By The Southern California Golf Association
Santa Barbara, Calif.
July 11 , 2010
What was once done only three times before in SCGA history has now been done a fourth.
Scott Travers, with his recent California State Amateur win under his belt, adds 111th SCGA Amateur Champion to his resume, when he not only broke the Amateur’s scoring record with a 16-under-par 268, but became the first person since 1942 to win the event concurrently with the State Amateur.
Travers, 22, of Trabuco Canyon, carded rounds of 68-65-66-69 at La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara, to defeat hometown favorite Jack Perry, 18, by two shots (66-67-67-70–270). It was a roller coaster round for the duo, who began the day with a commanding lead over the rest of the field.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling to win both championships,” said Travers after the round. “My goal this summer was to win just one event. To win two major ones…it’s more than I hoped for.”
Travers entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over Perry, a member of the CIF State High School Team champion Santa Barbara High School who will attend Northwestern University come fall. He and Travers flip-flopped leads more than once in the round, with Perry going double-bogey, eagle, double-bogey on holes 8 through 10.
Perry was a class act throughout the round, however, and as the two approached the 18th green, Perry led the crowd in applause for Travers, who was two putts away from winning the championship. Perry punctuated his round with a one-putt birdie and fist pump to claim a solo second-place finish.
“I came into today thinking that it was just another round of golf, and tried to not put too much pressure on myself,” Perry said.
Travers had six birdies in his round, including an uncharacteristic double-bogey on the par-5 sixth hole, when he said that his ball finally drew instead of cutting like it normally does.
“I made a swing adjustment on the range, and it came out on that hole,” Travers said. “I wasn’t expecting that and the ball got away from me.”
Dad Morse was on the bag again today. “He did a great job,” Travers said. “He didn’t say anything, and made life a little easier for me.”
“My job was to just stay out of the way and push the bag,” Morse laughed.
Travers is the West Coast Conference Player of the Year out of Santa Clara University, yet hasn’t yet won a college event. He’ll fly to Colorado to play in the 107th Trans-Mississippi Championship on Tuesday, then is set to tee it up in the NCGA Match Play Championship in August.
The SCGA Amateur-California State Amateur combo win has only happened three times in the events’ simultaneous 99-year history: Dr. Paul Hunter in 1921, George Von Elm in 1925 and Johnny Dawson in 1942.
The previous SCGA Amateur scoring record is 14-under-par 270, which was set by Tiger Woods in 1994 during his first SCGA Amateur win at the par-71 Hacienda Golf Club.
Kevin Marsh of Henderson, Nev., a two-time winner of the event and the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, made a run on his home course to take third place (68-70-66-67–271), while 2010 CIF state champion Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos took fourth (65-71-69-67–272). Turlock’s Sam Smith (75-70-63-67) and Northridge’s Tim Hogarth (70-66-68-70-68), one of Southern California’s most decorated amateurs, tied for fifth at 9-under 275.
Scott Travers Wins Prestigious SCGA Championship
