Portland’s Scott Hval, who has won the past two Senior Amateur Championships, is the only player to win the Oregon Amateur Championship, Oregon Mid-Amateur and the Senior Amateur Championship.

Randy Mahar wants to do what only one male golfer has done before — win the Oregon Amateur, the Mid-Amateur and the Senior Amateur in the course of an amateur career.

The only problem is that to do it, Mahar, a 57-year-old Portland stockbroker, will have to beat his close friend Scott Hval, who happens to be the only man to do it.

That is but one mountain to climb at this week’s Oregon Senior Amateur Championship, a 74-golfer match-play tournament that offers a who’s who in Oregon amateur golf at Brasada Canyons Golf Club in Powell Butte.

The tournament, which runs through Friday, begins today with an 18-hole qualifying round.

“Yes, I’ve thought about (winning all three amateur championships), but it’s not something that I think about a lot,” says Mahar, whose Oregon amateur titles include the weather-shortened Mid-Amateur just last month at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond. He also won the Mid-Am in 2009, at Tetherow Golf Club in Bend, and in 1977 he won the Oregon Amateur.

“I don’t think you can,” he adds. “The best I’ve ever done in this Senior Am is the semifinals (in 2010). The last two years I’ve lost in the second round, so it’s not something I think about too much.”

Hval is arguably the man to beat in a field of golfers who will be difficult to beat.

A 52-year-old Portland dentist, Hval is the only man to win Oregon’s Amateur (1997), Mid-Amateur (2007) and Senior Amateur (2011, 2012). And he has dominated the Senior Amateur, wrapping up every match he has played in the tournament the past two years before reaching the 18th hole.

Among the entrants are Portland’s David Jacobsen, the brother of veteran tour pro Peter Jacobsen and the winner of the 2012 Mid-Amateur Championship, who is scheduled to play in the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship later this month. He will be joined by former Senior Oregon Amateur champions Chris Maletis, of Portland, Erik Myrmo, of Eugene, and a long list of other successful Oregon amateurs.

“I look at them as competitors and really good friends,” says Mahar, who like Hval is a member at Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland. “The senior tournaments are really fun. It’s a chance to get back together with guys that you normally don’t see very often, and we have a great time. And we play as hard as we can.”

The men’s division is limited to golfers age 50 and older who have a USGA Handicap Index of 10 or less. The women’s championship, which begins today and ends Wednesday, has just four golfers in the field. It, too, is limited to golfers age 50 and older.

Twelve golfers in the men’s field live in Central Oregon: Bend golfers Patrick Andrade, John Baker, Craig Braje, Jim Mooers, Don Orrell, Jamie Punt, Tom Stumpfig, Stein Swenson and Greg Walsh; and Redmond golfers Barry Greig, Craig Irvine and Tim Swope.

Most of the locals are long shots, but playing in an elite field is often the carrot itself.

“I realize these guys are super good … so I recognize that I probably don’t have a chance in heck to ever win,” says Swope, a 62-year-old retiree with a handicap index of about 6. “But the only way to get competitive is to play competitive. I enjoy playing with those guys because it’s always better playing with somebody better than yourself.

“I am so looking forward to this one this week.”

Baker, a 68-year-old retired cardiologist who moved to Bend two years ago, agrees.

“I freely admit that I don’t feel like a contender,” says Baker, a 3.8 index making his first appearance in an Oregon Golf Association event. “We enjoy going out and playing. And the fact that it is a local event is terrific.

“It is fun, but it isn’t for everybody.”

Of course, not every golfer in the field is willing to be a sacrificial lamb to the state’s elite golfers.

Mooers, a 56-year-old semi-retired artist, has played in the Senior Am twice before with varied success.

But this year he thinks his game is in good enough shape to contend.

“I have an attitude to try and win more this time than any other time,” says Mooers, a 2.6 index. “I am just going to block everything out and try my hardest and not over think.”

The men’s tournament begins at 8 a.m. today with a round of stroke play, followed by one round of match play each day until Friday’s 18-hole championship match.

Admission is free for spectators.

30th Oregon Senior Amateur Championship

What: An Oregon Golf Association championship

Where: Brasada Canyons Golf Club, Powell Butte

Format: 18 holes of qualifying stroke play followed by single-elimination match play

When: Men, today through Friday; women through Wednesday

Who: Golfers age 50 and older. Handicap index limited to 10 for men, 22.4 for women

Admission: Free for spectators