For nearly a century (97 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 4, 2021, was both sizzling hot in terms of temperature and scores. With a high temperature of 95 (and with forecasts for it to be 99 by Monday’s last round), the field of amateurs posted a collection of terrific low scores across the historic track. An amazing 51 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 one player stood out among all the others on day one of play and that was 6’ 1” Oregon State Beaver Sophomore Mateo Fuenmayor. The Beaverton, Oregon native and Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll golfer shot a blistering score of ten under par 62 across the track, just two off of the course record. With 8 birdies and an eagle on the closing par 5 #18, his 31-31 score left him two shots ahead of anyone else in the field after day one.
In second place was Cal Poly freshman Baron Szeto with another incredible score of 8 under par 64. Setzo earned a second-place finish in the CIF-North Coast Section division finals with a 70 in 2019 and, with a 71, finished tied for second place in the 2019 CIF-North Coast Section Championships. Last summer Szeto captured the 2019-20 season Junior Tour of Northern California Boys Player of the Year title. He also earned a pair of first-place junior tour finishes, one each in 2018 and 2019, and also finished second twice and third three times.
A foursome of players (decidedly an international one) shot scores of six-under par 66 to be tied for third including Kuangyu (Tony) Chen, Petr Janik, Konrad Brauckmeyer and Nate Jetter.
Chen, a six-foot-tall Australian citizen originally from Shenzhen, China. Chen is one of two new freshman recruits starting Cal this year from the prestigious IMG Academy. Over the past four years, he has produced five individual medalist honors and has finished in the top 10 14 times. Additionally, he earned a spot as a Rolex AJGA All-American Honorable Mention in 2018 and was named to the AJGA Scholastic Honor Roll in 2019.
Janik is a Junior at the University of Pacific and played at Gymnázium Studentská in the Czech Republic, where he was a part of the Czech Republic National Team. Posted top-10 finishes in the Czech International Junior U18 & U21 Championships, Czech International Match Play Championships and Czech Amateur Tour 1. He also finished second overall at the 2018 Evolve Spanish Junior Championship.
Brauckmayer is a Senior at Santa Clara University and was born in Venezuela and lives in Lima, Peru. He attended Alexander von Humboldt High School in Lima, Peru and began representing Venezuela in international tournaments in 2015. He finished second at the South American Pre-Junior Golf Championship in 2015 and won the Lima Golf International Championship and Copa Alianza del Pacifica in Peru in 2017.
Jetter is a senior and team captain at San Jose State University, following his Dad, a PGA member, as a second-generation Spartan. His grandfather Rick Jetter was an assistant professional here at Haggin Oaks during his career as well so you might just think great golf runs in his veins.
A full scoreboard with a listing of all the final scores can be found here:
https://ho-97thcaliforniastatefairchampionship.golfgenius.com/pages/3172819
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.
