GOLF : City Women’s Title Merely the Latest Triumph for Voorhees

The last time a girl named Heidi got this kind of recognition, she was singing and romping through a field of wildflowers in 19th-Century Switzerland.

Heidi Voorhees, however, never wants to be standing in a patch of tall grass and flowers. Because that kind of stuff is generally out of bounds. Two strokes.

Voorhees, 18, of North Hollywood, won the Los Angeles city women’s golf championship late last month. In the preceding five months she had become the No. 1 player on the USC women’s golf team. Next month, she will shoot for a berth in the U. S. Women’s Amateur championship and hopes in August to play in the Canadian Amateur championship.

Voorhees, a standout player for three years on the boys’ golf team at Notre Dame High, made the successful jump from the world of junior golf to the major collegiate golf scene without any problems, according to her coach.

“Heidi pretty much was our No. 1 player right from the start,” said Cathy Bright, who has coached the women’s team at USC for 10 years. “She moved to No. 2 briefly, but she got back to No. 1 and finished the season with our low-scoring average. Heidi was our top golfer.

“We’ve had one or two other freshmen lead the team in the last decade. But it is still unusual. The key for her was her experience in junior tournaments. She had been playing for so long. Last summer she played all over the country and even played in a major event in France. She adjusted so well to the college game because of her great experience as a junior golfer.”

The move to USC did bring with it at least one drawback, according to Voorhees.

“We travel so much, and I never liked flying,” she said. “I get onto the plane and try to fall asleep as fast as I can.”

Other than that fear of being inside an aluminum tube with wings, traveling at 450 m.p.h. some five miles above the Earth, she coped extraordinarily well.

Voorhees posted a scoring average of 79.2 on some of the toughest courses in the country, including the Eugene (Ore.) Country Club, where she set the women’s course record with a 68, and a very demanding layout at Hilton Head, S. C.

The USC women finished a disappointing seventh in the Pacific 10 Conference championships, but with a young team led by Voorhees, Bright has great hopes.

“Heidi Voorhees will make me a great coach,” she said.

Voorhees has vowed she will be around for the next three seasons. Despite the talent to make a legitimate bid to qualify for the LPGA Tour, she said that she will resist the temptation.

“The LPGA is nothing I’d leave school to do,” Voorhees said. “I guess I was good as a freshman, but next year I have to be a lot, lot better. Maybe I’m not an average golfer, but I know I’m not a great golfer. Not yet. I have a commitment to four years here and a degree.”

Fork out the green: The Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department will announce as early as next week a hike in greens fees at all municipal courses. The amount of the increase was not known.

“The proposal has not come before the golf commission yet, but the hike is being considered,” spokesman Al Goldfarb said Tuesday. “It might be discussed in the next day or so. With the city’s budget situation like it is, with revenues at an all-time low, that’s why the hikes are being considered.”

Junior tournament: The 41st Los Angeles City Junior golf championships will be played June 18-20 at the Griffith Park courses. The event, originally scheduled for March but postponed because of heavy rain that month, is open to boys and girls.

Those between the ages of 12-17 will play the three-day tournament on the Wilson and Harding courses. Younger golfers will play on the nine-hole Roosevelt course.

Information: 818-663-2555.

Free lessons: PGA professionals will provide a day of free lessons to boys and girls under the age of 18, June 25-27 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at four municipal courses.

The program--at Rancho Park, both Sepulveda courses and the Hansen Dam course--is sponsored by the Los Angeles City Recreation and Parks Department.

All participants must bring their own clubs and pay a nominal fee for a bucket of practice balls. In addition to golf lessons, meetings will be held to discuss golf course etiquette and participation in junior tournaments.

Information: Rancho Park, 213-839-4374; Sepulveda, 818-986-4560; Hansen Dam, 818-895-0050.

Upcoming events:

* Frankie Avalon will play host to the Shir Chadash tournament at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley on Monday. Scramble format.

Information: 818-883-0358.

* The Van Nuys Airport Optimist Club’s junior world tournament will be held June 24 at Balboa Golf Course in Encino. Six flights, open to boys and girls who will not turn 15 before July 18.

Information: 818-709-4860.

* The Starscene Foundation’s golf tournament will be held June 24 at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. Scramble format.

Information: 818-841-2902.