HISTORIC TOURNAMENT, HISTORIC VENUES, HISTORIC MOMENT
Lakeside GC and Oakmont CC, two prime examples of golf's first great "Golden Age" of golf course architecture, will host the 97th California Amateur Championship June 16-21
By Robert D. Thomas
 When the California Golf Association board of directors contemplated which clubs should host the 2008 California Amateur Championship, several names appeared on nearly everyone’s lists. This year will mark the first time that the nation’s most prestigious state amateur will be contested outside the Monterey Peninsula, so the board considered championship quality, history and clubs that were willing to embrace this week-long event.
In the end the choice was easy. The 97th California Amateur will be played June 16-21 at Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank and Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, two of the finest examples of golf’s first great “Golden Age” of golf course architecture in the 1920s.
A total of 156 golfers will be divided over both courses for 36 holes of stroke play during the first two days. After the second round, the field will be cut to the low 32 scorers, with a playoff, if necessary, to be conducted Tuesday at Lakeside.
Concurrent with the two stroke play rounds will be the annual North-South competition for the Roger Lapham Challenge Cup. Six-man teams from the SCGA and the NCGA will compete, with the best five of six scores each day counting for the team total.
Lakeside will host all matches beginning Wednesday, June 18. The second round of match play will be June 19, the quarterfinals and semifinals are slated for June 20, and the 36-hole championship match is scheduled for Saturday, June 21. Josh Anderson of Murrieta is the defending champion (see separate story).
“We’re extremely grateful that these two great clubs have agreed to host this year’s California Amateur,” says Ed Holmes, CGA president in 2008. “In this historic year when we contest the championship in Southern California for the first time, these two historic clubs are great choices for this event. We’re delighted that the clubs’ memberships have embraced the event with enthusiasm, and look forward to being there next month.”
Although golf came to Southern California in the 1880s, Redlands CC was the first club to be established in Southern California. Next came The Los Angeles CC (in 1897) and several other clubs followed. However, the game’s growth stalled and golf course construction came to a halt due to World War I.
After the “war to end all wars” ended on Nov. 11, 1918, Southern California began to explode as manufacturing and the entertainment industry fueled a massive housing boom. Golf also took off during this time, and legendary golf course architects such as George Thomas, Jr., William P. Bell, Alister Mackenzie, and Willie Watson began designing courses throughout the southland.
One of those designers was Max Behr, whose creations included Rancho Santa Fe GC, Lakeside GC and Oakmont CC, three of the greatest courses of that “Golden Age” (Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla CC, another 1920s design, will host the 2010 California Amateur Championship).
Oakmont was founded in 1922 as a real estate project developed by Frank Lanterman. Like many clubs, Oakmont struggled during the Great Depression until it was bought by a club member, William Crenshaw, in 1934. Eventually, club members were able to turn Oakmont into an equity club.
Ben Hogan set the course record of 64 in the final round of the 1948 Glendale Open, a record that stood until 2001 SCGA Amateur champion and UCLA star John Merrick shot 63 in 2003. In the 1990s, the course was the site of an LPGA tournament for several years.
 Oakmont will tip out at 6,736 yards for the California Amateur. “It’s going to be tough if the greens get fast,” says defending champion Josh Anderson. Expect that to happen, says SCGA Board of Directors member Al Frank, who is an Oakmont member. “The rule of thumb is that the greens break to Glendale,” says Frank, “but most people don’t know exactly where Glendale is. As a result, it will be hard to read the greens, especially for those not used to playing here.”
Since it was founded in 1924, Lakeside has been known not only for its great course but also for the great golfers and Hollywood celebrities who have been club members.
Among the former are Johnny Dawson, Roger Kelly and Bruce McCormick who have won five California Amateur titles among them (see separate box on page 23). The celebrities could take up this entire magazine but two of the most famous were Bing Crosby (a former club champion) and Bob Hope.
Lakeside will play 6,534 yards, par 70, but don’t let the length deceive you, says 1999 California Amateur champion Tim Hogarth, who has won six Kelly Cups (Lakeside’s prestigious invitational), including the last four in a row (both records).
“You don’t even look at the yardage,” explains the 41-year-old Hogarth about Lakeside. “It’s a very subtle course and you pick things up each time you play it. The way the holes turn and the big trees in the way make it a strategic course. You can hit driver if you keep it straight and you pick the spots where you can be aggressive. But if you don’t pull off the shots, all of a sudden you’ll be putting up a big number. It should be a perfect course for match play, in particular.”
Although the field is of prime quality, the scores will be high if the course is set up like last month’s Kelly Cup. Hogarth won the event with a score of 1-over-par 211, finishing eight shots in front of the next competitor.
Moreover, one only needs to look back to the 2004 SCGA Amateur, which was played over the 6,449-yard Hillcrest CC (another 1920s design). Only one player, Hogarth, broke par in the 72-hole, stroke-play event and he finished at 279, just 1-under par.
Josh Anderson: charging at history: Seeking to break a 53-year string, the Pepperdine student will seek to successfully defend his California Amateur title next month
In 1955, Dr. Frank “Bud” Taylor — a USC grad, dentist and lifelong amateur golfer who would go on to represent the United States in three Walker Cup competitions — defeated Jack Lovegren, 3 & 2, to win the California Amateur Championship for the second consecutive year.
Taylor’s win was noteworthy, but no one at the time realized that it would become historic. With his win in 1955, Taylor became the sixth player in the event’s 54 years to win back-to-back titles.
No one has done it since.
As if the tournament itself wasn’t tough enough, that will be the challenge facing Josh Anderson of Murrieta when he tees it up on June 16 at Oakmont CC. The 19-year-old Pepperdine student won the title last year by defeating Joe Greiner of Saugus, 4 & 3, at Monterey Peninsula CC in Pebble Beach and he’ll be back this year to defend.
 “Oh yes,” Anderson responded when asked if he was aware of the historic implications this year. “Of course, I’d love to be part of history by winning this tournament again. And I’d like to put my name on the SCGA Amateur trophy, as well.”
It’s been a frustratingly long year for Anderson, who elected to redshirt during his freshman year at Pepperdine. “It turned out to be the best thing I could do,” said Anderson. “Pepperdine is really tough academically and I’ve been able to practice with the team and work on my game. Now I’ll have four years to play for the Waves.”
Anderson knows about biding his time. Days after he qualified for the 2005 California Amateur, Anderson was involved in a horrific car accident in which he nearly died. He had to lay out for six months recovering from a compound fracture of his left humerus. “I didn’t know whether I would ever play golf again,” said Anderson last year.
The downside to redshirting, said Anderson, was no tournaments. “Last year’s U.S. Amateur was my last event,” said Anderson. “I’m used to gearing my practice schedule to point for tournaments, so this year has been pretty tough since I’ve had nothing to prepare for.”
So Anderson is champing at the bit. His first tournament play will be in U.S. Open local qualifying at Newport Beach CC May 14 and, if he makes the cut, he’ll play in U.S. Open Sectional qualifying at Lake Merced GC in June.
Then it’s off to the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur where Anderson will hook up with his high school teammate, Rickie Fowler, who used a victory in the Pennsylvania tournament to kick off a magical summer that culminated in a lead role in the U.S. Walker Cup victory at Royal County Down GC in Northern Ireland.
In addition to the California and SCGA Amateurs, Anderson is also entered in the Players Amateur, Western Amateur and Pacific Coast Amateur. “I’m trying to make up for lost time,” said Anderson with a chuckle.
However, Anderson won’t be the only golfer chasing history. Several other former champions are entered in this year’s tournament, all looking to join the list of 14 golfers who have won two or more titles (Jack Neville heads the list with five titles).
One of those is Tim Hogarth, who isn’t a Lakeside member but appears to own the course. Last month, he won the club’s Kelly Cup for the sixth time and fourth in a row (both records for the prestigious event). Hogarth won the 1999 California Amateur by defeating 1981 champion Gary Vanier on the 38th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the third-longest championship match in the event’s history. That same year, Hogarth won the first of two SCGA Mid-Amateur titles, and when he won the 2004 SCGA Amateur, Hogarth became the first person ever to win the SCGA Triple Crown.
John Pate could duplicate Hogarth’s “Triple Crown” legacy should the Santa Barbara resident win the California Amateur this year. Pate — whose brother, Steve, was a multiple winner on the PGA Tour — won the centennial playing of the SCGA Amateur in 1999 and the SCGA Mid-Amateur in 2000. He has come close to winning the state amateur, losing on the 36th hole in 1995 when Jeff Sanday rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt to snatch the title away.
Other former champions entered this year include:
• Don DuBois of Newport Beach, who defeated Joseph Bramlett, 2 & 1, in 2005 to become, at age 46, the second-oldest champion ever (should DuBois win this year, he’d set the age record). Bramlett, then age 17, is now a student at Stanford.
• Steve Woods of Cupertino, the 1994 champion. This was the only year that Tiger played in the California Amateur and he made it to the semifinals, only to lose to Ed Cuff, Jr., 2 & 1. Steve Woods, a San Jose State student who grew up in Southern California, then knocked off Cuff, 5 & 3, to win the title.
• Darryl Donovan of Gilroy, won the title in 2001 and is slated to play this year.
Among other Southern Californians who will compete this year are:
• Brett Kanda, the UNLV student and Oakmont CC member who captured last year’s SCGA Amateur Championship at Victoria Club; he would become the first person to win both the SCGA Amateur and California Amateur since Todd Demsey (1992 Cal Am and 1993 SCGA Amateur).
• Scott McGihon, a middle school teacher and high school golf coach in the Coachella Valley, who has won three SCGA Amateur titles. McGihon could also join Hogarth as a Triple Crown winner should he win the state amateur this year.
• Tim Mickelson, brother of Phil and golf coach at the University of San Diego, was third in last year’s Pacific Coast Amateur Championship.
One other historical note: Taylor nearly won three California Amateurs in a row (a feat never accomplished in the tournament’s history) only to lose to Ken Venturi, 2 & 1, in 1956. Since 1955, Mike Brannan has come the closest to duplicating Taylor’s double. After defeating Dick Runkle on the 37th hole in the 1973 championship match, Brannan lost to Curtis Worley, 2 & 1, a year later.
Bobby Clampett won in 1978 and 1980 but didn’t play in 1979, the year that Mark O’Meara thrashed Lennie Clements, 8 & 7, in the 36-hole championship match. O’Meara went on to win the U.S. Amateur that year.
For complete California Amateur coverage, visit www.californiaamateur.org |
