Grant Booth of Scottsdale, Ariz., rallied from four strokes down in the final round to capture the 57th Southern California Open Championship, operated by the SCPGA, by two strokes over David Kim of Buena Park and Christopher Evans of at Indian Wells Golf Resort.
Booth, a native of Australia who played college golf at University of Nevada, carded a score of 64-69-65—198, 17-under-par, to collect the $15,000 first prize, while Kim finished at 64-70-66—200 and Evans, who won the SoCal Open title in 2018 and 2020, wound up at 66-65-69—200.
After making birdies on five of his first eight holes, Grant carded a bogey at No. 15 but then pulled out the victory with birdies on the 16th and 17th holes before making a par on the final hole.
Henry Chung of Cerritos shot 66-68-67—201 to tie for fourth with Hayden Hui of Dublin, who totaled 66-63-72—201, while Kento Yamawaki of Encinitas was sixth at 70-65-68—203, followed by low amateur Tegan Andrews of Agoura Hills at 67-72-65—204.
Michael Drake of Riverside finished at 69-70-67—206 to tie for eighth with Hunter Epson of Long Beach, who wound up at 65-72-69—206, Coby Welch of Highlands Ranch, Colo., who totaled 70-68-68—206, and Rico Hoey of Rancho Cucamonga, who came in at 68-67-71—206.
Former winners of the Southern California Open include Billy Casper, Gene Littler, Al Geiberger, Ken Venturi, Jason Gore, John Mallinger, Curtis Sifford, Ed Fiori, Dave Barber and Olin Dutra.
For complete results, visit https://scpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/scpga22/event/scpga2261/contest/1/leaderboard.htm
