Area Courses Offer Deals for Juniors

Golf is an expensive pursuit and no group feels the pinch more than the young--disposable income is foreign to most junior players.

It’s a matter of concern for the golfing community, which fears that prices are discouraging youngsters from picking up the sport.

Bill Cunerty, Saddleback College golf coach and a member of the Southern California Golf Assn. board of directors, wishes there were more opportunities for local juniors. He often uses the junior program in Arizona as an example.

“Juniors there pay something like 35 bucks at the beginning of the summer and they get to play free all summer,” Cunerty said. “It’s just spectacular.”

The situation in Orange County pales in comparison, but there are plenty of reasonably priced ways to be introduced to the game.

The junior program at Fullerton Golf Course is the strongest in the county. For $25 a month, children ages 6-17 get lessons and a range-ball card worth about $40. The juniors play the course free at 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursdays and for $5 a round the rest of the time.

“They get to play pretty much all they want,” said Jamie McCance, an assistant professional and director of the program. “Kids will be here at 5 o’clock in the morning waiting for me.”

For information: (714) 871-5141.

Here is a look at junior programs at some other local public courses:

* Birch Hills in Brea offers a five-week program for $35, which features one-hour morning classes. If needed, clubs are provided. For information: (714) 990-0201.

* Lake Forest Golf and Practice Center offers a summer junior golf school during July. The school--which costs $30--meets for an hour Monday, Wednesday and Friday and three sessions are available.

The center also has an ongoing monthly junior program, which includes four lessons on Thursdays or Saturdays for $40 and league play on Fridays.

Greens fees for juniors on the center’s nine-hole executive course is $6 everyday. For information: (714) 859-1455.

* Tijeras Creek had such great response to its first summer junior clinics that it has planned another set, starting July 23. The cost is $50 for six weeks, ages 5-10 have classes Tuesday and 11-17 attend Thursdays. The course also offers a $10 rate for nine holes at 5:30 p.m. every other Tuesday (July 2 is the next opportunity). For information: (714) 589-9793.

* Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club offers a four-day camp for $80 that includes two morning hours of instruction July 8-11. The fee includes a T-shirt and the use of clubs, if necessary.

The course also offers half-price greens fees in the afternoons Monday through Thursday on its 18-hole Mesa Linda layout for children who attend Newport-Mesa School District schools. For information: (714) 540-7500.

* Dad Miller in Anaheim offers a quarterly program that costs $40 ($30 for returnees) and includes clinics, lessons and team play. Juniors in the program can play the course all day for $11.50 during the week and $13.50 on the weekends. For information: (714) 774-8055. The city’s Anaheim Hills course offers a similar program. For information: (714) 998-3041.

* Coyote Hills. Orange County’s newest public course will offer its first junior clinic on Saturdays starting Aug. 10. For $40, children from 6 to 17 will get four sessions that include 90 minutes of instruction and supervised hitting on the range. They will also get a voucher for four large buckets of range balls for practice between sessions. For information: (714) 672-6800.

Jamie Mulligan, Coyote Hills’ head professional, also runs a weeklong junior golf camp in Long Beach starting Aug. 5. For $275, junior get 40 hours of instruction, unlimited range balls and 18 holes of golf at Skylinks Golf Course for the five days of the camp. For information: (310) 833-0696.

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Huntington Beach’s Adam Ainbinder’s first two under-par rounds in competition couldn’t have come at a better time. Ainbinder, who will be a senior at Servite, shot rounds of 70 and 69 at Empire Lakes in Rancho Cucamonga, finishing five-under par and winning a PGA Junior Series Event June 13-14.

With the victory, Ainbinder qualified for the Junior World Championships, which will be held next month in San Diego.

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Kellee Booth salvaged a point for the United States at the Curtis Cup Saturday, beating Karen Stupples of the Britain-Ireland team, 3 and 2, in Killarney, Ireland.

But by that time, Britain-Ireland was well on the way to victory in the biennial competition for women amateurs. The U.S. was beaten, 11 1/2-6 1/2.

Booth, a graduate of Santa Margarita High and two-time All-American at Arizona State, teamed with Sarah LeBrun Ingram and lost a doubles match Saturday, 3 and 2, to Janice Moody and Mhairi McKay.

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Golf notes

Brian Sinay of Irvine finished second in the boys’ 13-14 division of the Nabisco Mission Hills Desert Junior tournament last week. Sinay shot 73-72-75 and finished two strokes behind winner James Oh of Lakewood. Dusty Schmidt, who will be a sophomore at Sunny Hills High, and Jin Park, who will be a senior, finished fifth and sixth in the boys’ 15-18 division. Schmidt shot 72-73-73 and finished seven strokes behind winner Brian Nosler of Lake Oswedo, Ore. Park (75-68-76) was one stroke behind Schmidt and one ahead of Jeff McGraw, who graduated from Servite this month. . . . The four sophomores on Saddleback College’s state champion golf team have earned scholarships at four-year colleges. Lee Kinney, the Orange Empire Conference player of the year, will attend Cal State Stanislaus; Luis Barrutieta will attend George Washington; Aaron Smith will attend Georgia, and Hans Jones will attend Santa Clara. Smith, from Dana Hills High, received the Grace M. Dean Memorial Scholarship, a $1,400 award establish this year by Dave and Susan Tauer in honor of Susan’s mother.

The Orange County Golf Notebook runs weekly. Readers are encouraged to suggest items. What is your favorite golf hole in the county? Your favorite teaching pro? Call (714) 966-5904, fax (714) 966-5663 or e-mail Martin.Beck@latimes.com