U.S. Open qualifier comes to Bear Creek next week

By: TOM SHERIDAN - Staff Wrfiter | Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:38 PM PDT ∞

The U.S. Open doesn't come to Southern California until next summer. The South Course at Torrey Pines in San Diego will host the event in June 2008.

For local golf fans who are looking for something a little closer to home, there is the U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Bear Creek Country Club on Monday.

Kevin Sutherland, who won the 2002 World Match Play Championship at La Costa Resort & Spa, heads a field of 75 which will play the renovated layout at Bear Creek.

"We've renovated our entire bunker system," Bear Creek head pro Jeremy Clevenger said. "We re-did every bunker in terms of drainage, we reshaped bunkers and we re-sanded. We took out the existing sand and brought in new sand.

"We also extended the golf course by adding new tees and expanding other tees. Now it stretches to over 7,100 yards. It's a first-class golf course."

Sectional play, which involves 36 holes in a single day, will be held at 14 sites.

Others taking part at the Bear Creek qualifier include Steve Conway (winner of the PGA Tour Q-School first-stage tournament at The SCGA Course last year), Jordan Nasser (2006 California State Amateur champion), Casey Watabu (2006 U.S. Publinx champion) and Murrieta's Rickie Fowler (2006 CIF state individual champion and U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist).

Sutherland's tee times are 7:27 a.m. (first tee) and 12:57 p.m. (10th tee). Fowler, a senior at Murrieta Valley High, will be teeing off at 8:48 a.m. (first tee) and 2:18 p.m. (10th tee).

The top three finishers at Bear Creek will be part of the field the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa., June 14-17.

Twilight golf leagues

A couple of golf leagues are currently forming at Diamond Valley Golf Club in Hemet.

Head pro Kerry Rapelje wants to run a mixed doubles league on Mondays and a men's league on Thursdays. The cost is $15 a week for nine holes. Tee times begin at 6 p.m. Plans call for running the leagues from the beginning of June through the end of August, Rapelje said.

"At 6 o'clock, it starts to cool down a little bit and people are getting off of work," Rapelje said. "Maybe people want to hit nine holes."

Response has been good so far, Rapelje said, but he isn't ready to predict what the turnout will be like.

"We've had a lot of calls for both (leagues)," he said. "What I've learned, though, is you can sign as many people as you want to, but you never know who will show up until that day."

The mixed doubles league is scheduled to start Monday, June 4. Men's league play begins Thursday, June 7.

Call (951) 767-0828 for information.

NCAA Tournament

The UCLA women's golf team finished third at the NCAA Championship at the LPGA International Legends Course in Daytona Beach, Fla., last week.

Duke won the NCAA team title with a score of 18-over-par 1170. UCLA (34-over, 1186) finished a stroke behind runner-up Purdue (33-over, 1185).

Tiffany Joh and Hannah Jun paced the Bruins, placing fifth and eighth, respectively. Freshman Sydnee Michaels (Temecula/Linfield Christian) closed with her best round of the week, a 1-under 71, to tie for 21st at 12-over 300.

"The conditions were really, really tough," Michaels said. "It was windy all four days but the last day was the worst. One hole it would be pouring rain. The next hole it would be windy and pouring rain, and the next hole it would be windy. It was crazy."

Only four players had lower rounds than Michaels under those conditions in the fourth round. One of them was individual champion Stacy Lewis of Arkansas, whose 6-under 66 gave her a 72-hole total of 6-under 282.

ESPN Challenge

Two teams advanced from the ESPN National Golf Challenge local qualifier at Diamond Valley on Saturday.

Orville (Murrieta) and Boyd Suemnick (San Marcos), a father-son team, won the qualifier with a net score of 13-under 59. Earl Davis (Temecula) and Mark Haines (Lake Elsinore) came in second at 10-under 62. They qualified for the regional tournament at Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge on Aug. 13.

Fifteen two-man teams took part in the local tournament. The Suemnicks and Davis and Haines moved on in the net division. No teams advanced in the gross division.

The finals will be held Oct. 25-27 in Las Vegas, and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Chips and putts

Pat Wabel is the new acting head professional at California Golf & Art Country Club. Daniel Lee has taken over as the general manager of the club, replacing Lou Skovron. ... Teen-age phenoms Gipper and Tony Finau won their first-round matches Tuesday at the The Ultimate Game at Wynn Las Vegas. Each of the 40 players in the field had to put up $50,000 to enter the tournament. The winner takes home $2 million. The match-play preliminary round will wrap up today at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Henderson, Nev. The stroke-play finals will be held June 7-8 at Wynn Las Vegas. The Finaus have combined to win the last three Utah 4A high school state titles. Gipper Finau defeated Dan Janton 5 and 3. Tony Finau downed former PGA Tour player John Wilson 2 and 1.

-- The Valley Golf Notebook runs Wednesday. Staff writer Tom Sheridan can be reached at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2649 or tsheridan@californian.com.