Out Of The Rough

Keeping putts on a straight line has never been much of a problem for Brian Woolf of Alemany High.

Keeping his life on line is a different story.

Nearly unbeatable as a youth golfer, Woolf strayed from the straight and narrow through his early adolescent years, encountering various social and academic problems, only to rediscover the road that might take him the farthest--golf.

So far, so good.

The senior, who has signed with Arizona, has won the last two Mission League individual titles. He helped Alemany win a league co-championship last week and Monday leads the Indians into the Southern Section Northern regional at San Luis Obispo Country Club.

Woolf, 17, prefers not to go into much detail about the problems he had off the course, mainly because he is still trying to figure out what happened. He knew when players he frequently used to beat started moving ahead of him, he needed to work some things out.

“When I was 10, 11, 12 years old I blew everybody away,” Woolf said. “Then I just lost my concentration. I knew I could still play with all those guys, but I was just goofing off. I wasn’t thinking the right thoughts.”

Woolf said for his first 2 1/2 years at Alemany, he studied only to keep himself eligible for golf. A straight-A student through elementary and junior high schools, Woolf’s grade-point average plummeted to 2.3.

“I think that a lot of kids, when they are aged 12 to 15, things seem pretty easy,” said David Woolf, Brian’s father. “But when they get a little older things get a little more complicated. They face certain battles about where they fit in.”

On the course, Woolf couldn’t seem to win any battles either. Routinely putting himself on the brink of a breakthrough, he would inevitably slip back.

The player who won so many tournaments in his pre-high school years that he cannot put a number on the total, could not recall winning a tournament during his first 2 1/2 years of high school.

He made a double bogey on the 36th and final hole of a U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier and missed qualifying by one stroke. He was 51st after two rounds of the Junior World championships last year. The top 50 made the cut.

“I wasn’t going in to tournaments with any confidence,” he said. “I would go up to two-foot putts and inside I could feel I wasn’t ready for them. I think your putting reflects what’s going on in your life.”

The confidence began to resurface last year in the Mission League tournament, when he defeated teammate Chuck Ruiz in a playoff with 35-foot putt for birdie.

A week later he sank a 60-foot par putt in the Southern Section championships to get into a 12-way playoff for one spot in the CIF-SCGA championships. A birdie chip-in by Russell Surber of Flintridge Prep denied Woolf a chance to advance.

This year, despite a December bout with mononucleosis that hospitalized him for four days, Woolf’s GPA is up to 3.6.

He said he is as sound as ever mentally and he appears ready to make a run. Consecutive rounds of 73 last week in the Mission League championships prove he is serious.

“I was really nervous going in to that tournament,” Woolf said. “I really didn’t know how I would play but I’ve got all my confidence back now. To play good golf, you need high self-esteem. These days, there just doesn’t seem to be as much noise inside my head.”

Woolf credits Alemany graduate David Berganio for helping him get turned around.

“He’s been a real role model for me,” Woolf said. “I see a lot of me in him.”

Berganio, a four-time All-American at Arizona, two-time U.S. Publinks champion and PGA Tour member in 1997, was always known for his brash confidence on the course.

He saw something in the troubled Woolf that reminded him of himself.

“What I see with Brian is that he did for two years what I did for four years,” Berganio said. “Fooling around, hanging out, not studying. I was a street kid and I always did what I wanted to do. He does his own thing too.”

Berganio saw enough in Woolf’s game that he phoned Rick Larose, his former coach at Arizona, and told him to take a look at Woolf, a call that surprised even Berganio.

“I was impressed with the way he handled himself on the course,” Berganio said. “I thought he was pretty damn good and I don’t think anybody is that good.”

Larose watched Woolf play at the SCPGA Junior Tournament of Club Champions last year and offered him a partial scholarship.

A self-described “Porter Valley bum,” Woolf has been playing golf since his dad put a club in his hands at age five.

As often as he could, he would play at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, where his parents are members.

He played soccer, baseball and hockey, and played them well.

“I was so athletic that I thought something was wrong with me,” Woolf said.

But golf, the most fickle of all sports, seemed to accept Woolf and put his mind at ease.

“I always loved golf,” Woolf said. “I think I understand it pretty good. Me and golf, we’re friends.

“I could always go to the golf course. All the messing around I did off the course, when I got there is was a reality check. Golf put my head back in its place. The person I am at the golf course is who I really am, not some thug kid.”

Even during the periods when he wasn’t playing well, he would show flashes of his tremendous talent.

When he was 15, he shot a six-under-par 64 to qualify for the California junior amateur. In a money game against Berganio, playing the PGA Tour at the time, Woolf was five holes down on the front side before he birdied four holes in a row.

“Most of the time it was really hard for me to focus,” Woolf said. “I was saying the right things to myself, but my mind wasn’t understanding them. They weren’t becoming indented.”

Finally at ease with his ability and armed with the confidence golf requires, Woolf hopes to regain his position as one of the top juniors in the nation by summer’s end.

“In my head, I know I still am,” Woolf said. “The statistics don’t show it, but it’s always been in me. I proved I was the best when I was 11, now I want to get back to where I was then.”

His eyes light up at the prospect of winning in the Southern Section regional, at Arizona next year and following in Berganio’s footsteps to the pro level.

The confidence in his voice leaves little doubt he will.

“I have a lot to prove to myself,” Woolf said. “I wasted a lot of time over the last couple of years and now it’s time to make up for it.”