LOCAL WATCH: HOGARTH'S YEAR OFF TO BIG START L.A. CITY CHAMP MAKES HISTORY BY DEFENDING TITLE.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

Tim Hogarth will be playing a considerably limited schedule this summer, with month-old baby Justin dominating the focus at the Hogarth homestead in Northridge.

But the 32-year-old former Cal State Northridge star is nonetheless off to a solid start a year after his best summer since he won the U.S. Public Links championship in 1996.

Two weeks ago, he became the first player in a half-century to successfully defend his Los Angeles City championship, finishing the 72-hole event with an 11-under-par weekend on Griffith Park's Harding and Wilson courses.

Sunday, he concluded a top-five performance in the 101st Southern California Golf Association championship, shooting 2-under-par 69 in the last of four rounds at Rancho Santa Fe.

``It was important for me to win L.A. City,'' he said. ``But I wanted to do better at SCGA - I'm trying to make up for lost time.''

This was only the fourth SCGA appearance for Hogarth, following 1996 reinstatement as an amateur after a brief bid in the pro ranks. The SCGA is one of the few major state or Southern California amateur titles to elude him.

His PubLinks title of '96 earned him a berth in the 1997 Masters, a memory tough to top. But last year was also memorable. Hogarth added SoCal PubLinks, Kelly Cup, State Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur titles to his L.A. City championship and had or shared low score in qualifying tournaments for State Amateur and U.S. Amateur.

``Easily the best year I've had,'' he said.

This one is starting similarly.

Recent tournament results:

--Los Angeles City: Hogarth shot 68-69-67-66 in respective rounds at Balboa, Encino, Harding and Wilson to finish 16-under-par 270, becoming only the third three-time winner in the 82-year history of the event.

Brock Shafer of Los Serranos closed strong in a 74-77-66-66 effort to take second at 274, a stroke ahead of a third-place tie between Cal State Northridge freshman Scott Bashin and 1998 City champion Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys.

City net winners included A-flight champion Rick Martin of Sepulveda (68-67-71-206) in a playoff over Mark Steele of Marshall Canyon (66-68-72-206); Robert Shrier of Rancho Park (69-62-72-203) by two strokes over Ardeshir Nozari of Sepulveda (68-70-67-205) in B flight; Ron Tom of Brookside (69-68-67-204) by a stroke over Clifton Tucker of El Cariso (68-67-70-205) in C flight; and Alfred Aswad of Los Verdes (73-67-74-214) by nine strokes over Patrick Giles unattached) in D flight.

--SoCal Public Links: College of the Canyons alums Travis Matye of Lancaster and Alex Kuyumjian of Thousand Oaks and former Cal State Northridge golfer Ryan Fowlkes topped area efforts at Los Serranos South and were among six qualifiers for the July 10-15 U.S. PubLinks championship in Milwaukie, Ore.

Matye, who led Canyons to its second state JC title this year, shot 72-66-138 to finish 6-under par and take medalist honors by seven strokes. Kuyumjian, who led Westlake High's title-winning effort in the 1996 CIF/SCGA final, shared second place at 72-73-145. Fowlkes shot 72-74-146 to nab the final qualifying berth for the July 10-15 national championship at Heron Lakes GC.

--SCGA championship: Scott McGihon shot 4-under par in the final round to finish 68-72-73-67-280 and win by four strokes at par-71, 6,911-yard Rancho Santa Fe. Terry Noe of Fullerton, Darin Sullivan of San Diego and third-round leader Steve Conway, the recent Santa Margarita High graduate who will play for UCLA next season, shared second place.

Hogarth (71-73-73-69) and four-time champion Steinberg (71-73-72-20) led area efforts, tying for fifth with John Mallinger of Long Beach and Carlsbad's Mark Etue at 286. Etue's performance included a final-round 65 that tied the course record set by Mallinger in the first round.

Glendale's Keith Kinsel (73-77-77-76-303) was the other area finalist in the 101st SCGA championship.

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Photo: Tim Hogarth became the first player in 50 years to successfully defend the L.A. City Championship.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer