The 24th SCGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Mission Viejo Country Club turned out to be two tournaments. Tim Hogarth won one. John Pate won the other … eight shots behind Hogarth.
In capturing his second SCGA Mid-Amateur title (the first was in 1999, the same year he won the California Amateur), the 40-year-old Hogarth was in a different zone from the other 83 competitors, firing rounds of 70-71-70 — 211, 5 under par over the 6,943-yard Robert Trent Jones, Sr.- designed layout that was dubbed “Mission Impossible” when it opened in 1967.
Moreover, those three subpar scores came on a course Hogarth had never seen before his first round.
Hogarth — the only golfer to win the “Triple Crown” (California Amateur, SCGA Mid-Am and SCGA Amateur, which he captured in 2004) — finished a record eight shots in front of Pate, who posted three consecutive rounds of 73 in the two-day, 54-hole event for amateur golfers age 25 and higher. The old record was seven shots in 1994 when Mark Johnson outpaced the field at Indian Ridge CC.
David Bartman of Los Angeles finished third this year at 219, two shots in front of three-time SCGA Amateur champion and 2000 Mid-Am winner Scott McGihon of Bermuda Dunes.
Hogarth’s scores had many in awe, especially when people learned he had never played the course, not even for a practice round. “So much for local knowledge,” said Hogarth with a wry smile after his first two rounds (the 54-hole event is played over just two days, with 36 holes being contested the first day).
“Actually, I got a bit lucky because it turns out that I hit driver sometimes when I shouldn’t have,” admitted Hogarth. “Normally I hit driver every chance I get, but on some of these holes, I can run out of fairway and the out-of-bounds comes into play. But straight works most places — 135 [yards] is still going to be 135 no matter where we’re playing. This golf course demands a lot of good ball striking and I hit a lot of fairways this week.”
Overall, Hogarth had 11 birdies and an eagle, which came on the 530-yard, par-5 eighth hole in the final round. Moments after making bogey 5 on the seventh hole, Hogarth drilled his tee shot into the center of the fairway, maneuvered a fairway metal 30 feet to the right of the flagstick (and away from the water that guards the green) and then drained a 30-foot roller-coaster putt.
He nearly had a second eagle on the 10th hole in the second round when he knocked his 8-iron approach shot stiff, leaving a 2-inch putt for birdie 3.
For the tournament, Hogarth was 7 under par on the par-5s on a course that played to nearly 7,000 yards each round.
Hogarth had a good feeling coming into the event. “I generally know coming in how my game is going to feel,” said Hogarth after the championship was completed, “and I had a lot of confidence this week after preparing with my long-time instructor, Randy Petersen.”
The preparation was for two events as Lakeside Golf Club’s prestigious invitational, the Kelly Cup, was the same week as the Mid-Am.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned how to prepare,” said Hogarth. “I don’t play as much as I used to, so it’s vital that I prepare properly. If I get ready, I can expect to play well; if I don’t, things aren’t going to go well for me. I had a feeling that things would go well for me coming into this week.”
He was prescient, winning the Mid-Am wireto- wire. Hogarth’s opening-round 70 left him a shot in front of Jason Bittick and he increased the lead to four shots after round two. His closest pursuer
|
