"All kinds of good players," says Scott, who won back-to-back NCAA individual championships at Southern Cal but never won SDJGA's golfer of the year. "Renner, Lennie Clements, Stadler. Aly Trompas won the U.S. Junior. At Stardust guys like Victor Regalado, Cesar Sanudo, Jack Spradlin played. Lon Hinkle. Johnny Jacobs played some. Lots of gamblers. It was a colorful crowd. My dad was always playing with the college kids in the city amateur and Southern California events."
Approximately 700 kids will participate in SDJGA events this year. A membership that was five bucks for decades is now $60. Entry fees for the 20-plus tournaments range from $25 to more than $100. "When I stopped playing in 1993, my parents were still paying $5 for every tournament and you got a hot dog and a coke," says Megan Mahoney, the SDJGA's 33-year-old executive director who grew up playing in its events. "Golf is not free to us like it was at one time. Times are just a little different. There are no cheap sports anymore."
Dreams are still free, though. If Mickelson happens to win so close to home next week, and finally earns the national title that has eluded him, Wright will know the feeling. The 1964 U.S. Women's Open was held at San Diego CC. After watching Ruth Jessen hit a fairway wood stony on the 72nd hole to force an 18-hole playoff, Wright came back the next day and shot a 70 to win the playoff by two strokes.
"That was the most special week of my entire life," Wright says. "It was the only time my mother and father [Kathryn and Arthur] both were at a tournament and watched me win. That was pretty special. He was 79 years old then, and he came out the last day and they were both up there on the hill. You just can't measure how happy that makes you. He was a curmudgeon-type old fellow. He would never give me any praise. It was always, 'Can't you chip any better than that?' And I really missed him when he was gone."
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