GOLF: SAN DIEGO OPEN : Hometown Eyes to Be on Mickelson This Week

SAN DIEGO —  Craig Stadler’s wardrobe includes a Masters’ green jacket.

Scott Simpson has a U.S. Open victory on his resume. Tom Watson has won five British Opens, two Masters and the U.S. Open.

So much for the background performers in today’s first round of the $1-million Shearson Lehman Brothers Open at Torrey Pines.

After a two-week break for homework and classes, the crowd-pleasing Phil Mickelson amateur hour resumes.

Mickelson, a junior at Arizona State, has drawn huge galleries in two previous PGA Tour appearances this year. Now he plays in his hometown, where he won 34 junior tournaments.

“My dream as a kid,” said Mickelson, 20, “was to feel what it would be like to be inside the ropes at the San Diego Open.”

He will need those ropes today to separate him from the admiring spectators and the curious pros.

“I went up to him in Phoenix and introduced myself,” said Mark O’Meara, who lost a sudden death playoff with Corey Pavin in last week’s Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. “I’ve watched him swing, and I like it, and they say he’s phenomenal around the greens. I’ve heard stories of shots he’s played in certain situations that would blow your mind.”

Mickelson already has pressed the imagination of golf historians, who have yet to see an amateur win two PGA Tour events. He became only the fourth amateur to win a tour title with a 16-under-par 272 in Tucson last month, and he finished tied for 32nd in the Phoenix Open.

Had his amateur status not precluded him from accepting $185,414 in prize money, he would be ranked No. 7 on the money list.

“He’s the best junior I’ve ever seen come out of here,” said Norris West, who has been involved in the San Diego Junior Golf Assn. for 26 years. “I don’t see how he can miss.”

Stadler, also a San Diego native, has contributed both time and money to the local junior golf association to produce players such as Mickelson.

“Of all the kids I’ve seen moving up the ladder, this one looks like he’s going to be very good,” Stadler said. “Phoenix to me was more impressive than Tucson. You listen to everybody talk and it’s like he had a lousy tournament, and he finished (in the money).

“My God, the kid’s 20 years old. He’s an amateur. That’s great. I was happy to make the cut when I played as an amateur in some of these things. And most of them I didn’t make it.”

Stadler has compiled eight victories in his 16-year career, including a Masters victory in 1982. But he has not won since 1984 and may forever be remembered here for being disqualified after kneeling on a towel to hit a shot from under a tree in 1987.

The disqualification cost Stadler a second-place finish and $44,000.

Stadler finished tied for fourth here last year, four strokes behind Dan Forsman’s winning 275. He would like to consider himself a contender for this year’s top prize of $180,000, but he has been troubled by tendinitis in his wrists.

The course apparently won’t favor Mickelson.

“Mickelson’s best score on the south course has been a 69 in the Junior World in 1986,” West said. “I don’t think he plays the course all that well, but this young man is capable of doing anything.”

Mickelson will join a field of 156 in splitting time between Torrey Pines’ north and south courses for the first two rounds. After the field is reduced to the top 70 scorers, including ties, the tougher south course will determine the winner over Saturday and Sunday.