ON THE GREEN : CHIP SHOTS : Shady Canyon Start Still Up in the Air

Fresh from opening Meadows Del Mar in San Diego, golf course architect Tom Fazio is ready to get started on his fourth course in Orange County: Shady Canyon, in the Irvine hills behind the Turtle Rock neighborhood.

The course has been part of the Irvine Company’s long-range plans for years, but the company appears to be inching closer to pulling the trigger.

“It looks like we are going to be starting Shady Canyon in January,” Fazio said last week.

Not so fast. Dick Sim, the Irvine Co. official in charge of investment properties, said Tuesday the company has given Fazio the go-ahead to design the course but hasn’t made a final decision on whether to start construction in 2000.

Sim said the company will decide in April to start immediately or postpone building for another year. “We all hope we can start,” he said, “but we don’t know if we will, and we don’t make that decision until we have to.”

The company will gauge the strength of the economy and the residential housing market before it makes its final call, Sim said. Plans call for the development to include up to 400 luxury homes.

The course, a high-end daily fee facility, will be set on land that includes canyons, streams, a natural waterfall and 150-year-old trees. Sim said green fees probably will cost somewhere between its three other Fazio-designed layouts, Oak Creek ($90-$125) and the two at Pelican Hill ($155-$225).

OCTOBER OPENING

Westridge Golf Club in La Habra has set its opening date--Oct. 16--and its green fees--$55 Monday-Friday, $75 weekends and holidays.

The 6,500-yard course, on a hilly former oil field near the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Imperial Highway, was originally scheduled to open this summer, but construction problems delayed completion until the fall. The greens are finished; only two fairways remain to be sodded, said project manager Patrick Seatter.

The course will hold a La Habra Police Assn. charity tournament on Oct. 15 and open to the public the next day.

LPGA QUALIFYING

Jenny Lee, a former Sunny Hills High standout, qualified for the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament by finishing in a three-way tie for 22nd at the sectional tournament last week in Venice, Fla. Lee, who played in 15 events on the LPGA Tour in 1998, shot 76-72-72-75, seven-over-par 295. Ah Ram Suh of Seoul, South Korea, won at 279.

The top 30 players advanced to the final qualifying tournament Oct. 19-22 in Daytona Beach, Fla. Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza shot 75-74-76-79--304, finishing eight strokes out of a playoff for the final spots.

Booth and the other nonqualifiers are eligible to play in the second sectional event Sept. 7-10 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

LONG DRIVES

Bill Malins of Chino won a local qualifying event for the Remax World Long Drive Championship Monday at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach. Malins’ best drive on the country club’s par-five first hole was 315 yards and beat Jeff Choi of Los Angeles with 312 and Adam Pilchner with 308.

Gary Drejza of Dana Point won the 45-and-older senior division with a drive of 309 yards. John Slawinski of Santa Ana was second with 289 and John Hartman of San Clemente was third with 287. The top three in each division advance to the district competition Oct. 2-3 at Mountain Meadows in Pomona. The world finals are Oct. 20-23 in Mesquite, Nev.