Bend golfer Adam Lacey thinks he is playing well enough to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.

Seventy-one other players at Monday’s U.S. Amateur qualifying rounds at Juniper Golf Club in Redmond might have something to say about that.

To qualify for the 2007 U.S. Amateur tournament at San Francisco’s Olympic Club Aug. 20-26, players will have to finish in the top three of the two-round stroke-play tournament Monday.

“I think (my chances) are pretty good,” Lacey said Friday. “Last year, I missed (qualifying) by one. I think there was 50 players (at Juniper) last year, now there are 72, but I am playing a lot better than I was last year.”

Lacey said he is playing some of his best golf, including shooting a course-record 60 at his home club of Widgi Creek in Bend on July 3.

But players from Bend to Canada to Kentucky will be teeing off at par-72 Juniper for a chance to make the 107th edition of the U.S. Amateur, the United States Golf Association’s oldest championship.

Among the 18 hopefuls from Central Oregon will be Redmond’s Tim Sundseth, who was among the two qualifiers for the U.S. Amateur last year after firing an even-par 144 for the two rounds at Juniper.

Other top players from the area include Bend’s Brandon Kearney, and three brothers from Sisters: Christian, Jonathan and David Green.

Others to watch include Portland’s David Jacobsen, brother of PGA Champions Tour player Peter Jacobsen, as well as Oregon State’s Scott Barton of Bend and Alex Williams.

“Brandon Kearney has been playing really well, I’ve heard, and I would expect Tim Sundseth to be there again,” said Bruce Wattenburger, head pro at Juniper. “But for an event like this, I couldn’t speculate (who will win), because for an Amateur qualifier anybody from across the United States can enter.”

Lacey, who moved to Bend from Portland in November to attend Central Oregon Community College and play for its club team, is hoping to use the U.S. Amateur to jump-start his pro career.

After the U.S. Amateur qualifier, Lacey will attempt to qualify for the Oregon Classic at Shadow Hills Country Club in Junction City, Sept. 13-16, and the Boise (Idaho) Open, Sept. 20-23.

Dan Ostrin, head pro at Widgi Creek, said Lacey has been playing well, which bodes well entering the most important portion of Lacey’s golf career to date.

“I think he does (have a good chance at qualifying for the U.S. Amateur),” Ostrin said. “He hits it well and he hits it long, which is obviously a big advantage.”

Lacey’s improvement hasn’t taken long. The graduate of Wilsonville High School outside of Portland didn’t begin to play competitive golf until he was a junior in high school.

The former baseball player cut his handicap from 10 to 0 before he graduated. But his grades weren’t good enough to play Division I college golf, because he “played a little too much golf,” which is how he ended up at COCC, he said.

His relative inexperience with competitive golf could be an advantage over more seasoned golfers his age, he said, because “I have not burned out yet.”

And Lacey is geared for a fast ascension up the golf ranks, from high school, to community college, to the highest level of amateur golf, to the Nationwide Tour and eventually, he hopes, the PGA Tour.

“I have that one goal in mind and when I have that goal I stick to it,” Lacey said. “I don’t really stray from it.”

The first players tee off Monday at 7:30 a.m. on the first and 10th tees in groups of three. The second round will begin at 1 p.m.

U.S. Amateur qualifying

e_SFlb Where: Juniper Golf Club, Redmond.

When: Monday, first round starts at 7:30 a.m.; second round at 1 p.m.

What’s at stake: The top three players in the 71-golfer field qualify for the 2007 U.S. Amateur held Aug. 20-26 at Olympic Club in San Francisco.