Golf : This Event Fits Amateur Kingpin Jay Sigel to a Tee

When collegians won the U.S. Amateur golf championship 18 times in 20 years--and nine in a row starting with Craig Stadler of USC in 1973 and ending with Nathaniel Crosby of Miami in 1981--the United States Golf Assn. decided that something needed to be done for the true amateur--the player who rejected the professional tour to play country club golf.

The answer was a new tournament, the U.S. Mid-Amateur for players 25 and older.

No sooner had they introduced the Mid-Amateur, however, than a tried and true amateur, Jay Sigel of Berwyn, Pa., beat the college boys in the Amateur. When he won in 1982, Sigel was 39, the oldest winner since Bill Campbell had won in 1946 at 41.

Emphasizing his position as Mr. Amateur, Sigel won again in 1983. Later that summer, when he won the Mid-Amateur, he gave the new tournament immediate credibility.

“Without Jay, I don’t know where amateur golf would be as it applies to the noncollege crowd,” said 1982 winner Bill Hoffer, a plastic company sales manager from Elgin, Ill.

Sigel, 42, an insurance executive, made his fifth Walker Cup appearance this year and also served as playing captain for the second time. Only three other golfers, Robert Gardner in 1923, 1924 and 1926; Bobby Jones in 1928 and 1930, and Francis Ouimet in 1932 and 1934 have captained more than one U.S. team.

Besides winning two U.S. Amateurs and the 1982 Mid-Amateur, Sigel also won the 1979 British Amateur.

The fifth annual U.S. Mid-Amateur will open Nov. 9-10 at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells, about 12 miles southeast of Palm Springs, and Sigel will be one of the 150 qualifiers from a record entry of 2,577. Qualifying will be done over 36 holes, 18 on the Mountain course and 18 on the Desert course. The 64 qualifiers will begin match play Monday, Nov. 11. The tournament will end Thursday, Nov. 14.

Many of the players are former pros who have regained amateur status, among them defending champion Mike Podolak of Hickson, N.D., and three Southern California favorites, Mike Haney of Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, Steve Bogan of Yorba Linda Country Club, and Brian Lindley of Skylinks Men’s Club in Long Beach.

Golf Notes Who’s better, a club professional or a young amateur? In Wall Cup competition, Southern California amateurs have beaten SoCal PGA pros the last four years. For this year’s match, Nov. 2 at Annandale, the pros have brought in two touring players, Mark Pfeil and Steve Pate, in an attempt to reverse the trend. The teams: amateurs Brian Mahon, Kevin Leach, Lee Davis, Brent Jobe, Jim Myers, Mike Blewett, Brian Henninger, Dirk Jones, Pat Duncan and Jim Lundstrom; pros Pfeil, Pate, Scott Mahlberg, Mike Malaska, Gregg McHatton, Jim Petralia, Scott Walter, Paul Wise, Jerry Wisz and Jim Woodward. . . . Also Nov. 2, at Los Alamitos CC, a group of former boxing champions will participate in a charity tournament called Fighters Against Child Abuse. Los Alamitos manager Ray Swedo claims he has Muhammad Ali, Art Aragon, Archie Moore, Cisco Andrade and Danny (Little Red) Lopez, among others, signed up to swing clubs instead of fists. Jimmy Lennon will give everyone a sendoff on the first tee.

Senior organizations are becoming commonplace, but Rancho Park has a unique group gathered together by Bill Graf. Is is for 80-year-olds who have been Rancho members for at least 10 years. The five charter members are George Rashken, Fred Babbin, Gilbert Kart, Lou Shiffman and Joe Youtan. . . . Bill Ballon, a 12-handicapper, had an interesting sequence of shots. At Brentwood, he eagled No. 8 (459 yards) with a driver, 4-wood and a putt; at Hillcrest he eagled No. 8 (501 yards) with a driver, 4-wood and putt; at Bel-Air he almost eagled No. 8 (475 yards) with a driver, 4-wood and a 9-iron chip shot that stopped a couple of feet short--straight on line. . . . The Spalding Invitational Pro-Am isn’t on the official tour but the Monterey peninsula tournament is considered important enough for such players as Craig Stadler, Mark O’Meara, Johnny Miller and Greg Norman to play. It also offers women a chance to play against the men. Alice Miller, Patty Sheehan and Jan Stephenson will compete in the $200,000 event starting Jan. 2.

Gene Cotchonis, who designed and built the Goose putter with a revolutionary off-set clubhead, used his own creation to win the L.A. Senior championship in a playoff with former U.S. champion Alton Duhon. Cotchonis, 50, a former UCLA player from the mid-50s who had a brief fling on tour, shot 66-75 at Sepulveda in his first senior event, using only 27 putts in his first round. He also captained the Sepulveda team that won the SoCal championship. . . . A record 126 women are entered in the sixth annual National Ladies Club championship starting Thursday at La Costa. Favorites include Ann Pavlian of San Diego, Margo Baxter of Mission Hills, Bobbie Kuhn of Oakmont, Diane Brynildsen of Crystalaire and defending champion Mary Hanyak of Inverrary, Fla.