Golf: Choking up on the golf clubs

Richard Dunn

In the vein of force-feeding girls golf in the CIF Southern Section

come various repercussions, including the current dilemma at Costa Mesa

High, where some first-year varsity players are learning the game with

clubs too big and shafts too stiff.

While Costa Mesa Coach Lynn Welker has scrambled like many small

schools to fill an expanded varsity roster this year, the team’s biggest

problem has been outfitting its players with adequate equipment.

“Not too many of our players have their own clubs, and if they do

bring their own clubs, it’s usually clubs that belong to a father or

grandfather or someone a lot larger,” Welker said. “I’ve had clubs

donated to the teams, but they’re old and rusty, and they’re usually too

heavy and the shafts are too stiff. We have only two sets of (women’s

clubs) that these little girls can swing.”

Imagine a beginning tennis player being handed an old wooden racket

that’s too bulky.

Imagine learning to swim while jumping off a pier into the cold ocean

water.

Imagine being a 13- or 14-year-old girl with no prior golf experience

and having to play with old bladed irons, while your opponent whips out a

set of $500 Ping irons with cavity backs.

“The kids can’t compete against players with the good Callaway clubs,”

Welker said. “They’re hitting old bladed clubs and they just don’t hit

the ball as well (as cavity backs) and they aren’t as forgiving.”

Men have a better chance of surviving on a golf course with antiquated

equipment because of their strength, Welker said, but some of her girls

are “petite” and playing a nine-hole match can take 3 1/2 hours.

“The ladies’ clubs are shorter, so my players are choking up on those

larger (clubs),” Welker said. “They’ve got the butt of the clubs sticking

up in their hands. But they don’t know the difference ... our girls are

tough.”

There are no “country club girls” on the roster and, according to

Welker, “girls don’t traditionally play too much golf at our school,

because families are not, for the most part, golfing families.”

But Welker has her team headed in the right direction, focusing on

learning the game and having a good time.

A new CIF rule this year changed the format of girls golf, which, in

the past three years since the inception of the sport in CIF, was teeing

up four players and counting three scores. Now, teams play six and count

five.

Or, as is the case at Costa Mesa, teams play five and count five,

because it only has five. For the Mustangs, it’s Jean You, Jessica

Bunnell, Marie Huyler, Jane Tungka and Celinda Sandoval.

The Mustangs (1-3), who defeated Orange last week, will open Pacific

Coast League action today against Northwood at Oak Creek Golf Club in

Irvine.

Costa Mesa’s Bryan Saltus, a Newport Harbor alumnus, completed his

first year on the Canadian Tour, finishing 77th on the money list

($8,362) and creating quite a stir in the Canadian press.

Saltus, 31, made plenty of headlines on the 2001 Canadian Tour with

his Southern California surfing mentality, goatee, wild colored shirts,

baggy pants and shaggy hair tucked under a golf cap.

“Saltus adds spice to Open” read a headline in The (Vancouver)

Province; “‘Dude’ off to good start” read another in The (Ontario)

Chronicle-Journal. The Winnipeg Sun said Saltus “looks like a weekend

hacker who might have wandered onto the course by accident.”

Proceeds of the third annual Tee Off for Technology Golf Classic, Oct.

15 at Santa Ana Country Club, will support technology for the students at

Newport Harbor High School. Details: Contact Rowland Day at (714)

429-2909.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.