Finding Your Competitive Drive Time

No matter the stakes, heated competition is a regular part of golf. Play in some weekly foursomes can be just as cutthroat as the U.S. Open, even without knee-deep rough and super-slick greens.

Add handicaps to the mix and players of unequal abilities can compete on a level field. For some, it’s enough to match skills with friends, but others relish greater challenges.

In the extreme, this competitive fire can lead to the PGA, LPGA or Senior PGA tours. Amateurs of superior talent can shoot for playing in USGA national championships or locally in Southern California Golf Assn. championships.

Golf Digest magazine is sponsoring a competition for the rest of us. Called the Golf Digest National Amateur Challenge, the event is holding local qualifying through July at a number of Southland courses.

Golfers in the five divisions--men’s, women’s, men’s senior (55 and older), women’s senior (50 and older) and super senior (men and women 65 and older)--will play 18 holes. The lowest net (handicapped) score in each division will advance to a regional tournament in September. Regional winners advance to the three-round national finals at Palmetto Dunes in Hilton Head, S.C., Oct. 25-29.

The one-time entry fee of $50 doesn’t include green fees but does buy you a dozen Top-Flite balls and a Rick Smith instruction video. For entry information, call (800) 321-6812.

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Another competitive option is the Orange County Amateur Championship, which will be held Aug. 24-31, leaving plenty of time to get that rusty game in shape.

The tournament, run by Irvine resident Richard Lowder’s Special Tee Promotions, moves to Irvine’s Rancho San Joaquin for its second year. Coyote Hills in Fullerton was the site last year, but Lowder said high green fees at Coyote Hills forced a switch.

Lowder, a former teacher and principal in Tustin, is modeling his tournament after the popular Long Beach city tournaments. During his pre-tournament research, he found that a one-day county amateur championship was held at Coto de Caza in the early part of this decade. He quickly discovered why such an event didn’t survive.

“I found out the reason is you can’t get a course in this county,” Lowder said. “No one wants to give up their times, or they want to charge a premium price.”

Lowder drew 130 players for the tournament last year and hopes to increase the field to about 300 this year. The format is three rounds of stroke play with the lowest 25% in each flight qualifying for the championship round Aug. 31. There are championship and handicapped flights in men’s and women’s divisions and three handicapped flights in two senior age groups (55-64 and 65 and older).

For information, call (949) 477-4056.

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Eugene Albertini, a lawyer from Newport Beach, missed the cut in the senior division in last year’s county amateur championship and is returning for another try. Albertini, who has a 6.9 index (“I’m just about the world’s worst 6.9 now,” he said. “I’m just a total basket case.”), said he enjoys tournament play because players’ etiquette is so much better.

Here no one stands behind you, throws shadows or walks over your putting line, Albertini said. In other venues, because of those distractions, “You don’t focus, you don’t stay in tune with your game,” he said, “and as a consequence you shoot a higher score than you would otherwise.”

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U.S. Women’s Open: Five players with Orange County connections are entered this week at Blackwolf Run Golf course in Kohler, Wis. They are: Muffin Spencer-Devlin (Laguna Beach resident), Pearl Sinn (Huntington Beach resident), Amy Fruhwirth (Cypress High), Kim Saiki (Ocean View High) and Kellee Booth (Santa Margarita High).

It will be the fifth open as an amateur for Booth, who qualified because she was named a member of the 1988 U.S. Curtis Cup team.

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Junior major: Many of the best young golfers in the world will compete next week at Coto de Caza at the Rolex Tournament of Champions, run by the American Junior Golf Assn.

The 72-hole invitation-only tournament, which runs Monday through July 10, will feature 120 players representing 28 states, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand.

Notes

Bob Jacobson of Fountain Valley qualified for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship by shooting four-under-par 140 in two rounds Monday at Menifee Lakes. Jacobson, who shot 66-74, tied for fifth with two others to win one of seven spots in the championship, which will be played July 13-18 at Torrey Pines. . . . The semifinals and final of the Power Drive Pro/Am Long Drive Competition are scheduled for Saturday at NorthWood Golf Center in Irvine. The competition starts at 10 a.m. with the final following at noon. . . . Tijeras Creek has hired Dave Johansen as its superintendent. Johansen, of Irvine, started his agronomy career at Tustin Ranch in 1988 and comes to Tijeras Creek from Empire Lakes in Rancho Cucamonga.

The Orange County Golf Notebook runs regularly. Suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Martin.Beck@latimes.com