From the Same Coastline: A San Diego Final at the Western Amateur, and the Machine That Built It

The George R. Thorne Trophy has Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods engraved on it. As of this week it also has Jay Leng — and getting his name there required beating another kid from home.

When the 124th Western Amateur reached its final Saturday at Beverly Country Club on Chicago's South Side, one of the oldest and hardest tests in amateur golf had quietly turned into a San Diego County reunion. In one corner, Leng, out of San Diego proper and now at Stanford. In the other, Michael Riebe of Encinitas, roughly thirty miles up Interstate 5, now at Vanderbilt. Two players, one coastline, meeting two time zones away for a trophy older than almost every course they grew up on.