Mark Johnson and the late Charles Seaver comprise the Class of 2018 inducted into the Southern Golf Association Hall of Fame at Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena.
The 64-year-old Johnson (pictured), who lives in Helendale, drove an Anheuser-Busch beer truck in the Mohave Desert for 18 years before deciding to give golf a second chance and became a mid-amateur star. He had turned pro right out of high school at 18 and given up after struggling for two years on the mini-tours.
Johnson, who captured the CIF-SCGA Championship as a senior at Barstow High, regained his amateur status and after the age of 35 he captured the SCGA Mid-Amateur in 1989, 1993 and 1994; the SCGA Tournament of Club Champions in 1990, 1996 and 1997; the 1994 Pacific Coast Amateur, and the 1996 California State Amateur.
Then Johnson turned pro again and played five years on the Canadian Tour and the Nationwide Tour before joining what is now the PGA Tour Champions in 2004.
Johnson, cheered on by fans who called him “The Beer Man,” capped his career by winning the 2005 Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.
“My support system is enormous and I was so glad to win the Toshiba to finally give back,” an emotional Johnson said during the induction ceremonies. “I never could have done it on my own. Thanks to everyone for all the love and support.”
Seaver was born in Kansas City in 1911 and moved to Los Angeles with his family the next year. In 1926, at the age of 15, he won the Southern California Junior Amateur Championship and the Los Angeles Country Club Invitational.
At Stanford, Seaver played football and golf, and is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.
Seaver won the California Amateur and Northern California Golf Association Amateur titles in 1933, and then he captured the 1934 SCGA Amateur, becoming the second golfer to hold the California, NCGA and SCGA titles at the same time. He also won the NCGA Amateur in 1932.
Seaver won his two matches as the United States captured the 1932 Walker Cup,
qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championships each year from 1929 through 1932, and was the medalist in 1931.
Gene Homans beat Seaver, 1 up, in the semifinals of the 1930 U.S. Amateur at Merion Cricket Club. Homans went on to lose the final to the great Bobby Jones, who completed his Grand Slam, becoming the only player to win the U.S. and British Amateur and Open titles in the same year.
“I got to play Bobby Jones three times, but not the most important time,” Seaver said.
Seaver captured the Fresno City Amateur Championship six times and played 39 consecutive years in the Bing Crosby (now Pebble Beach) National Pro-Am. In 1964, he teamed with pro Mike Fetchik to win the pro-am division of the Crosby by one stroke over Tony Lema of Oakland and John Durkin.
Seaver, who had moved to Fresno, served on the Board of Directors of the NCGA and was elected its president in 1980.
In 1997, a biennial series of matches between teams from the NCGA and the SCGA was established and named the Seaver Cup.
Seaver, the father of Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, died in Pebble Beach in October 2004 at the age of 93.
Others members of the SCGA Hall of Fame include Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, John Cook, Amy Alcott, Charlie Sifford and Al Geiberger.
