Vallely finding fairways fruitful

Bryce Alderton

Eric Vallely had never entered a golf tournament of this magnitude.

So when the former Newport Harbor High volleyball and basketball

star saw that local qualifying for the U.S. Open championship would

be held at Newport Beach Country Club -- his home course -- he began

earnestly working on his game.

The hard work paid off for the 28-year-old Vallely, who shot a

3-under-par 68 at Newport May 12, one of eight golfers from the site

to advance to Monday’s U.S. Open sectional qualifying.

Vallely will tee off on the par-72 Arnold Palmer course at the

Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu on Monday. He will be one of

750 golfers at 13 sectional sites competing for the remaining 80

spots into the 156-player field for the U.S. Open, June 17-20 at

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.

Good thing he signed up for the local qualifying round.

“The main reason I signed up was because it was on my home course

and I figured I had a chance,” said Vallely, a 1 handicap who spent

the last three months honing his game for this chance. “It took the

edge off not playing in an unfamiliar place. I knew what to expect on

every shot and it was just easier to focus on what I had to do.”

Vallely’s round included five birdies and two bogeys.

One of those birdies came on the par-4 fifth hole, when he escaped

trouble from the right side.

Vallely’s tee shot came to rest in front of a tree, 185 yards from

the green.

The pin was tucked in the back right, out of Vallely’s sight.

He pulled out a 5-iron.

“I aimed about 40 yards to the left of the green and hit a low

slice around the trees, looking to get somewhere close to the green,”

Vallely said.

The ball rolled to within three feet of the hole and Vallely then

made the birdie putt.

“I hit one of the best shots of my life there,” Vallely said of

the 5-iron blast.

The shot is typical of how far Vallely’s golf game has come.

Vallely, a product manager for irons and wedges for Cleveland

Golf, swung the club around as a child, but it wasn’t until the tail

end of his volleyball career at UCLA, where he was a setter from

1996-98, that he began to spend more time on the course and on the

range.

“I took lessons as a kid, but I always thought it was slow. My

perception as a kid was that it was an old man’s game,” Vallely said.

“Then I really got into it.”

That has especially been true in the three months leading up to

the U.S. Open local qualifying.

Vallely, who lives in Costa Mesa with wife Suzanne and

two-month-old daughter Vivian, will visit the range after work and

spend two hours hitting balls before going home at night.

“[Suzanne] was a big part of my round [May 12],” Vallely said.

“She has been patient with me practicing after work, some nights

until 8 p.m.”

Vallely, an avid surfer who has won a few “small-scale”

tournaments, worked in the surf industry for several years until he

landed his current job 1 1/2 years ago.

“I was nearing a dead-end road in the surf industry and someone

told me to send a resume to Cleveland and see what happens,” said

Vallely, an All-Newport-Mesa District selection in both basketball

and volleyball who graduated from Harbor in 1994.

Valley’s father, John, played for the UCLA men’s basketball team

under legendary coach John Wooden. John Vallely holds the all-time

scoring record at Orange Coast College (23.3 points per game).

“I didn’t hear from them for almost a year and, out of the blue, I

received an e-mail about an open position,” Eric Vallely said of

Cleveland. “I went in and two weeks later, they offered me a job.”

Vallely credits co-worker Chris Beck, who caddied for him two

weeks ago, with keeping his emotions in check.

“[Beck] kept me focused on the job at hand and was really

instrumental in keeping everything together,” said Vallely, who was

surprised he made it to sectional qualifying.

“I shot low before, but I amazed myself,” Vallely said. “I want to

give myself the best possible chance. To get to the U.S. Open is

beyond my wildest dreams, let’s leave it at that. I’ll see what I can

do in the next round.”