Santa Barbarans have played a big part in the long history of the Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship.
Before he became known as Mr. 59, Al Geiberger won the tournament as an 18 year old in 1956, lost in the final the next year and reclaimed the title in 1959.
In 1996, Dos Pueblos High grad Kevin Marsh won the championship, two years after a guy by the name of Tiger Woods won it. Marsh put his name on the trophy again in 2008.
John Pate earned the title as SCGA Amateur Champion in 1999.
Will a Santa Barbaran rise to the top in the 111th edition of the tournament?
The local golfers will have a home course advantage as this year’s 72-hole stroke play championship is being played for the first time at La Cumbre Country Club, Friday through Sunday.
Nine golfers with Santa Barbara ties are among the 84 competing in the tournament. In addition to former champions Marsh and Pate, Jack Perry and Shane Lebow of the CIF State-champion Santa Barbara High boys golf team are entered. The other local players in the field are George Downing (a La Cumbre CC member), Steve Lass (UCSB coach), Patrick MacMichael, Niall Platt (Condor League champion at Laguna Blanca and University of Notre Dame bound) and Allen Geiberger, the son of Al Geiberger, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, who in 1977 became the first player to shoot a 59 in a PGA-santioned event
The field will play 36 holes on Friday beginning at 7:30 a.m, and the low 42 scores and ties will advance to the weekend.
Marsh is considered the favorite. The 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion holds the course record at La Cumbre, shooting 67-67 two years ago when the course hosted U.S. Amateur qualifying.
Others who figure to be in the hunt for the title include SCGA Mid-Amateur champion Tim Hogarth, State Amateur champion Scott Travers and Pat Cantlay, who beat out Lebow and Perry in a playoff to win the CIF State individual championship last month at Santa Maria Country Club.
The tournament winner gets an exemption into future state and SCGA championships and oftentimes is invited to play in other national amateur events.
The SCGA put some of the local players together in the pairings for Friday. Perry and Platt are in the same three-player group teeing off at No. 1 at 7:48 a.m., while Downing and Lebow are part of a group that goes off at 7:57. Pate and Lass commence play together at 8:06.
MacMichael tees off at 7:39, Geiberger at 7:57 on No. 10 and Marsh at 8:15 on the first hole.
The second round is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Play begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
There is no admission charge to the tournament, but fans attending are required by the club to dress in proper golf attire (no denim).
This is the first time the SCGA Amateur has been held in Santa Barbara County.
