Courses Blooming in North County Desert

Golfers in North Orange County suffered a major blow when Imperial Golf Course in Brea closed last spring, but things are looking better for the future.

Imperial’s closing turned an already underserved area into a virtual desert for public golf--and we’re not talking Palm Springs. In Brea, Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia, Buena Park and Yorba Linda--North County cities with a combined population of 389,000--there is only one regulation-length public course, Coyote Hills in Fullerton.

That situation is about to change. A course in La Habra is scheduled to open this summer and grading on another, in Yorba Linda, is expected to begin in February.

Westridge Golf Club in La Habra will be an upscale, 18-hole course near the corner of Beach Boulevard and Imperial Highway on a hilly former oil field. Calabasas-based Environmental Golf is building the Robert Muir Graves and Damian Pascuzzo-designed 6,500-yard layout and also owns and will manage the facility.

The course in Yorba Linda--Black Gold Golf Club--also will be built on former oil company property. Architect Arthur Hills has nearly completed design work on the 6,900-yard, par-72 layout in the foothills next to Chino Hills State Park.

It will be a high-end municipal course, owned by the city of Yorba Linda, with average greens fees predicted to be in the $60 range. Residents of Yorba Linda will be able to play at a discount, City Engineer Roy Stephenson said.

“There will definitely be a break for our residents,” Stephenson said. “It isn’t going to do us any good to build a course where our residents can’t get on or can’t afford to play. So we’re very sensitive to that.”

After rough grading of the course and surrounding housing development is completed next fall, construction is expected to take about a year, making the expected opening September 2000.

La Habra’s course will be accepting tee times considerably sooner--it’s expected to open in June--and at least one local golfer is excited by the prospect.

“Our city has never had anything like this,” La Habra Mayor Juan Garcia said at the December groundbreaking ceremony for the course’s clubhouse. “We don’t have anything like this near here.”

The facility will be similar to others that have opened in the last five years in the county, such as Coyote Hills, Oak Creek and Strawberry Farms. Environmental Golf officials haven’t announced greens fees, but say they are aiming for a reasonably priced niche.

“There are golf courses in Orange County that are in the very high bracket,” said Steve Chase, director of sales and marketing, “the $150 to $225 range. There is some municipal golf in the $19 to $25 range. I think this will fill a void somewhere--not quite in the middle--but it will be a lot closer to $25 than $225.

“It definitely will be affordable golf.”

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The Hoag Hospital Foundation, which ran the Toshiba Senior Classic for the first time last spring, was recently selected as the 1998 charity of the year by the PGA Tour.

The inaugural award was worth another $25,000 to the foundation in the form of a donation from PGA Tour Charities. The foundation raised about $700,000 during the tournament that was won by Hale Irwin. Irwin rallied from five shots back during the final round, shooting a nine-under-par 62.

A majority of the money raised last year was donated to the Hoag Cancer Center.

The award is impressive mostly because the tournament staff had about six months to organize the event and it was the first venture into the big time for the hospital’s foundation, which had run a pro-am tournament and fund-raiser, also at Newport Beach Country Club, the previous 27 years.

Hoag took over the Senior Tour event in late August and it was run by tournament director Jeff Purser, who was hired in October, and co-chairmen Hank Adler and Jake Rohrer. Purser left a similar position with a well-established senior event in Grand Rapids, Mich., because he believed the Toshiba event could become “the best on the Senior PGA Tour.”

“We are honored that the PGA Tour has singled out Hoag’s importance in energizing this tournament,” said Rohrer, who was in charge of the more than 1,000 volunteers.

The 1999 tournament will also be held at Newport Beach Country Club, March 12-14.

Notes

Taylor Wood of Laguna Niguel won the boys’ division of the SCPGA Foundation’s Tournament of Junior Champions Monday at Newport Beach Country Club. Wood, a 15-year-old freshman at Santa Margarita, shot three-under-par 65 on the course, which is currently 17 holes because of the reconstruction of the fourth hole. Yunny Cho of Torrance shot 71 to win the girls’ title. Michael Lavery of Irvine shot 69 to finish second in the boys’ 16-17 division. Nicholas Bollini of Yorba Linda shot 70, finishing first in the boys’ 14-15 division.

In the 12-13 boys’ competition at Hacienda Golf Club, Henry Liaw of Rowland Heights shot two-under 69 for first place. Daniel Im of Fullerton and Daniel Cho of Diamond Bar tied for second at 74.

Anaheim Hills has promoted Tom Mathieu to superintendent. Mathieu, the assistant superintendent since September 1996, will replace retiring Don Lewis, who held the job for the last 20 years and has been an Anaheim employee for 35 years.

Beck and Kresal can be reached with comments or suggestions at (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail martin.beck@latimes.com or steve.kresal@latimes.com.