Scott McGihon of Bermuda Dunes, Tim Hogarth of Northridge, Craig Steinberg of Oak Park and newly crowned California Amateur champion Josh Anderson of Murrieta will be chasing history when the 108th SCGA Amateur Championship tees off June 29 through July 1 at historic Victoria Club in Riverside, the home club of SCGA President Ed Holmes. The tournament is the nation’s second-oldest, continuously contested golf championship.

A field of 84 golfers will play 36 holes on Friday, June 29, with players teeing off at 7:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. from the first and 10th tees. 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 39-year-old McGihon of Bermuda Dunes, the two-time defending champion, is looking to move even deeper into the history books. If he were to win at Victoria Club, McGihon would:
• Become the first golfer ever to win three consecutive titles. Paul Hunter (1908-09) Johnny Dawson (1945-46), Bruce McCormick (1947-48), Jim Ferrie (1950-51), Brad Greer (1984-85) and Steinberg (1990-91) are the other golfers to win back-to-back titles.
• 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 Steinberg (1988, 1991, 1992, 1997).

Hogarth, the 2004 SCGA Amateur champion, is riding a red-hot streak that began when he won the SCGA Mid-Amateur Championship this spring by a record-breaking eight shots at Mission Viejo CC. He followed that up a few days later at the prestigious Kelly Cup invitational at Lakeside Golf Club by winning his fifth overall and third straight title, both records. A month later, he captured the Pasadena City Amateur and earlier this month won his sixth Los Angeles City Amateur Championship.

Winner of the 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links championship, Hogarth is the only golfer to have won the “California Triple Crown”: the SCGA Amateur, California Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur; he won the latter two titles in 1999 and the Mid-Amateur that year was played at Victoria Club.

Steinberg, who is bidding to join Paul Hunter as the tournament’s only five-time winner, is also playing on a course where he won the SCGA Mid-Amateur (in 2001). For the 49-year-old Steinberg, who isn’t one of the longer hitters in the field, Victoria might represent his best chance to win that elusive fifth title, since the course measures just over 6,500 yards.

The 18-year-old Anderson, who defeated Joe Greiner of Saugus Saturday to win the 96th California Amateur, could become the first person since Johnny Dawson in 1942 to win the California Amateur and SCGA Amateur in the same year. A recent graduate of Murrieta Valley High School — where he was a teammate of the nation’s number one-ranked junior player, Rickie Fowler — Anderson is headed to Pepperdine this fall. The 20-year-old Greiner, who was a member of College of the Canyons’ 2006 California State Community College championship, is also entered in the SCGA 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. Pate, who also captured the 2000 SCGA Mid-Amateur, was runner-up in this year’s Santa Barbara City Amateur.

Three former California Amateur champions — Jordan Nasser of Anaheim Hills (2006), Don DuBois of Newport Beach (2005) and Ed Cuff of Rancho Santa Fe (1998) — are also in this year’s field, as are three former SCGA Mid-Amateur winners: Robert Funk (2006), John McClure (2005) and Steve Lass (1987). Two other strong contenders are 2005 Trans-Mississippi Mid-Amateur champion David Bartman of Los Angeles (he teamed with Funk to win the 2006 SCGA Foursomes and SCGA Four-Ball titles) and Brian Edick of Valencia, who has finished runner-up to McGihon in the last two SCGA Amateurs.

One of the interesting story lines is Johnny Holmes, the 2006 SCGA Tournament of Club Champions winner, who is the son of SCGA President Ed Holmes. Should the younger Holmes win, he’d be just the second son of an SCGA president to win (Charley Seaver in 1934 was the first). One of last year’s runner-ups, Bhavik Patel of Bakersfield, is again entered; at age 16, he could become the youngest winner ever.