Brandon Gama, the 2008 champion, opened the 54th Santa Barbara City Golf Championship on a high note, shooting a 4-under 66 to take the first-round lead Saturday at the Santa Barbara Golf Club.
Gama, who set the tournament scoring record of 17-under 193 when he won title, holds a one-shot lead over five players, including six-time champion John Pate. Also shooting 67s were UCSB’s Brett Silvernail, Santa Barbara High standout James Morton, Allen Geiberger and James T. Camaione.
Two shots back are Santa Clara University’s Drew Miller, Fresno State commit Michael Pugh of Temecula-Great Oak High and SBCC’s Steven Lam.
Defending champion Brian Helton and two-time winner Kevin Marsh are three back after shooting 69s.
The championship flight will tee off on Sunday at 7:30 a.m.
In the Palmer Flight, Bill Clemo, Chuck Sonefelt and Dan Dawson share first place with a gross score of 73.
Orlando Hernandez shot a gross 73 and leads the Hogan Flight.
Bryan Fracchia is the leader in the Nicklaus Flight with a 76; Michael Holmstrom tops the Trevino Flight at 79; Joseph Morin shot an 80 to lead the Snead Flight and Alec Bruice holds the top spot in the Player Flight with an 84.
CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT SCORES
FIRST ROUND
Brandon B Gama 66
Allen Geiberger 67
Brett P Silvernail 67
James Morton 67
James T Camaione 67
John Pate 67
Drew Miller 68
Michael A Pugh 68
Steven Lam 68
Brian Helton 69
Kevin Marsh 69
Brennan Amirkhizi 70
Bobby Schaeffer 71
Ed Susolik 71
Jonathan Hall 71
Jose Pelayo 71
Joshua Shou 71
Niels Andersen 71
Scott G Patterson 71
Andrew J Levitt 72
David Boote 72
George F Downing 72
Jack H Davis 72
Jacob Dexter 72
Jason Pridmore 72
John Baur 72
Brett T Patton 73
Davin Sjoberg 73
Jonny Hogan 73
Kevin Ruby 73
Ruben Carmona 73
Dave Aarons 74
Howard Hall 74
Jeff Myers 74
Johnathan Avedon 74
Jonathan Collins 74
Alexander McElhaney 75
Ben Tumbel 75
Brandon Crane 75
Christian Sanders 75
Erwyn Lam 75
Grant Amerson 75
Jordan Scott 75
Pe’a Hill 75
Shane Lebow 75
Brian Walker 76
Christopher Rendler 76
Joshua Cordova 76
Michael Madrigal 76
Michael Yi 76
Paul R. Sorensen 76
Scott Snowbarger 76
Alex Romo 77
Brandon Shaw 77
Ethan R Habecker 77
Kiyan Mashhoon 77
Bailey Rogers 78
Cody P Hall 78
Danny Carroll 78
David Talley 78
Dean Rogers 78
Marcus Briscoe 78
Sean Searls 78
Jason Enriquez 79
Jorgen Staal 79
Miichael J Ondrejko 79
Rick Easter 79
Tyler Davis 79
Alec Constantinides 80
Karma Lama 80
Richard Padilla 80
Bennett Reichard 81
Forrest Iverson 81
Jason Brendel 81
Michael Nam 81
Sandeep Narayan 81
Colin Cole 82
Matt Flynn 83
Jeffery S Lester 85
John Harding 87
Carson Curtis 88
Nico Pollero 88
