Andrew Perez went wire to wire to make it back-to-back titles at the 52nd annual Santa Barbara City Golf Championship on Monday.
Perez shot a 3-under par 67 to finish at 10-under 200 and win for the second straight year at Santa Barbara Golf Club.
“It’s fun to win here,” said Perez.
The former Santa Barbara High CIF-Southern Section champion was threatened briefly by Allen Geiberger, but he pulled away with consecutive birdies on the par-3 No. 13 and par-4 No. 14, and played par golf the rest of the way.
“It was a struggle, a little bit, up and down,” he said of the final round. “A lot of it had to do with me being around the greens. My chipping was phenomenal, just getting inside of five feet. My putting was decent.”
Geiberger, a Santa Barbara native and the son of Mr. 59, Al Geiberger, finished second at 205 and two-time champion Kevin Marsh was third at 207. Geiberger shot a final-round 71 and Marsh a 70.
“The guy deserves it,” Geiberger said of Perez. “I was giving it my all, but my putts weren’t dropping all day.”
Perez is the first back-to-back champion since UCSB’s Tony Verna in 2006-07 and sixth in tournament history.
His 200 was a three-shot improvement over his winning score from last year.
Perez came into the tournament on a hot streak. He was the individual winner at the Southern California Regionals and the California Community College State Finals while playing for College of the Desert.
He said he plans to continue defending his several municipal golf titles (Los Angeles is next) before going to PGA Qualifying School later in the year.
In the other flights, Gavin Lee shot a final-round 76 and pulled away to win the Palmer Flight at 223; Matthew Miane won the Hogan Flight at 233; Tom Seidl edged Martin Brown, 233-234, to win the Nicklaus Flight; Greg Bristol shot 246 to take the Trevino Flight; Larry Rodriguez won the Snead Flight with a 251, and Don Dick was the Player Flight winner with a 263.
CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT
Final Gross Scores
Andrew Perez…62-71-67—200
Allen Geiberger…68-66-71—205
Kevin Marsh…68-69-70—207
Kevin Ruby…67-71-72—210
Paul Misko…71-70-60—210
Aaron West…70-74-69—213
Brent Brockermeyer…67-73-73—213
Buddy Duncan…68-73-74—215
Brandon Gama…66-76-74—216
Thayer White–70-74-72—216
George Downing…69-77-71—217
Rory Doll…74-71-73—218
Albert Corral…68-76-75—219
Douglas Head…72-76-71—219
Jared Hentila…73-74-72—219
Matt Sobczak…71-73-75—219
Mike McCaskey…69-77-73—219
Rick Taniguchi…71-75-73—219
Tyler Schwanz…73-74-73—220
Andrew Skjonsby…68-79-74—221
Brandon Shaw…70-78-73—221
Kris Butkys…70-73-79—222
Dave Aarons…76-72-75—223
David Pichon…71-76-76—223
Peter Gullickson…76-71-77—224
Cameron Tennant…71-77-77—225
Brian Walker…75-73-80—228
Ray Gerow…72-76-80—228
