Historic Tournaments: Sun Bowl All-America Classic
Where Legends Got Started
Few sports are better suited to an All-Star competition, yet until the 1970s All-American college golfers enjoyed relatively little recognition compared to their peers in football or basketball. For 45 years, hidden within the fanfare of the college football bowl season, a college golf tournament almost too good to be true quietly thrived in El Paso.
Billed at times as the “All-Stars of College Golf,” the All-America Golf Classic gathered a small group of the sport’s elite for a kind-of-but-not-really collegiate competition between the Fall and Spring seasons. Today, we’ll trace the history of this remarkable tournament from sunrise to sunset.
*NOTE: underlined text provides a link to references or sites with more information
For anyone reading this in their email inbox, I would highly suggest using THIS LINK TO VIEW THE FULL WEBPAGE
Sunrise (1973-74)
You can’t talk about the golf tournament without first mentioning its progenitor. College football fans know the “Sun Bowl” as an incredibly historic competition held annually in El Paso, Texas. The second oldest bowl game - behind the Rose Bowl - the Sun Bowl (with multiple sponsorship titles) has enjoyed nearly 90 years of fanfare in the form of a parade, court, and annual competition at UTEP’s Sun Bowl stadium.
In true if-you-build-it-they-will-come fashion, the addition of the golf tournament to the umbrella of Sun Bowl branded competitions sponsored by Sun Carnival came almost out of nowhere. Sometime in 1973, the Sun Bowl Association which oversaw all of the relevant competitions approached the distinguished golf pro at El Paso Country Club about developing a pro-am or some other type of amateur golf tournament to go along with the various other activities.
EPCC pro Bill Eschenbrenner says he literally dreamed about having an All-American golf tournament. Eschenbrenner - member of numerous Halls of Fame including the North Texas (State) Mean Green (1958-60) Athletic HoF, Texas Golf HoF, and PGA Golf Professional HoF - had both the venue and pull necessary to make such a thing happen. His collaboration with Sun Carnival vice-president Stu Hammond, New Mexico State Coach Herb Wimberly (chairman of the NCAA Golf Committee), Bruce Fossum (Michigan State coach and current NCAA Golf Committee Chairman), and Lee Trevino brought everything together and the first tournament was announced in October, 1974.
Inaugural Tournament (1974)
1974 Jerry Pate [Alabama]
runner-up: Keith Fergus [Houston]
First Sun Bowl champ Jerry Pate [Photo: Sun Bowl]
The first tournament established the field limit to the “top 20 players” including Curtis Strange [Wake Forest], Jay Haas [Wake Forest], Craig Stadler [USC], Tom Jones [Ok St], Buddy Alexander [Georgia Southern], Keith Fergus [Houston], and Cricket Musch [New Mexico St]. The 21st and final entry was Jerry Pate, University of Alabama star senior and recently crowned US Amateur champion who would go on to add the Sun Bowl to his impressive trophy case.
Incredibly, some footage remains from the tournament and can be viewed here: https://texasarchive.org/2011_00280?b=241&e=300
A couple of interesting traditions were born out of this first event. After overcoming the tremendous wind and shooting a record 64/-7 in the second round to open a seven stroke lead, Jerry Pate’s fellow All-Stars threw him into the pool that night at the apartment complex where they were staying.
“I didn’t understand why they did that to me,” Pate said. “They said, ‘You’re going to win tomorrow, and we’ll all be leaving town.’”
-Jerry Pate quoted in Adam Schupak’s Sports Illustrated article
The trophy wasn’t the only thing he brought back to Tuscaloosa. One of the big draws was the scholarship money that players wouldn’t be receiving directly *coughNCAAcough* however the $1,000 Pate earned with his victory was given to the Alabama general scholarship fund. This scholarship component would increase throughout the years and grow from a tiered system of payouts - not unlike the PGA Tour tournament earnings - to competitors earning a flat 4-figure amount just for appearing. In today’s NIL-focused world, one can think of the possibilities here.
Morning (1975-1986)
1975 Randy Simmons [Texas]
runner-up: Bob Byman [Wake Forest]
1976 Scott Simpson [USC] - 1976 & 1977 NCAA champion
runner-up: Mike Brannan [BYU]
1977 Mike Gove [Weber State]
runner-up: Masahiro Kuramoto [Nihon]
1978 Gary Hallberg [Wake Forest] - 1979 NCAA champion
runner-up: Bobby Clampett [BYU]
1979 Tim Norris [Fresno State]
runner-up: Rafael Alarcon [Oklahoma State]
1980 Jay Don Blake [Utah State] - 1980 NCAA champion
runner-up: Joe Rassett [Oral Roberts]
1981 Willie Wood [Oklahoma State] - 1980 NCAA team champ
runner-up: Stuart Smith [Tennessee]
1982 Billy Ray Brown [Houston] - 1982 NCAA champion
1-hole playoff with Mark Brooks [Texas]
1983 John Slaughter [Houston] - 1982, 84, & 85 NCAA team champ
1-hole playoff with Andrew Magee [Oklahoma]
1984 Davis Love III [North Carolina]
runner-up: Darren Cole [Ole Miss]
1985 Sam Randolph [USC]
2-hole playoff with Philip Jonas [Lamar]
1986 Billy Mayfair [Arizona State]
runner-up: John Daly [Arkansas]
The tournament was an immediate success and quickly became one of the most sought-after invitations in college golf. Looking back on these leaderboards, it’s easy to see how the sometimes-named Sun Bowl College All-Star Golf Classic earned the moniker: “Where Legends Get Started”.
This wasn’t the only special collegiate tournament Coach Wimberly was involved with. Shortly after the 1975 Sun Bowl, eight of the top American collegiate players - Lindy Miller and Tom Jones of Oklahoma State; Curtis Strange, Jay Haas, and Bob Byman of Wake Forest; Phil Hancock [Florida]; Peter Jacobsen [Oregon]; and Mike Brannan [BYU] - traveled to Japan for the first USA vs Japan Collegiate match competition. The top Japanese player was Masahiro Kuramoto, representing Nihon University, who so impressed Coach Wimberly that he was invited to play in the 1976 Sun Bowl. There he impressed everyone else when he finished 3rd, behind Scott Simpson [USC] who added a Sun Bowl title between his 1976 and 1977 NCAA championship titles.
Some additional tournament traditions were born during this time as well, including a driving competition, picking out a pair of free boots courtesy of Lucchese (which some players including Davis Love III and Bob Estes still have/remember), and a series of steak dinners which still water the mouths of those with long memories.
Some footage from the 1981 tournament: https://texasarchive.org/2011_00284?b=157&e=263
Quick Siesta (1987)
1987 N/A
The NCAA threw the Sun Bowl Association a gigantic curveball with their January 1987 decision to scale back the number of competition days each team was allowed in their combined Fall-Spring seasons. Their waiver request for the tournament was denied and teams weren’t willing to sacrifice the days for 1-2 players, so there was no choice but to forgo the event in 1987. Eventually their waiver was approved and was no longer an issue.
It’s at this point we should probably talk about an interesting conundrum with this tournament: was it a collegiate tournament at the time? Judging by the fact that it required a waiver from the NCAA whereas other amateur tournaments did/do not, it would seem that the answer is yes. Likewise, players competing as individual in tournaments now - regardless of their team officially playing in that tournament or even if it is an “individuals only” competition - have counted those results towards their career stats.
So then do players with Sun Bowl victories count them? Exploring numerous university team record books reveals a mixed answer. One prevalent clear-cut answer is looking at Utah State’s Jay Don Blake whose victory during the 1980-81 season is listed among his 16 total, which ties him near the top of the NCAA record book with Phil Mickelson [Arizona State]. Oklahoma State, which has one of the most comprehensive media guides in the sport, does not count Willie Wood’s victory here. Neither does Houston for Billy Ray Brown or John Slaughter. Keep this in mind for the next section.
Midday (1988-1995)
1988 Chris Patton [Clemson]
1-hole playoff with Rhoken Kawagishi [Nihon]
1989 Chris Patton [Clemson]
runner-up: Dudley Hart [Florida]
1990 Geoff Griffin [Fresno State]
runner-up: Brian Bridges [Kent State]
1991 David Duval [Georgia Tech]
runner-up: Tim Herron [New Mexico]
1991 champ David Duval [Photo: Sun Bowl]
1992 Robert Damron [Central Florida]
runners-up: David Duval [Georgia Tech], Brian Gay [Florida], Jean-Paul Hebert [Texas]
1993 Chris Riley [UNLV]
runner-up: Stewart Cink [Georgia Tech]
1994 Notah Begay III [Stanford] - 1994 NCAA team champ
1-hole playoff with Iain Steel [Auburn]
1994 champ Notah Begay III [Photo: Sun Bowl]
1995 Tiger Woods [Stanford] - 1996 NCAA champion
1-hole playoff with Fredrik Soderstrom [Tulsa]
Of course Tiger Woods is on this list too...but he almost wasn’t. Tiger almost lost his amateur status shortly before the start of the tournament when Arnold Palmer picked up the check at a dinner he had with Tiger, resulting in a one-day “suspension” by the NCAA (for whatever that means) and a bad taste that nearly resulted in Tiger quitting college golf. He did make it to El Paso and competed well, however it came down to a competitor’s missed 3-foot putt on the 54th hole to get him into a playoff. Once there, he did the Tiger thing, sinking a 20-footer for the win in front of an estimated 2,000 spectators.
Remember when we mentioned the conundrum of counting as a collegiate tournament above? Well here’s where it might be a significant factor. For years, the numerous sources including the NCAA and Stanford have publicly declared Tiger Woods to have 11 collegiate victories. In this previous post, we explored each event Tiger played in while in college to answer an unintended questioning of that win total. Long story short: we believe his Sun Bowl victory has been counted in the win total without being factored into his overall collegiate record.
Early Afternoon (1996-2004)
1996 Chad Wright [USC]
3-hole playoff with Tag Ridings [Arkansas]
1997 Alberto Ochoa [TCU]
1-hole playoff with Edward Loar [Ok St]
1998 Jeremy Anderson [UNLV]
runner-up: David Christensen [ETSU]
1999 Matt Kuchar [Georgia Tech]
3-hole playoff with Andy Miller [BYU]
2000 Ricky Barnes [Arizona]
runner-up: Michael Beard [Pepperdine]
runner-up: DJ Trahan [Clemson]
runners-up: Ryan Hybl [Georgia] & Brendon De Jonge [Virginia Tech]
runner-up: Ryan Moore [UNLV]
2004 Nicholas Thompson [Georgia Tech]
1-hole playoff with Matthew Rosenfeld [Texas]
“It was great. The best players in college golf all get together for a really fun event on a really fun golf course to play. I remember just hanging out with my good buddies from college golf -- some of the best players in college golf.”
Matt Kuchar [quoted in Golfweek article by Ron Balicki]
Even as good as the golf was, by this point it was almost becoming secondary to the pageantry of the event and all of the festivities before the first tee shot.
Along with practice rounds, a banquet is held Saturday and Sunday night leading into the actual competition. There’s a college-am where players team and compete with those within the community, a long-drive contest, and a unique, Texas-themed putting competition, where instead of windmills and such, players face obstacles like hay balls, cow horns, saddles and boots. From start to end, it’s a laugh a minute.
[Tournament Director Bob] Kimble said he and his cohorts get a big kick out of watching some of the players pick out their pair of cowboy boots, provided by Lucchese, an El Paso supplier. It’s one of the event’s perks that has been in place since the beginning.
“Quite a few of these guys have never had a pair of boots on in their life,” Kimble said. “It’s fun to watch them as they try to decide what they want. I mean, on the East Coast or West Coast, cowboy boots don’t necessarily fit into their lifestyle. But they sure have a good time trying to find a pair they feel is right for them.” -Golfweek article
Late Afternoon (2005-2012)
runner-up: Chris Kirk [Georgia]
2006 Chris Kirk [Georgia] - 2005 NCAA team champ
runner-up: Billy Horschel [Florida]
2006 champ Chris Kirk [Photo: Georgia Athletics]
2007 Webb Simpson [Wake Forest]
runner-up: Aaron Goldberg [San Diego St]
2007 champion Webb Simpson [Photo: Sun Bowl]
2008 Mike Van Sickle [Marquette]
6-hole playoff with Trent Leon [Ok St]
2008 champion Mike Van Sickle [Photo: Marquette Athletics]
runner-up: Morgan Hoffmann [Ok St]
2009 champion Hunter Hamrick [Photo: AmateurGolf.com]
runners-up: JT Griffin [Georgia Tech] & Tain Lee [Claremont-Mudd-Scripps]
2010 champion Alex Ching [Photo: San Diego Athletics]
2011 Cory Whitsett [Alabama] - 2013 & 2014 NCAA team champ
3-hole playoff with Todd Baek [San Deigo St] & Jace Long [Missouri]
2011 champion Cory Whitsett [Photo: Golfweek]
runner-up: Sebastian Cappelen [Arkansas]
In 2011, Cory Whitsett [Alabama] did something incredibly special when he won the 37th Sun Bowl in a three-man playoff, and followed that with a victory at the inaugural Patriot All-America Invitational. The next year, Whitsett nearly defended his title but fell just two shots short of Kevin Penner. He returned to the Western Refining Sun Bowl one final time as a senior in 2013 - fresh off helping Alabama win an NCAA team title and soon to help them repeat - and fell just one stroke short of winning again.
In all, Whitsett only lost to three total players in his remarkable three year run. Along with becoming the first left-hander and third Crimson Tide player to win the event, Cory Whitsett’s 63-3-2* (defeated both in a playoff) record was the best of any three-time competitor in the history of college golf’s All-America Collegiate Classic.
Dinner: Lee Trevino Trophy (2013-14)
runner-up: Cory Whitsett [Alabama]
2013 champion Gavin Green [Photo: Sun Bowl]
runner-up: Rico Hoey [USC] & Jonathan Garrick [UCLA]
2014 champion Gavin Green [Photo: Sun Bowl]
The 2013 edition of the tournament almost suffered the same fate as the 1987 event, and the culprit was once again NCAA rules. Rather than being related to competition days - which this tournament was still determined to be exempt from - this time the question was related to team practice day allowance for those teams with players in the field. Since all but 2-3 players would be able to meet the newly-enforced criteria, nearly everyone was forced to pull out of the event. Not content to let the event die an ugly death, tournament director Bob Kimble worked with Greg Grost of the GCAA to apply for - and was granted - an emergency one-year waiver. The catch was that this only applied to the 2013 event, so 2014 and going forward would require the tournament to be played earlier in the Fall or be taken off the NCAA collegiate competition calendar going forward.
Once golf was finally allowed to be played, the competitors found the winner was to receive a new kind of trophy, named in honor of one of the tournament’s biggest proponents over the years. If you’re interested in learning how Lee Trevino became associated with the El Paso area, I’d recommend checking out this article from New Mexico Golf News. It’s crucial to understand how this relationship bolstered Trevino’s career and he in turn helped make events like this one an ongoing reality.
The first recipient of the Lee Trevino Trophy was New Mexico’s Gavin Green, who managed to hold off the defending champion Cory Whitsett despite a late bogey. Green followed that up with a record-tying victory in 2014 - including a second round 62/-9 - to join Chris Patton (1988-89) as the only players in the entire 45 year history of the tournament to repeat as champions.
Golden Hour (2015-18)
2015 Zach Jaworski [Vanderbilt]
runners-up: Mattias Schwab [Vanderbilt], Zach Wright [LSU], & Claudio Correa [South Florida]
[Photo: Sun Bowl]
runner-up: Justin Suh [USC]
[Photo: El Paso Times]
runner-up: Hurly Long [Texas Tech]
[Photo: Sun Bowl]
2018 Quade Cummins [Oklahoma] - 2017 NCAA team champ
1-hole playoff with Spencer Ralston [Georgia]
Without a waiver but still wanting to get the best college players, the tournament committee moved up the event by a few weeks to minimize the number of extra “practice” weeks. This, however, inevitably caused some conflicts with other events like the Asia-Pacific Amateur and Ka’anapoli Classic in Hawaii.
In 2017, they dropped the “Collegiate” from the title as it officially became an amateur event. Now completely out from under the NCAA’s thumb, the event returned to the week before Thanksgiving. It would seem that no matter your stance on these victories counting towards a player’s collegiate stats, by this point it was truly - for better or worse - specifically an amateur event.
The 2018 event was arguably one of the most exciting in years as Quade Cummins blistered the course with a final round 62 to force a playoff with Spencer Ralston at 200/-13. The Lee Trevino Trophy was his with a birdie on the first playoff hole. We can’t be sure, but perhaps this cool hype video with an introduction by none other than Jim Nantz set the mood for a wild tournament!
Sunset: 45th Sun Bowl (2019)
2019 Ludvig Aberg [Texas Tech]
Matthias Schmid [Louisville]
Ludvig Aberg, the sensational Swede representing Texas Tech, picked up where Cummins left off the previous year, posting a first round 62 to capture a lead he would not relinquish. After rounds of 66 and 72, Aberg became the last to hoist the Lee Trevino Trophy, fittingly with a final total of 200/-13.
Full Dark, No Stars (2020)
With the shutdown of sports and many parts of everyday life in early 2020, the Sun Bowl Association had a difficult decision on their hands. Despite the tentative reopening’s happening by the end of the year, the decision was made to officially cancel the 2020 All-America Golf Classic.
Little did they know, this was actually the unceremonious ending of a 45 year event. Up until April 2025, the sunbowlgolf.org webpage was still live and showing a blank countdown to the start of the 2020 tournament.
In honor of this great event that meant so much to so many collegiate players across six decades, let’s not end with a cancellation memo, but rather with fond recollection of the beginning:
Thanks for reading! If you have any college golf history to share or a suggestion for a topic we should cover, please leave a comment or reach out directly.
Need to bring this back.