CARLSBAD, Calif. (Jun 15, 2014) --
For just the fourth time in its 103-year existence, the California Amateur Championship will be held in Southern California, beginning Monday, June 16 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad. The event gathers the best 156 amateur players in the state and puts them through 36 holes of stroke play before the low 32 competitors advance on to match play.
Returning to defend his title is Cory McElyea of Santa Cruz, who last year qualified for the U.S. Open at Merion before dominating at the California Amateur. He will look to become the first back-to-back winner since Dr. Frank Taylor in 1954-55.
Among the favorites to challenge McElyea for the title is Xander Schauffele of San Diego State. Schauffele has performed well in SoCal amateur majors the past two years, despite not yet winning. In 2012, he finished as runner-up in the SCGA Amateur Championship at Big Canyon CC. One year later, he earned medalist honors at the California Amateur Championship, before earning his second-straight runner-up finish at the SCGA Amateur.
AmateurGolf.com "Tour" regulars in the field include Jerry Ledzinski of Carmel, 2014 San Francisco City champ Shintaro Ban, perennial player-of-the-year Randy Haag, 2014 US Am qualifier Jason Anthony, multiple Tour winner Matt Cohn, and too many more to mention. More than 50% of the players in the field are members of AmateurGolf.com.
Winning the State Amateur requires a heavy dose of competence in match play, which truly makes it anyone’s game. “Once you get to match play, everyone really has a shot,” says Ed Cuff Jr., a member of nearby Fairbanks Ranch who has been competing in the Championship for more than 20 years. “At my age, that’s now the goal, to make it to match play, because it really can give you a chance.”
Cuff knows this championship about as well as anyone, having won it back in 1998 and earning medalist honors in 1999. But the moment everyone still talks about is his 1994 semifinals win, when he beat Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach to advance to the finals, ending Tiger’s best chance of winning the title.
(The SCGA contributed to this story)
ABOUT THE California Amateur
The Championship is open to amateur golfers
who have established current indexes of 4.4
and are members in good standing of the
Southern California Golf Association, the
Northern California Golf Association, or the
Public Links Golf Association of Southern
California. Nonexempt players must qualify. An
entrant may play in only one qualifying event,
even
if
the golfer
belongs to clubs in both Southern California
and Northern California. The 18-hole
qualifying
rounds will determine the qualifiers.
The championship field will play 36 holes of
qualifying at a Northern or Southern California
Location, with the low 32 golfers from that
combined field moving on to match play (with
a
playoff, if necessary, to determine the final
spots).
Two rounds each of 18-hole match play will
follow on Thursday and Friday and the 36-hole
final match will be on Saturday.
The location will rotate yearly between
Northern and Southern California locations.
View Complete Tournament Information