This article originally appeared in the August issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
Considering that we are celebrating the Pacific Coast Amateur, we thought we’d take a look back at the 1973 championship.
That year, the late Mike Brannan, a Salinas native and NCGA great, won the title at Desert Forest Golf Club. While the full results have been lost to time, Brannan led by seven shots after the third round.
In the Morse Cup, meanwhile, the NCGA won the title with a team score of 292. Representing the NCGA were Mark Lye, Chuck Van Linge and Brannan. Other competitors included Peter Jacobsen (Oregon) and Craig Stadler (Southern California).
Brannan was a machine in 1973. Along with his Pacific Coast Am title, he won the NCGA Junior and NCGA Four-Ball title. Just three years after that he’d win the California Amateur and NCGA Amateur.
From 1973 to 1976. Brannan, who was a four-time All-American at Brigham Young University, won NCGA Player of the Year honors three times.
After playing for the U.S. team in the 1977 Walker Cup, Brannan turned pro. He never won on the PGA Tour (his best finish was a second at the 1979 Houston Open), but he did win the Hassan II Golf Trophy, which later became a PGA European Tour event.
Having later regained his amateur status as a senior, Brannan returned to his winning ways, capturing the 2012 NCGA Senior Championship. Sadly, he was lost at the age of 57 to cancer just a year later.
