GOLF / SHAV GLICK : Frances Hirsh Reigns as Queen of Clubs

In 1951, Frances Miles-Maslon won the women’s championship of the Oakridge Country Club in Hopkins, Minn., using a Jimmy Hines blade putter.

This year, as Frances Hirsh, the same lady won the Brentwood and Tamarisk country club championships, using the same Jimmy Hines blade putter. They were her 43rd and 44th club championships, which put her in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most club championships at more than one club.

And the same might be said for her putter.

Hirsh’s collection of silver cups includes 25 championships at Brentwood, 17 at Tamarisk and one at Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs, in addition to the first one at Oakridge.

“It has been a unique experience,” Hirsh said. “I have the good fortune to live on the Tamarisk course in the winter and only a few miles from Brentwood, in Santa Monica, in the summer. I’m looking ahead to more club championships, but the girls are getting younger every year, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep winning.”

Helen Knight, who won 32 consecutive championships at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, lost this year to Daryl Gerber, who became only the second women’s champion in the club’s history.

“I know the pain Helen suffered in losing,” Hirsh sympathized, “I’ve been a runner-up in 16 club championships, but the young lady that beat her is going to be a great golfer. I saw her play last week in the (Women’s Golf Assn.) Southern tournament, and she’s as charming as she is a good player.”

Hirsh’s husband, Harold, is a founding member of Brentwood who helped start the Westside club in 1948. Frances, after divorcing her first husband in Minneapolis and moving to Los Angeles in 1952, joined the club that year. The Hirshes were married in 1960.

“Harold and I won the husband-and-wife championship at Tamarisk many years ago, and fortunately for me, he loves to play golf as much as I do,” she said.

Hirsh estimates she has played more than 400 team matches for the two clubs in the Women’s Southern California Golf Assn. seasons.

“The WSCGA doesn’t allow playing for two clubs,” she said, “but the desert region is considered separate because of our limited playing season, (and) I have the good fortune to be able to represent them both. I have played every year since 1952 at Brentwood and 1965 at Tamarisk.”

Two big years in her career were 1963, when she held the Tamarisk, Brentwood and Canyon club championships concurrently, and 1966, when she also won the desert area’s Champion of Champions tournament at Indian Wells and the Riverside County Heart Assn. tournament for club champions at La Quinta.

She holds the course record at Tamarisk, a one-under-par 73, which she first shot in 1967 and equaled in 1987.

Hirsh also has an extensive collection of women’s golfing costumes and golf art, including a set of original magazine covers that feature women golfers, dating to the 1890s.

Veteran professional Rafe Botts of Los Angeles created a stir in British golfing circles when he called a penalty on Scottish amateur Jim Hay during the Volvo Seniors British Open at Turnberry. Botts charged Hay, an official of the Scottish golf association, with tapping down spike marks on the line of his putt.

Botts’ charge was backed by a third member of his playing group, and Hay was assessed a two-stroke penalty. Hay walked off, saying, “I can’t accept that; I’ll retire. All I did was tidy up marks elsewhere. He more or less accused me of cheating.”

Botts was quoted in the British newspapers as saying to Hay, “You wealthy amateurs shouldn’t be in this tournament,” to which Hay replied, “I wasn’t going to be spoken to like that by a third-rate pro.”

Botts won the Southern California PGA championship in 1973, defeating Tommy Jacobs, 2 and 1, in the final.

Paul Goydos, surprise winner of the Long Beach Open last month, will try for a hometown double this week when he enters the 19th annual Spalding Queen Mary Open at Lakewood Country Club, a 72-hole tournament that starts Thursday.

Goydos, 24, a graduate of Long Beach Wilson High School and Cal State Long Beach, earned $20,000 in winning the Long Beach Open, which is $15,000 more than he made all season in minitour events. Two former winners, Mike Miles of Cypress and John McComish of Santa Maria, are also entered in the $115,000 Queen Mary Open. Another favorite will be David Sutherland of Sacramento, winner of the Northern California Open.

A field of 260 professionals and 36 amateurs will alternate their first two rounds at Lakewood and Skylinks, with those who survive the cut playing the final two rounds at Lakewood.

Golf Notes

The Southern California PGA stroke play championship, which this year will determine the sectional champion, is scheduled for Aug. 20-21 at Rancho California. Scott Bentley of Singing Hills, who recently won the sectional match play championship for the second straight year, is defending champion. Challengers include Paul Wise and Brad Sherfy of Hillcrest, Jim Petralia of Annandale, Mike Gove of Palm Valley and Brad Stormon of Western Hills. The winner will receive exemptions to the Los Angeles and San Diego PGA Tour events, plus the Bob Hope Desert Classic and the Ben Hogan Tour stop in Bakersfield.

Millie Stanley, who won her seventh Los Angeles City Senior Women’s championship last year at 60, will go for No. 8 this year when the 20th annual tournament is held Aug. 23-24 at Rancho Park. . . . The sixth annual SoCal Golf Assn.’s junior championship, scheduled for Monday at Industry Hills, has been canceled for lack of entries. Only one girl entered the event. . . . David Schultz defeated Mike Uptegraff, 1 up, to win the first Marbella CC championship. Schultz was also the qualifying medalist over the new course in San Juan Capistrano. . . . When Notah Begay won the Optimist Junior World championship in San Diego, joining Craig Stadler, John Cook, Corey Pavin and Nick Price as champions, the Albuquerque, N.M., teen-ager became the first native American to win a major junior championship.

A group of juniors outplayed their elders in the Adopt a Senior scrambles tournament held by the L.A. Recreation and Parks Dept. at California CC. A team of Marcus Briano, 16, and Julio Cano, 15, of Hansen Dam, and Brent Naylor, 12, and Jennifer Choi, 17, of Rancho Park, shot 63 gross to beat 26 other teams. . . . Pete Pino, longtime club manager at Los Angeles Country Club and Industry Hills, has moved to the new Dove Canyon CC in Mission Viejo. Kevin Paluch, formerly of Fairbanks Ranch, is the head professional. . . . Scott Wellington, formerly in the San Diego Chargers front office, has been appointed director of marketing and promotions for the Southern California PGA.

Southern California qualifying rounds for the Oldsmobile Scramble championship will be played Monday at North Ranch CC in Westlake Village, Wednesday at Coto de Caza GC and Aug. 31 at Singing Hills CC in El Cajon. In an earlier qualifying round at Spring Valley Lake CC, the team of Collier Cronk, Bill Rose, Dirk Westfall, Byron Smith and pro Mike Bratschi advanced to the national gross division finals Oct. 12-15 at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Advancing in the net division division were the Horse Thief GC team of Larry Brown, Rhett Brown, Blake Brown, Jeffy Kiger and pro Don Moulton. They gained the final round Sept. 28-Oct. 1 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. More than 125,000 players are competing for places in the seventh annual Oldsmobile Scramble tournaments, which are expected to raise $5 million for PGA projects involving junior golf and education.

The Tournament of Champions at La Costa will be played Jan. 3-6 and will also include the seniors. The tournaments are limited to winners of PGA Tour events of the previous 12 months. . . . Cary Schuman of Reseda, with a drive of 385 yards, led 20 qualifiers into the district finals of the National Long Driving Championships Saturday at North Kern CC in Oildale.