Carrasco’s Son Serves as Senior Open Lookout

It was Ray Carrasco’s finest moment at the U.S. Senior Open and he got to share it and the credit for it with his son Ryan.

Carrasco’s ball was on the 18th green at Riviera Country Club about 18 feet from the hole Friday during the second round. Carrasco and caddy Ryan figured he was close to making the cut in his first U.S. Senior Open, but they wanted to make sure.

Ryan, a 21-year-old senior at Princeton, picked a line with more break than his father felt comfortable with.

But Ray, a 51-year-old teaching professional from Irvine, took his son’s advice.

“He’s got a really good eye,” Ray said. “He can really putt and that helps me a lot.”

Carrasco’s birdie putt on the tough finishing hole dropped in.

“Right about five feet in front I just knew it was center cut and going in,” Ray Carrasco said. “That’s one of the greatest experiences. I almost had tears when I told Ryan that was the best putt I’ve ever made under the heat, knowing I had to put a good stroke down.”

Carrasco, the director of golf at NorthWood Golf Center in Irvine, made the cut with one stroke to spare and held together nicely on the weekend. He shot 75 Saturday and 76 Sunday to finish tied for 48th. He earned $4,991. But his round Friday still was the highlight.

He started poorly with a double-bogey 7 on the first hole that included a three-putt. His par putt from three feet slid about 12 feet past and he needed two more to hole out. It didn’t get much better from there.

Although he hit every fairway on the front nine, he didn’t hit a green in regulation and had three more bogeys.

Ryan told him not to worry. “He said I could put a couple birdies down and come in a couple under on the back nine,” Carrasco said. “Here I had been shooting three or four over every nine. But sure enough, I birdied 11 and 18.”

He also parred the other seven holes. “On the back nine,” Ryan said, “he just totally regrouped mentally.”

Ryan said the key was making five or six three- to six-foot putts for par.

Carrasco played in the 1981 and 1983 U.S. Opens, the 1985 British Open and the 1997 Senior British Open, so the pressure wasn’t bothering him down the stretch Friday.

“We knew I was close to the cut,” Carrasco said. “I was playing really solid and I’ve been there before. But Ryan says, ‘Come on, you’ve got to hit a good shot here.’

‘ “Ryan, I know that, you don’t have to remind me.’ ”

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The other two Orange County golfers in the Senior Open field had quite a bit more trouble than Carrasco. Bob Risch of Fullerton was 27 over par and Don Shevorski of Anaheim was 34 over.

Risch, 50, won the 1970 U.S. Public Links Championship and played on the PGA Tour from 1974 to 1976 and spent time on the Australian and Asian tours. He became a Los Angeles County sheriff in 1981 and retired last year.

Risch made birdie on the first hole in the first round, but it went mostly downhill from there. He shot 86 Thursday and 83 on Friday.

This was the fourth Senior Open for Shevorski, who made the field as an alternate. Shevorski is in charge of the tour department for Cypress-based Cleveland Golf. It’s a job--signing players, making sure they are happy and dealing with their agents--that keeps him around the game but usually away from his own clubs.

Shevorski said rustiness and the toughness of Riviera caused problems. “I’ve played here many times,” he said, “and I’ve never seen it play so long.”

Shevorski, playing in a group with Calvin Peete and Dale Douglass, shot 88 both days. He didn’t have any regrets about getting the chance to play.

“I love this game,” he said, “and I’ll play it forever. It’s just hard at this level and on this golf course.

“I think golfers like us who qualify once in a while just want a chance to play in tournaments.

“How many Opens do you get to play?”

Notes

Steve Runge of Mission Viejo finished tied for ninth at the Long Beach Open Sunday. He was 14 under par for four rounds, four shots out of the playoff for first between Todd Fischer of Pleasanton and Steve Haase of San Diego, which was won by Fischer on the first hole. . . . Joe Stafford and Ed Rieu won the overall gross title of the Newport Beach Country Club Regatta, the club’s member-guest tournament, Saturday. Mike Pierce and Pat Kane won the overall net title.

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