From left, Frank, Shawn, John and Chad Arcaria stand together at Sunriver Resort during the Pacific Amateur Golf Classic on Wednesday. The four relatives all decided to enter the Pac Am together this year. Many golfers use the tournament as a way to put together a family reunion.

SUNRIVER — Chad Arcaria thought he would be traveling alone to play golf this week in Central Oregon.

After seeing advertisements for the Northwest Dodge Dealers Pacific Amateur Golf Classic for several years, the 35-year-old resident of Chandler, Ariz., decided this year it was finally time to play.

“Every year I’ve wanted to come, and every year I said I was going to come,” Arcaria said Wednesday of the Pac Am, the first ad for which he saw four years ago. “Last year I called up last minute to see if they had any availability and they said they did, and I still didn’t come. This year I actually signed up alone, and I was coming up alone.”

But then Arcaria — who grew up in a golf-loving family in Southern California — had a better idea.

He persuaded his 64-year-old father, John, of Escondido, Calif., near San Diego, to join him.

Then Shawn Arcaria, Chad’s 37-year-old brother from the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, decided to join his family for golf — but only after his wife gave him the OK to travel to Central Oregon even though it meant the couple would be apart during their wedding anniversary.

“Then the last leg was my brother, who we asked to come,” recalled John Arcaria of his twin brother Frank, who lives near Sacramento, Calif. “And he said, ‘Oh, that would be great.’

“So here we are.”

All four met up Wednesday afternoon at the Owl’s Nest — Sunriver Resort’s version of the 19th hole — after each finished his second round of the Pac Am.

The Arcarias are like many of the golfers playing in the 14th annual Pac Am — an amateur event for golfers of all skill levels played at courses throughout Central Oregon — using the tournament as a family reunion.

A funny and outgoing group, the Arcarias share a similar sense of humor. The ease with which they talk to each other is something typically seen only among the best of friends or close family members — either of which could describe the Arcarias.

John and his two sons are all accomplished golfers. John, a 6 handicap, began teaching his sons to play more than 30 years ago. Chad, a 2.6 handicap, and Shawn, a 4.6, took to the game well.

Frank, though, played softball for most of his adult life is less avid about golf, carrying a more modest 23.4 index. And his nephews and brother have little trouble reminding him.

“We’ve been describing your golf game and all the details,” said Shawn to Frank as the latter arrived at the bar minutes after the other family members.

But Frank does not mind taking the ribbing.

“I’m the low man on the totem pole. What can you do?” Frank said.

About making the Pac Am a family tradition in years to come, even if it means Shawn, the father of young twin sons and a stepdaughter, missing his anniversary?

“Well, next year is going to be (Shawn’s) first year divorced,” his father quipped.

How close is the Arcaria family? Shawn and Chad run a business together marketing health fairs. John and Frank each own a business reconditioning used cars.

But it is rare to see them all together. After all, because they live so far apart, it is not often that the two generations of Arcarias get together.

Over the years, John, Shawn and Chad, have played together in amateur golf tournaments similar to the Pac Am in Austin, Texas; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Phoenix.

And they have all played legendary Pebble Beach Golf Links in California together.

“Every time we see each other, we’re golfing,” said Chad, a father of one young son. “Christmas Day, the three of us would just go play golf.”

But this is the first time Frank has come along. And that makes the trip just a little more special.

“We talk a lot about golf,” Chad said.

Frank added: “And we all love each other, and we have a good relationship.”

But the Arcarias are a competitive bunch.

“I would say in the last 15 years,” said John of when his sons began to beat him. “I can every now and then beat them.”

Which brings up the Arcarias’ ultimate finish at the Pac Am.

Chad and Shawn are each playing in the tournament’s Flight 1, and only two golfers from each flight advance to the championship round Friday at Sunriver Resort’s Crosswater Club.

“We were just talking about that yesterday,” Shawn said. “It would be fun for us to get there.”

And Chad took no chances.

“I made our flights later (on Friday), just in case one of us makes it,” Chad said.

Added Frank, who drove up from the Sacramento area: “I wasn’t planning on staying on Friday, but I guess I have to.”