The 2007 SCGA Senior Amateur Championships: Bogan, Vanyo look to defend titles

Reigning SCGA Senior Amateur champion Steve Bogan, who shot a sparkling 5-under-par 67 in last year’s final round to secure the title, and SCGA Super Senior champion Ray Vanyo, will be joined by six other past champions who will all be vying for the next senior amateur crowns, when the 30th SCGA Senior Amateur and 8th SCGA Super Senior Championships kick off on September 17 at Hacienda Golf Club in La Habra.

The 59-year-old Bogan, of Placentia, who also won the championship in 2004 at Wilshire CC, capped off his successful 2006 season with the historic “senior double,” when he won both the SCGA Senior and the 2006 CGA State Senior Amateur Championships in Pebble Beach earlier in the summer. He’s the first Southern Californian to capture both titles in the same year, which helped catapult him to SCGA Senior Player of the Year status.

If Bogan’s 2007 showings are any indication, he could be a force at Hacienda as well. After a sixth place finish at this year’s state senior, Bogan rebounded and qualified for the USGA Senior Amateur Championship in August, where he earned stroke play medalist honors before falling (along with Westminster’s Larry Grant, also in the SCGA senior field) in the third round of match play.

Banning’s Vanyo, 69, will be back to defend his 2006 Super Senior title as well, in the division for players ages 65 and older. Vanyo shot a pair of 75s at last year’s championship at The Ranch Course at The Alisal to finish one shot ahead of first-round leader Ralph Rubenstein of La Quinta.

This is the first year the championship will be played at Hacienda Golf Club, an 87-year-old Willie Watson layout recently renovated by John Harbottle III (read more about the course here). The 36-hole championship tees off at 8:30 a.m. on the September 17, with the final round played on September 18. The championship is free to spectators. Ray Vanyo

Laguna Niguel’s Kemp Richardson, 61, a two-time U.S. Senior Amateur Champion and 2006 SCGA Senior Player of the Year runner-up who has yet to win an SCGA championship. Richardson was the only player besides Bogan in last year’s SCGA Senior Amateur to shoot under par for the second round (he shot 77-70 to tie for fifth).
Carver, a two-time SCGA Super Senior Amateur Champion who is a member of Hacienda. Carver is the current Hacienda Men’s Club champion as well.
Lyford, one of three players (including Bogan) who have won both the SCGA and CGA Senior titles (he won the Southland title in 2000 while he won the state senior in 2002; Paul Ladin won the CGA in 1993 and 1995).