Bill Selman, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

Bill Selman of Santa Ana Country Club remembers the close,

heart-wrenching losses more than the eight men’s club championships from

1966 to 1988, a record for the oldest golf club in Orange County.

In 20 appearances, Selman won almost half the time when teeing it up

in the club championships.

But, from 1981 to ’84 when match play decided the club titles, Selman

lost three times in the semifinals in riveting matches settled in a

playoff or on the last hole of regulation.

“When you lose on the 20th hole, 22nd hole and 18th hole, you remember

those,” said Selman, whose name is famous in Orange County for selling

Chevrolets, not playing golf, though today’s honoree in the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame is saluted solely for his labor on the links.

Selman, a winner of more men’s club titles at Santa Ana than any

player in history, was one of the youngest club members in 1966, after

his late uncle bequeathed his equity-owned membership to him.

Selman, who took over as president of his father’s successful

Chevrolet dealership in 1970, was a standout in the Southern California

Junior Golf Association growing up in Orange. Later, he played college

golf at Claremont and Cal State Fullerton.

But Selman’s inherited ticket to Santa Ana Country Club allowed him to

achieve dreams beyond his expectations.

In his first year as a member, Selman captured his first club

championship, then won again two years later (1968).

At age 30 in 1969, Selman won the Santa Ana city championship at

Willowick Golf Club, competing mostly against college players. At the

time, the tournament was widely considered an Orange County championship

with top amateurs coming from all over the Southland.

In 1970, Selman qualified for the Los Angeles Open, the PGA Tour stop

at Rancho Park, but missed the cut by two strokes.

“Back then, they used to have an amateur qualifying for the (LA)

Open,” Selman said. “There were 140 scratch golfers going for five

places.”

Selman won his third Santa Ana Country Club title in 1973, his fourth in ‘75, then won back-to-back championships in 1979 and ’80. That’s when

Chris Brown began to dominate the SACC landscape.

Selman lost to Brown, a former mini-tour player, three times in

match-play semifinals and once in the finals. Brown and Boyd Martin have

each won five SACC men’s championships, while Ed Holmes, Jr., won six

from 1927 to ’33.

Before a neurological muscular disorder took over his body in 1995

and, essentially, ended his competitive playing career, Selman had a

chance at one more SACC title.

Selman’s only tight match for the club championship came in 1988

against Bill Borden, when the players were even going into the last hole.

Both had putts for par, Selman from six feet, Borden from 2 1/2 feet. “I

made it and he missed,” Selman said.

That year, Selman suffered a serious thumb injury, and, after

rehabilitation, continued to stay out of competitive golf until 1993.

In September 1994, Selman shot 6-under-par 66 to set a SACC course

record for seniors. Also that year, Selman tried for his ninth club

championship with a remarkable comeback in the final round of stroke

play.

Selman was four shots behind with 12 holes to play, then caught leader

Chris Veitch, only to lose on the last hole.

“If I’d won in 1994 -- and I really wanted to win -- I would’ve won (a

club championship) in four decades,” said Selman, whose physical problems

started in May 1995, ending his reign at eight club championships.

“I can go out there, but on my best day I hit 10 balls on the practice

range and I’m no good for a week ... I’m OK to look at, but my legs can’t

take it. It’s a weird neurological muscular disorder.

“I don’t know if I ever would’ve won (a club championship) again, but

in 1994 I tried to come back.”

Selman, who lives in Laguna Beach and has two grown children, has

served as Santa Ana Country Club’s Greens Chairman for seven years and on

the club’s Board of Directors for about four years.

Selman started playing golf at age 9, when his mother took him out to

Willowick. At age 16, he once shot 66 at Willowick.