The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table will be inducting seven new members into its Hall of Fame on Monday, Sept. 16. The Induction Class of 2024 includes five athletes, a coach and a special achievement honoree.
This is the fourth in a series of stories about this year’s inductees.
To purchase tickets to the Hall of Fame event at the Cabrillo Pavillion, click here.
Mike Gorton learned early in his golf career that he had a knack for hitting the ball far off the tee.
While it only helped part of his game while he was at San Marcos and Santa Barbara City College, it became the only aspect of his game that mattered during his Hall of Fame career as a World Long Drive athlete.
Gorton was a two-sport athlete during his time as a Royal from 1971-73, competing in both basketball and golf at the varsity level.
On the court, he was the team MVP and a member of the All-League First Team in 1973. On the links, he finished on the All-League First Team that year as well, placing 12th in the state championship.
He was inducted into the San Marcos Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
After graduating from San Marcos, Gorton competed on the Santa Barbara City College golf team in 1974 and 1975.
“Having to drop basketball and concentrate on golf at SBCC (was my toughest moment in athletics) but I was glad how it worked out,” Gorton said.
Gorton’s professional career in World Long Drive contests began in 1981 and came to an end in 2014, and he established himself as one of the greats in the sport during those 33 years.
In fact, he won five World Long Drive championships, the first of which coming in the Open Division in 1987. His next championship came in the Senior Division in 2000.
He came out on top of the pack in the Super Senior Division in back-to-back years in 2007 and 2008 and rounded out his titles in the Grand Champions Division in 2014.
His excellence at all phases of his career remains unprecedented, as he remains the only World Long Drive champion to win a championship in three different divisions.
On top of the titles, he registered eight second-place finishes and 20 top-five finishes in his career. He was the World Long Drive Player of the Year twice.
His success resulted in him being the first person ever admitted into the World Long Drive Hall of Fame in 1995.
Locally, Gorton won the Santa Barbara Classic with Don Beeks and has won two Santa Barbara County Golf Championships, including setting the then-course record at Sandpiper of 64.
Gorton remains an active member of the golf community, competing in plenty of local tournaments and working part-time at the Alisal River Golf Course.
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