Brett Kanda, Nick Delio and Scott McGihon chase history at 109th SCGA Amateur on July 18-20 at Saticoy CC

STUDIO CITY, July 8, 2008 — Defending champion Brett Kanda of La Crescenta, three-time champion Scott McGihon of Bermuda Dunes and newly crowned California Amateur champion Nick Delio of Valencia will be chasing history when the 109th SCGA Amateur Championship — the nation’s second-oldest, continuously contested amateur golf championship — tees off July 18-20 at Saticoy Country Club in Somis, the home club of SCGA President Bob Lowe. 

Brett Kanda of La Crescenta will attempt to defend his title at the 109th SCGA Amateur Championship at Saticoy CC. Photo by Katie Denbo/SCGA.

A field of 84 golfers will play 36 holes on Friday, July 18, with players teeing off at 7:20 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. from the first and 10th tees (view pairings HERE).  The field will be trimmed to the low 42 scorers and ties after the second round.  The third round will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and the final round will begin at the same time on Sunday.

The 21-year-old Kanda, a sophomore at UNLV, is bidding to become just the seventh player ever to win back-to-back titles.  After playing superlative golf for 63 holes last year at Victoria Club in Riverside, Kanda had to withstand a scary finish, that began with a double bogey on the 10th hole and bogeys on the 11th and 13th holes.  Eventually, he righted the ship and finished three shots in front of Brian Edick of Valencia (who finished runner-up for the third consecutive year). See more details on the 2007 SCGA Amateur Web site.

The 40-year-old McGihon, who won the SCGA?Amateur in 2000 and again in 2005 and 2006, is bidding to become just the fourth golfer to win four or more SCGA?Amateur titles.  Paul Hunter won five times (1908, 1909, 1921, 1924 and 1926).  Four-time champions are Dawson (1942, 1945, 1946, 1952) and Craig Steinberg (1988, 1991, 1992, 1997).

The 18-year-old Delio, who won the 97th California Amateur Championship last month at Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, could become the first person since Johnny Dawson in 1942 to win the California Amateur and SCGA Amateur in the same year.  The long-hitting Delio, a sophomore at Cal State Northridge, got into the state tournament as an alternate and made the most of it, pounding 15-year-old Austin Roberts of Carmichael, 7 & 5, in the 36-hole championship match.

Among the other major players expected to contend are:

• Tim Hogarth of Northridge, the 2004 SCGA Amateur champion, who this spring won his sixth Kelly Cup invitational at Lakeside GC and fourth straight title, both records.  A month later, he captured his second consecutive Pasadena City Amateur. Winner of the 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links championship, Hogarth is the only golfer to have won the “Southern California Triple Crown”: the SCGA Amateur, California Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur; he won the latter two titles in 1999.

• Josh Anderson of Murrieta, who defeated Joe Greiner of Saugus Saturday to win the 2007 California Amateur Championship at Monterey Peninsula CC in Pebble Beach.  The 20-year-old Greiner, who was a member of College of the Canyons’ 2006 California State Community College championship team, is also entered in this year’s SCGA Amateur.

• Kevin Marsh, the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur and 1996 SCGA?Amateur champion.  The 34-year-old Marsh, who lives in Henderson, Nev. but belongs to La Cumbre CC in Santa Barbara, won his SCGA title in a playoff over Pat Duncan at Santa Maria CC.  His U.S. Mid-Am title allowed him to play in the 2006 Masters.

• David Bartman of Los Angeles, the 2007 SCGA?Tournament of Club Champions winner.  Bartman teamed with Funk to win the 2006 SCGA Foursomes and SCGA?Four-Ball titles, and in 2005 he captured the Trans-Mississippi Mid-Amateur.

Another former SCGA Amateur champion in the field is John Pate of Santa Barbara, who won the centennial playing of the event in 1999.  In addition to Anderson, two other California Amateur champions — Jordan Nasser of Anaheim Hills (2006) and Don DuBois of Newport Beach (2005) are in this year’s field, as are four former SCGA Mid-Amateur winners: Hogarth (1999, 2007), McGihon (2000), Robert Funk (2006) and John McClure (2005).

About the SCGA Amateur
The SCGA Amateur is one of the nation’s oldest continuously contested amateur golf championships. The first SCGA Amateur was held less than one year after the Southern California Golf Association was formed on July 29, 1899. Only the Utah Amateur, begun in 1899, has a longer consecutive string (the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur both predate the SCGA Amateur but both USGA events were suspended during war years).

Throughout its rich history, the SCGA Amateur has been won by some of the greatest golfers in history, including George Von Elm, Dawson, McCormick, Al Geiberger and, in 1994, Tiger Woods, who set single-round (62) and 72-hole (270) scoring records winning at Hacienda GC. Equally impressive are those who tried and failed to win the title, including such professional major winners as Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Scott Simpson, Mark O’Meara and Phil Mickelson.