Paul Ladin

If you are ever in dire need of a big laugh, the kind that makes your temples throb and leaves you just a few seconds away from hyperventilating, hand a golf club to the average 7-year-old kid, drop a couple of golf balls on the grass, then stand back and watch. What ensues resembles Manute Bol trying his luck in gymnastics. The coordination level of most 7-year-olds just isn't well-suited for a precision game such as golf. Stephanie Martin was different. "The first time she picked up a club, you could see it," said Lee Martin, Stephanie's father and the head golf pro at Saticoy Country Club in Camarillo.

It wasn't a surprise that Jay Choe won the SCPGA Junior Tour Toyota Cup Tournament of Champions last weekend. Choe, 16, of Yorba Linda, shot 70-70--140 at the PGA of Southern California Golf Club and won by three shots over Greg Wells of Glendora for his third Tour Cup victory in three events this summer. The surprising part of the victory was that it didn't involve a playoff. Or a chip-in. Or a player named Choi. His last two victories included all of the above. On Aug.

That hallowed axiom of salesmen, "whatever the traffic will bear," has lost some of its luster among the automobile dealers of Thousand Oaks. Lately, the traffic has been bearing down heavily on Westlake Auto Center, the city's upscale auto row. And the dealers want the city to pass a law to stop it.