Six Packed at the Top

About the only way everyone who has a share of the lead in the Southern California Golf Assn. amateur championship can fit onto the top of the leaderboard is if they all hold their breath.

Six players are tied at one-under-par 209 after Saturday’s third round at Lakeside Country Club and another five are within three shots.

Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys climbed into a tie for the lead with a two-under-par 68, the only sub-par round a day after 17 such rounds.

Second-round leaders Mark Johnson of Helendale and James Camaione of Upland shot 72s and are among the magnificent six.

Ed Cuff of Temecula and Hart High graduates Jason Gore of Valencia and Jason Semelsberger of Newhall round out the leaders.

Matt Murray, a San Diego State golfer, is one stroke behind, Greg Padilla of Rancho Santa Fe and Lakeside member David Olsen are at 211 and Westlake High junior-to-be J.T. Kohut is tied with first-round leader Scott McGhion of Avondale at 212.

“I’m not surprised it’s tight,” Steinberg said. “But I am surprised there are so many guys up there.”

Tournament organizers could not recall an SCGA leaderboard so top heavy heading into the final day. Players said it is a new experience for them as well.

“I’ve never seen this many guys at the top,” said Gore, who learned Friday that he was selected to represent the United States in next month’s Walker Cup (see related story). “And it’s a good six guys. Everybody who is there should be there.”

Steinberg hit 17 of Lakeside’s notoriously small greens in regulation and made birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 4. He followed with a three-putt bogey on No. 5 and parred the last 13 holes.

He said it would take a similar round today to win.

“With six guys at one under, I have to believe somebody is going to shoot under par,” Steinberg said.

The rest of the leaders couldn’t do it Saturday.

Camaione holed a 55-foot birdie chip from a downhill lie on the 18th hole to keep a share of the lead.

Johnson’s start of bogey-birdie-double bogey-birdie summed up his inconsistent day.

Semelsberger started with consecutive birdies but scrambled for the rest of his round of 71. He hit only nine greens in regulation and had to make one-putt par saves six times, including on the 18th, when he blasted out from under the lip on a green-side bunker to within two feet of the hole.

“That’s the hardest way to play golf,” Semelsberger said.

The leaders will tee off in the final two threesomes of the day today at 9:22 a.m. and 9:30.

Hold your breath.