By Robert D. Thomas
Southern California Golf Association

Rob Thompson of Merced, the 2004 California Golf Association (CGA) Senior Amateur champion, fired a 2-under-par 70 today at Poppy Hills Golf Course and holds a one shot lead after the first round of the 16th edition of the state senior championship.

Defending champion Steve Bogan of Placentia and Lee Jeberjahn of San Luis Obispo each shot 1-under-par 71 today.  Another shot back at even par is Frank Abbot.

Thompson began his round on the 10th hole and had three birdies on his first nine but also made a double-bogey 6 on the 395-yard 14th hole to finish with a 1-under-par 35.  He was also 1 under par on the front side, making two birdies and a bogey.

For Bogan, who is bidding to become the first repeat champion since Jim McMurtrey in 1994-1995, it was a day of “what might have been.”  Bogan also began on the 502-yard 10th hole and laced a three-wood approach shot of 225 yards to within two inches of making double-eagle (“I like having two-inch putts for eagle,” he said later).  He also birdied the two par-3 holes on the back side and made the turn in 4-under-par 32.

Those were to be his last birdies.  Bogan bogeyed three consecutive front-nine holes and had a trio of three-putts en route to a 39.  “The wind came up and I mis-clubbed two shots,” he said later.  “That and the three-putts told the story.  Dumb, dumb, dumb!”

Jeberjahn began his round on the front side and, after six consecutive pars, bogeyed the seventh and eighth.  However, he rebounded to birdie both the par-5 ninth and 10th holes and nearly holed a bunker shot on the par-3 11th hole for what would have been three consecutive birdies.  A birdie 2 on the 17th hole and six more pars put him in a tie for second.

Gary Vanier, the 1982 California Amateur champion who lost to Bogan in a playoff last year, is in a group of six golfers at 1-over-par 73.  In all, 10 golfers are within three shots of the lead, a testimony to mild winds and warming temperatures that made Poppy Hills play easier than in some past years.

In the Senior Cup competition held concurrently with the first two rounds, the North opened up an eight-shot margin over the South.  With the best three of four scores counting for the team total, the North posted 719 to the South’s 727.  The final round is tomorrow. Click on Live Scoring to see results from today's round.

Top 10 photo gallery HERE

Senior Championship Chip Shots:
• The fierce winds that have bludgeoned the Monterey Peninsula for the past two days died down today and the benign conditions were reflected in the scores at Poppy Hills Golf Course.  Ten golfers are with three shots of the lead and another five are another shot back.

SWEET SHOTS
• Larry Hampsten had the shot of the day when he holed a 154-yard, seven-iron shot for an eagle 2 on the first hole.  “It was a great shot,” said one of his fellow competitors.  “It didn’t bounce of a tree or anything.”

• In the almost category, Steve Bogan opened today’s play on the 502-yard 10th hole and drilled his three-wood to within two inches of the hole for a tap-in eagle (“I like having two-inch putts for eagle,” he said later); Gary Shemano nearly holed his tee shot on the par-3-11th leaving it within inches of the hole.

• One of the most bizarre holes, I’ve ever witnessed was the 11th today, a par 3 that was playing 188 yards from tee to flagstick (according to most of the laser devices).  Earl Stewart began by nailing his tee shot 20 feet above the hole.  Lee Jeberjahn followed by putting his tee shot in the bunker in front of the green.  Fritz Swineheart then yanked his tee shot so far left that he feared he might not find it, and Richard Braun did the same thing.

When the golfers arrived at the green, Braun’s tee shot was nearly in the forest and he had to risk hitting a tree even to get a club on the ball.  He punched it through thick rough, up the hill and down the green about eight feet beyond the hole. 

Swineheart’s ball was next to the steps leading to the 12th tee.  Faced with a steep downhill slope, Swinehart drove the ball into the bank in front of the green and watched it pop up onto the green and dribble down to within four feet of the hole.

While all of this was going on, Jeberjahn exploded to within two inches of the hole.  He knocked it in for a par 3 and watched Braun and Swineheart sink their par putts, after which Stewart calmly rolled in his birdie putt.  “My birdie was nothing compared with what those two guys [Braun and Swineheart] did,” said Stewart.  Few, if any other of the four-player teams could have bettered this group’s total of 11 shots. --Robert D. Thomas