NOTES: BALLARD, SURBER MAKE U.S. AMATEUR FIELD.

Byline: Daily News

Two area golfers, including Wood Ranch membership director Steve Ballard, have qualified for next week's U.S. Amateur championship at Pebble Beach.

Competition starts Monday with two rounds of stroke play, which advances the top 64 to match play that continues through Aug. 22.

Ballard advanced by shooting 2-over-par 140 in 36-hole competition at Apple Valley Country Club. He was second by one stroke in that qualifying event.

Russell Surber, a four-time CIF/SCGA individual finalist at Flintridge Prep and an All-Big-Eight Conference first-team selection as a freshman at Texas this past school year, is the other area qualifier.

Surber earned his first U.S. Amateur berth by shooting 136 in a qualifier at Whispering Pines in Tacoma, Wash., tying for low score of the competition.

Surber's previous appearance in a USGA championship event came in 1996, when he reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur.

Simi Valley resident Mitch Voges also will play at Pebble Beach, by virtue of a 10-year exemption he earned for winning the 1991 U.S. Amateur.

Four USC golfers - Nick Jones, Nick Webb, John Ray Leary and Charlie Woerner - also qualified for Pebble Beach.

Woerner, who completed his USC eligibility this past season, shot 141 for medalist honors in a qualifier at Sharon Heights CC in Menlo Park; Webb took first at 139 at Del Rio CC in Modesto; Leary led the scoring at 141 at Mission Viejo CC; and Jones was second at 141 at Pauma Valley.

Reigning state amateur champion Tim Hogarth of Northridge and Simi Valley's Roy Moon both earned alternate berths to the U.S. Amateur.

Hogarth, a former Cal State Northridge All-American who won the U.S. Public Links title in 1996, lost in a four-way playoff for the three berths available in a qualifier at Bakersfield CC. Moon, the reigning Marmonte League champion who will start his senior year at Royal High next month, shot 143 at Bakersfield to miss the playoff by one stroke.

Junior update: Moon qualified for the American Junior Golf Association's Ashworth/Golf Design Junior Championship, shooting 38-36-74 at the Mission Hills CC Palmer Course. Jeff Osborn, who will start his junior season at Flintridge Prep next month, shot 36-38-74 in the same event.

Moon, 16, also won the 17th annual Simi Valley Amateur championship this past weekend with a 68-70-138. He was the youngest golfer to ever win the event.

Anne Lee, a June graduate of Notre Dame High, is on the West team that is playing this week in the Cannon Cup at Love Cove Club on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Brentwood senior Hana Kim of Encino also is playing for the West in the three-day team competition that concludes Thursday.

J.T. Kohut of Simi Valley is No. 32 in this week's Golfweek/Titleist national amateur boys' rankings. Lee is No. 39 and Kim No. 47 in the girls' rankings.

Honoring Murray: The Jim Murray Inaugural Golf Classic will be played Monday at Riviera Country Club, with honorary chairman Arnold Palmer included among nearly two dozen celebrity participants.

The event, honoring the late Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter, will raise scholarship money for first-year journalism students (recipients based on a nationwide essay contest). Information: [phone].

Shearer comes up short: Alemany High senior-to-be Krystal Shearer failed to advance past stroke play in the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, finishing 82-81-163 Tuesday in her first attempt in a USGA final.

Natalie Gulbis of Citrus Heights, Calif., was medalist at a tournament-record 71-66-137 and will lead 64 qualifiers into match play that starts today and concludes Sunday at 6,202-yard, par-72 Biltmore Forest CC in Asheville, N.C.