GOLF / RICH TOSCHES : Two Tough Days at LPGA Event Leave Voorhees Wanting More

As Heidi Voorhees sat in her living room in North Hollywood on Monday, her TV tuned to the U.S. Open to watch Patty Sheehan battle Juli Inkster in a playoff for the most prestigious title in women’s golf, the strangest feeling swept over her.

As the two LPGA veterans strolled among the dense woods of the famed Oakmont Country Club more than 2,000 miles away in Pennsylvania, Voorhees was overwhelmed with the thought that she had been there. She had walked the same course. She had putted on those very greens. It all seemed so real.

The reason, of course, is that Voorhees had been there. She had walked the course and putted the greens.

“All I can think now is that it was such a blur,” Voorhees said. “It went by so quickly. I waited for it for a year, then all of a sudden I’m home again. It’s all over.”

Voorhees, 20, a junior at USC, pounded a golf ball around Oakmont for a little while on Thursday in the opening round of the U.S. Open and then pounded it around for a long while on Friday, playing golf without a break from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to complete a rained-out first round and the rain-delayed second round.

At the end of the day on Friday, as the heavy thunderclouds continued to threaten, Voorhees had turned in scores of 79 and 78 and had missed the cut by six strokes. Also missing the cut were LPGA stars Beth Daniel and Laura Davies, both of whom mixed in a round of 80 before heading home.

Voorhees packed her clubs, headed for her room, flopped on the bed and passed out for several hours.

“The course was tough, one of the toughest in the world for any players, but really, I was just nervous,” she said. “Just going there and being around golfers I had only seen on TV, it got to me.”

In a young lifetime of golf, Voorhees has won dozens of tournaments and played before numerous spectators. At 14, she won the Los Angeles City Junior championships, won the Junior World championships in San Diego at 16 and last year won the Los Angeles Women’s championship. She was a standout on the Notre Dame High boys’ golf team for four years and for the past two years, she has been the No. 1 player on the USC women’s team.

And last summer she was the runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, thereby getting the invitation to play in the 1992 U.S. Open. But none of that prepared her for the crushing weight of actually playing in the U.S. Open.

“It was one big surprise after another,” she said. “I never knew what to expect. I stayed with a host family and on Thursday, the father drove me to the course and showed me around a little bit and then said, ‘Well, you probably want to be alone now,’ and he left me there. I wanted to yell, ‘No! Please don’t leave me!’

“I didn’t know what to do. I even avoided going into the locker room for a while. I thought someone would stop me and ask what I was doing there.”

It didn’t help that in addition to being a bit awe-struck by the competition, Voorhees also had to cope with the type of weather that she had last encountered . . . well, she can’t remember the last time she encountered it.

“I’ve played in the rain before, I guess,” she said. “It’s not an excuse, but the rain really bothered me. I’m just not used to it, being from Southern California. I sure haven’t played much in the rain. I can’t remember the last time, actually.

“It makes the course longer and makes the grips on your clubs wet and everything just feels different. It just makes it tougher, and I certainly didn’t need that.”

Despite all the adversity, Voorhees never caved in. In the final nine holes of her 10 1/2-hour golf odyssey Friday, she shot a one-under-par 35.

“I really started playing well,” she said. “Every hole I played better. It was just a little too late. But you know what, I broke 80 in both rounds, and a lot of women didn’t. It was a good experience.”

Before returning to USC, Voorhees will play again in the U.S. Amateur, to be held at the Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Long Grove, Ill., Aug. 12-15.

“The LPGA is definitely something I’ll try,” she said. “I’ll get my degree first, but I found out last week that the tour is something I’ll try. I also found out I have a lot of learning to do.”

Others follow: Also playing in the U.S. Open--and also missing the 36-hole cut--were Emilee Klein of Studio City, Chris Lehmann-Vatcher of Westlake Village and pro Angie Ravaioli of Moorpark.

Klein also will play in the U.S. Amateur. She qualified Monday by shooting a 77 on the tough Hillcrest Country Club course in Los Angeles.

Klein also played at Notre Dame High and was a multiple winner of junior events, including the Los Angeles Junior championship in 1990.

Joining Voorhees and Klein at Kemper Lakes will be Debbie Koyama of Westlake Village, Francine Epstein of Woodland Hills and Carrie Leary of Valencia.