June means it’s time for the annual California Amateur Championship, so we thought we’d look back at the 1968 championship.
That year, a then-21-year-old San Francisco native named Johnny Miller won the title in decisive fashion, defeating runner-up and No. 1 seed Les Peterson, 12 and 10, in the 36-hole final at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Just a few months later, while competing for the NCGA, Miller helped the NCGA win the Morse Cup title.
Only three years later, Miller, an NCGA Hall of Famer, won his first PGA Tour event (Southern Open Invitational). Two years after that, he’d claim his first major, winning the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont thanks to a final round record 8-under par 63.
Miller would have more than one big win at Pebble Beach. As a pro, he’d win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 1974, 1983 and 1994 to become the first player to win the event in three different decades.