the same exhibit that was a huge hit at the Newport Harbor Art Museum last spring.

Most Women For: The Great American Write-In today at UC Irvine’s University Club is an annual issues forum put on by Women For: Orange County. That’s an umbrella group whose members are as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union, the United Nations Assn. and Concerned Citizens of Leisure World. Everybody’s welcome, it says, with three exceptions: “Organizations may not be anti-choice (on abortion), racist or sexist.”

Maximum Exposure: The Edwards 21 Imax kick-off with “Wings of Courage” is Tuesday, with a few $100 tickets (dinner included) still available. Proceeds go to the Orangewood Children’s Home Foundation and Child Help U.S.A.

But there’s a second Imax benefit Thursday ($35 with dinner included). This one’s for the local Public Schools Fund Committee, with a choice of Imax movies: “Wings of Courage” or “Into the Deep.” You can buy your tickets for this one at the door too.

Irish South: The city of Los Angeles has picked its Irishman and Irishwoman of the Year for Irish Day Civic Ceremonies on March 15 at its City Hall. And both of them are from across the line--in Orange County. Honoree Tom Heneghan of Irvine is regional marketing director for the Irish Tourist Board. Monica Keogh is founder and president of the Irish Council of Multi-cultural Arts in Orange County. . . .

If you want more Irish, Begley & Cooney sing original Irish music in two shows tonight (7 and 9) at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library ($5).

Wrap-Up: My own favorite golf story: I somehow convinced my wife, Vicky, in our dating days to attend Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial pro tournament near Columbus, Ohio. We’re at the second hole, a downhill par 4, the green surrounded on three sides by a winding stream. Vicky, not a golfer, murmurs, “I want to see someone hit it into that creek.”

The whole hillside of spectators sitting around us glared at her, as if she’d uttered heresy. The poor doomed soul hitting next was George Burns, a young golfer who’d once almost won the U.S. Open. The glares penetrated our direction again after Burns’ ball took a spin off the bank of the green and plunked into the water.

Fortunately, the dejected Burns didn’t spot Vicky’s “thumbs up” sign.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.