For nearly a century (98 years to be exact) The California State Fair Golf Championship at the Alister MacKenzie GC at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex has been one of the oldest and most prestigious Amateur Championships in the West.
Under the leadership of the Sacramento Golf Council, the tournament celebrates its rich history with previous winners such as Ken Venturi, Al Geiberger, Kevin Sutherland, George Archer, and more. Even more recently, PGA Tour stars like Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Patrick Cantley, Maverick McNealy, and Nick Watney have cut their playing teeth participating in the event prior to stardom.
This year’s first round held Saturday, September 3, 2022, was both sizzling hot in terms of temperature and scores. With a high temperature of 102 (and with forecasts for it to be 112 by Monday’s last round), the field of amateurs posted a collection of terrific low scores across the historic track. An amazing 46 players shot in the red under par.
Each of the players are striving to add their name to the historic Sacramento Clearing House silver trophy that was first used in the tournament back in 1925 and won by Geo Richie from the Olympic Club.
But two players stood out among all the others on day one of play and those were UC Davis Junior and Sacramento native (Inderkum HS) Jacob Westberg and former Sac State Hornet Jonathan Tanihana who both shot blistering scores of seven under pars 65 to share the lead. Westberg incredibly birdies six of his first seven holes and shot his score with two bogies on the back nine. Tanihana finished with no bogies and seven birdies to his great score.
A threesome of collegiate (or recent collegiate) players were tied for third one stroke behind at -6 66. Among them were Blake Brothers, a recent CSU Northridge graduate, Lucas Carper, another UC Davis teammate and Auburn native, and Maverick Pavletich whose home is in Bakersfield but plays for the University of the Pacific.
Another twosome of players (decidedly an international one) shot scores of five-under par 65 to be tied for sixth. Eugenio Bernardi is a member of the Italian National Team and just started his collegiate career at Santa Clara. Daniel Heo hails from South Korea and is an incoming freshman at the University of Berkeley.
Last year’s champion, Tony Chen of Berkley, opened up his defense of his title with an even-par 72.
A full scoreboard with a listing of all the final scores can be found here:
https://ho-98thcaliforniastatefairchampionship.golfgenius.com/pages/3760863
About the course:
The MacKenzie Golf Course was designed in 1932 by the renowned Dr. Alister MacKenzie, who designed several of the world’s top courses, including Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, and Cypress Point. The MacKenzie Golf Course is a classic “parkland” golf course with flat to rolling terrain. The fairways are lined with mature oak trees and the Arcade Creek meanders through the middle of the course. The course hosted the PGA Tour’s Sacramento Open from 1935-1938, and legendary players participated each year including Walter Hagen, Jimmy Demaret, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. The course also hosted the 1963 U.S. Public Links Championship and the 1992 U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship.
