Pat Duncan, who won the first SCGA Amateur title of the 90s, wins the final SCGA tournament of the decade by four strokes over the other club champions at Thunderbird CC

It was, perhaps, fitting that the final event of the SCGA's centennial year would be won by one of its most recognizable members, Pat Duncan. The 1990 SCGA Amateur and 1998 SCGA Mid-Amateur champion blistered Thunderbird Country Club with a six-under-par 65 and cruised to victory in the silver anniversary of the SCGA Tournament of Club Champions.

Duncan, 16-time club champion at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, was four shots in front of Cameron Broumand, who represented Riviera CC, and Chris Veitch, the Santa Ana CC club champ, who each shot two-under-par 69 at Thunderbird, which shortly after World War II became the first 18-hole course to be built in the Coachella Valley.

It was Duncan's second T of CC victory (he also captured the title in 1992 at Del Mar CC) and the sixth title of his illustrious SCGA career (which includes two Four-ball wins with Mark Johnson).

Among those tied at one-under-par 70 was defending champion Mark Gardner of Redlands, and 16-year-old Brendan Steele of Golden Era.

"Well, I had two bad drives," Duncan recalled in detailing his seemingly near-flawless round, "and still, I would have had a 64 but for a three-putt (on the par-four 12th, his only bogey)."

The 65 equalled Duncan's low round in SCGA/USGA play over his long amateur career. A landscape gardener by profession, Duncan shot a 65 once in a 36-hole qualifying for the U.S. Open. "I was loose and laughing after that round," he remembered with a smile. "In the second round, though, I tripled 10 and all of a sudden I had to really start playing golf. I managed to qualify by a stroke."

The six-under par total was also the lowest winning score in the history of the event. Kevin Claborn had the previous low of 66 at Indian Ridge in 1993.

Duncan grabbed a lead early and never really had to look back. He was three under through six holes after starting on No. 9 in the shotgun teeoff.

He assured the win by scoring birdies on his last three holes, two of which were par-three holes.

Veitch recovered from his first of only two bogeys (at the 367-yard 13th) by birdieing the next two holes. Broumand jammed all his non-par holes into the course's first four with birdies at 1, 2, and 4 and a bogey at the 516-yard third.

In earlier handicap flights, John Erdhaus of Candlewood, a five-handicapper who was a football all-American at Santa Monica Community College and Cal State L.A, prevailed in the President's Flight at Monterey CC, firing a net 67 to edge Bruce Mailhes of Newport Beach GC and Ted Cumming of Rancho Las Palmas (who birdied two of his last three holes) by a stroke.

Ed McBratney of Diamond Bar, the president of SoCal Players, took a four-stroke victory in the Vice President's Flight at Palm Valley.

Erdhaus, athletic department head and golf coach at Los Angeles City College, was consistent with two bogeys and two birdies on each side for an even-par 72.

McBratney, 55, aided his score with a natural birdie on a par-five, which helped overcome two later triple bogeys.

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