Redmond's Tim Sundseth qualified for the U.S. Amateur.

For the first time since 2006, Central Oregon pro golf fans were without household names in pro golf to watch.

Gone was The Tradition, a major championship on pro golf’s over-50 Champions Tour staged at Sunriver Resort’s Crosswater Club since 2007. But that does not mean it was a slow year for local golf.

Central Oregon entertained plenty of top amateur golfers from around the Pacific Northwest and beyond in what was a full summer of regionally significant amateur golf tournaments.

And some local golfers excelled beyond the confines of the High Desert.

Bend’s Andrew Vijarro, a senior at the University of Oregon, made a name for himself on the national amateur scene with an impressive run at a United States Golf Association championship. And some of this region’s other college golfers also made a mark.

After a year of tumult in 2010, the local golf industry appeared to settle down in 2011, including Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters emerging from bankruptcy in August after filing for Chapter 11 reorganization in January.

Yep, there was plenty to talk about around the tee boxes. Here is a look at some of the biggest local golf stories of 2011:

A week on the coast

Vijarro, a University of Oregon golfer who won the 2008 Oregon Men’s Stroke Play Championship and the 2009 Oregon Amateur, hit a personal high-water mark in July at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.

Not far from home at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort on the southern Oregon Coast and playing in a field of 156 elite amateurs, Vijarro earned the 40th of 64 seeds for single-elimination match play after two rounds of stroke play.

Vijarro won by close margins in the first two rounds of match play.

And in front of a national Golf Channel audience for the third round, Vijarro drilled a 60-foot putt for a key birdie and went on to win 2 and 1 in the third round and advance to the quarterfinals.

Vijarro’s run ended the following morning against Corbin Mills, the tournament’s top seed and eventual champion. Mills never trailed as Vijarro struggled to knock down putts before falling, 4 and 3.

Still, Vijarro was proud of his run.

“It was a blast while it lasted,” Vijarro said.

Standout performances

Tim Sundseth did not give himself much of a chance to earn one of just two berths awarded at a 36-hole U.S. Amateur Championship qualifier at Juniper Golf Club.

Playing against a field filled with NCAA Division I golfers, the 28-year-old from Redmond who is now the assistant men’s golf coach at Oregon State surprised even himself by shooting a 67-75—142 to land in a four-way playoff with Vijarro, Portland’s Eric Grimberg and The Dalles’ Damian Telles.

On his 41st hole of the day, Sundseth hit a 4-footer for par on Juniper’s ninth hole to eliminate Telles.

Sundseth advanced to play in the most prestigious amateur tournament in the country, staged in August at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. But Sundseth’s upstart run ended after he shot a 4 over par through 36 holes of stroke play, finishing in a 34-way tie for 131st place (315 golfers were in the field) and four shots short of match play.

Chadd Cocco, a pro golfer from Bend, qualified in June for the Nationwide Tour’s Wichita Open in Kansas. But Cocco shot 6 over through 36 holes to miss the cut.

In the amateur ranks, Bend’s Jesse Heinly, a sophomore at Concordia University in Portland, earned his best-ever finish in an Oregon Golf Association tournament after shooting 1 under to end August’s 54-hole Oregon Stroke Play Championship in second place. In September, Heinly scored an upset win by outpacing a field of mostly NCAA Division I golfers to win Boise State’s Dash Thomas Invitational.

Bend’s Tiffany Schoning, a senior at Portland State, finished second at August’s Women’s Stroke Play Championship after earning All-Big Sky Conference first-team honors in spring.

And Redmond’s Alex Fitch, a senior at Linfield, won three of the five small-college tournaments he entered this fall.

Golf industry

An unseasonably cold spring kept golfers at bay in the early part of the golf season. But compared with 2010 — a year when three golf courses changed ownership and two switched management — 2011 seemed downright quiet in the Central Oregon golf industry.

Earlier this month, Honolulu-based developer The Resort Group bought $43 million in loans at Bend’s Pronghorn Club. But the developer’s long-range plans for the 640-acre resort, which includes both Pronghorn’s Nicklaus and Fazio courses, have yet to be announced.

In January, the holding company that owns the clubhouse and land under Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters, Wildhorse Meadows LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to allow the company to restructure $4.6 million in debt. By August, the company had emerged from bankruptcy in a deal that “will help keep Aspen Lakes on solid footing for the foreseeable future,” said Matt Cyrus, co-owner of Aspen Lakes and Wildhorse Meadows.

Some new investments were made, too. Black Butte Ranch continued its $3.75 million renovation of its Glaze Meadow course (which will reopen in 2012), Crosswater Club began in August a $500,000 rebuild of all 18 of its greens, and Awbrey Glen Golf Club in Bend tabbed Bend course architect David McLay Kidd to draw up a new master plan for the private club.

Tournament golf

Central Oregon was no stranger to championship golf in 2011.

In July, elite amateur golfers from the Northwest and beyond met at Tetherow Golf Club for the Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s Men’s Amateur. Bend golfers Vijarro, Heinly and Taylor Garbutt all made the round of 32 in single-elimination match play. But after knocking out Heinly 2 and 1, Vijarro was unexpectedly knocked out in the round of 16.

Utah’s Zac Blair went on to win the tournament championship.

In other tournaments, Washington amateur Reid Martin beat a field of Northwest pros at Awbrey Glen in June’s Oregon Open Invitational.

Larry Daniels, of Seattle, won the PNGA’s Senior Men’s Amateur at Black Butte Ranch’s Big Meadow course. And Florida’s Shun Yat Hak and California’s Gabriella Then in July outpaced a field of junior golf prodigies at Crosswater for the American Junior Golf Association’s Rolex Tournament of Champions.

And finally, Wade Bittle, a 48-year-old from Leavenworth, Wash., rose to the top of the 550-golfer field to win the Golf World Pacific Amateur Golf Classic in September.

It was a busy year indeed on the Central Oregon links.