GOLF : A Call for More Emphasis on Amateur Events

Len Kennett doesn’t like the message he sees flashing on television most weekends.

There’s Fred Couples ripping another drive and making another eagle and winning another tournament and collecting a cool $180,000, his share of a $1-million purse.

It’s only May and already two golfers have earned more than $1 million in official money.

Then there are the seniors, making two and three times the money they made on the regular tour.

Or on some holidays, four guys might be playing a skins game, splitting nearly half a million dollars of somebody else’s money.

It’s not that Kennett is against golf or the riches it has provided.

Nobody is a bigger golf booster than Kennett, a golf merchandiser who also is the head pro at Lakewood and Los Verdes.

It’s just that he thinks youngsters watching golf on television are getting the wrong impression about the sport.

That game isn’t that easy and Kennett thinks too many impressionable players waste too many years chasing an improbable, if not impossible, dream. An expensive dream, at that.

“That’s what really worries me,” Kennett says. “There is so much emphasis on the professional game, youngsters turn pro as soon as possible to try to cash in. Not everybody can be a Nicklaus or a Palmer, but too many youngsters spend five or six years before they realize it.”

The lure of riches is the main reason, Kennett says, but adds that another is because the lack of top amateur tournaments for the top players.

Kennett is doing his best to provide some needed competition with the Len Kennett Players Championship, a 100-player event that is in its sixth year and will be played over 36 holes, Friday and Saturday at Lakewood Country Club.

There are no handicaps in this tournament. No sandbaggers to worry about. Just tee it up and the the player with the lowest score wins.

“This is the kind of tournament we need more of,” Kennett says. “We do a pretty good job of providing tournaments for players when they’re juniors, in high school and in college, but if a top amateur wants some good competition, he has to join a mini-tour and that can become expensive.”

It wasn’t always like this.

Kennett remembers with fondness the days when more than 1,000 people would turn out to watch the final of a prestigious amateur tournament.

“I think Los Angeles, Long Beach and several other cities still do pretty good jobs with their city championship tournaments, but there aren’t enough of them,” Kennett says. “Winning a city championship used to mean something. It was something that kept amateurs around. But I’m afraid all that is over.”

Kennett doubts that his event will ever have the prestige that top amateur events once had, but he’s doing as much as he can to make it enjoyable and competitive.

Besides providing everybody with free range balls, Kennett also gives them a shirt, provides free food, a trophy and has them playing for nearly $5,000 in scrip.

The Kennett tournament draws players from Mexico to Santa Barbara and last year there were six city or country champions in the field.

Kennett is expecting at least as many champions in this year’s field.

Golf Notes

The winner of the Kennett tournament is eligible for the Queen Mary Open, which will be played May 28-31 at Lakewood. This is a departure from the usual fall date for the tournament, which carries a $120,000 purse. Lennie Clements, former PGA Tour player and one of four former champions in the field, won the tournament in 1980, the year Fred Couples, Mark O’Meara, Steve Pate and Scott Simpson made their pro debuts in the event. . . . Defending champion Jan Stephenson, Pat Bradley, Nancy Lopez and Meg Mallon will play for $450,000 in the JC Penney Skins Game next weekend at the Stonebriar Country Club in Frisco, Tex. The players have agreed to donate 10% of their winnings to the Easter Seal Society for Children.

Bob Burns, a former cart attendant at Valencia Country Club and now playing on the Ben Hogan tour, will be one of about 100 players professionals and amateurs trying to qualify for the U.S. Open on Monday at Valencia. The Open is scheduled June 18-21 at Pebble Beach. Qualifying rounds consist of 36 holes. Other Southern California qualifying sites are Industry Hills, Ironwood CC in Palm Desert, and Carlton Oaks CC in Santee.

The Los Angeles City Women’s Golf Championship, a 54-hole event, will be played at Rancho Park Tuesday through Thursday. The Men’s tournament, a 72-hole event, will be played over two weekends at Griffith Park, June 20-21 and June 27-28. . . . Tiger Woods, who at 15 was the youngest player to win the 15-17 division title in the Junior World Championships at San Diego last year, will be trying for his seventh consecutive Junior World title in the event July 21-24. About 775 boys and girls from the U.S. and 37 other countries are expected to compete in four age groups.

Junior golf clinics will be held at Marriott’s Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert during June and July for youngsters 14-18. Each session includes instruction on all aspects of the game from tee shots to course management. . . . The third annual Irish-American Partnership Golf Championship Series will make it’s Los Angeles stop at North Ranch Country Club, June 1. Members of the winning foursome will be invited to play in the Grand Championship Tour of Ireland, Sept. 19-26.

The third annual Kevin Dobson Celebrity Golf Classic to benefit the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, will be played July 17-19 at Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club. . . . Former Raider Ben Davidson will serve as host of the ninth annual Mission Viejo Golf Classic, June 15. The event benefits the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis and its Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp program for disabled youth. . . . The two-day Lotus Festival, which has one of the largest collection of blossoming lotus flowers, is having a golf tournament this year at Montebello Golf Course, July 6. Proceeds will go toward the Lotus Festival.