SPORTS NOTEBOOK:Lakeside to co-host 2008 amateur tournament

Local golf course gets big event: Two of Southern California’s most prestigious clubs, Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake and Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, will host the 2008 California Amateur Championship on June 16-21.

Stroke play competition will be played over both courses with the match-play portion being contested at Lakeside.

Next year’s tournament will be the first time that the 97-year-old event will be held outside the Monterey Peninsula and continues a new trend that will see the championship rotate to prestigious courses around the state.

From its inception in 1912, the California Amateur was played for the first seven years at Del Monte Golf Club. Beginning in 1919, the event was held at Pebble Beach Golf Links every year except 2000.

This year’s event concludes today at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

“We’re delighted that these two great classic clubs have agreed to host the 2008 California Amateur,” said Ed Holmes, who will be the 2008 president of the California Golf Assn, which conducts the tournament. “These are just two of this state’s great courses on which we hope to conduct this prestigious event.”

Both Lakeside and Oakmont were originally designed by Max Behr in the 1920s, the first great Golden Age of golf course design in Southern California. Lakeside remains his best-known course, a layout that Alister Mackenzie called “one of the world’s greatest golf courses.

Down through the decades, Lakeside has been the home club of thousands of Hollywood stars, many of whom were fine golfers. Bing Crosby was a former Lakeside club champion and Bob Hope was a long-time member with a house next to the 11th fairway.

One of its current club members, Jim Vernon, was Southern California Golf Assn. President in 1987 and is the current USGA vice president.

Village Christian softball players earn all-league honors: Along with players from the four area softball programs, Burbank residents who played for Village Christian School this past season also earned accolades.

Megan Merz and Samantha Schwindler earned All-Olympic League first-team honors and Jenna Martin was a second-team choice.

Merz, a sophomore pitcher/utility player batted .381 (37 for 97), scored 22 runs and had 19 runs batted in. She also struck out just two times. In the circle, she had a 9-4 record with a 1.00 earned-run average and 77 strikeouts in 97 1/3 innings.

Schwindler, a junior shortstop, earned her second all-league honor in three seasons. Along with a 16-game hitting streak, she also played every inning except one as the starting shortstop. She hit .374 (34 for 91) with 21 RBI.

Martin, a sophomore pitcher/center fielder, raised her batting average more than 200 points from last season (hitting .349) and recorded more than 100 strikeouts as a pitcher for the second straight season.