Three From BC To Tee It Up In 117th PNGA Men’s Amateur Championship
DuPont, Wash. – The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. is set to host the most talented male amateur golfers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond on July 9-14 at the 117th Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship, conducted by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA).
This is the second time The Home Course has hosted this championship, having previously been the venue in 2009. The championship begins with 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying held on July 9-10, followed by a cut to the low 64 players who will advance to single-elimination match play.
The Round of 64 will be held Wednesday, July 11, followed by the Rounds of 32 and 16 on Thursday, and quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday, with the championship match on Saturday, July 14. Each match will be contested over 18 holes, with the exception of the final match, which will be played over 36 holes.
Click here for complete information about this year’s championship, including tee times and pairings. To follow along with live scoring, visit www.thepnga.org.
Last year’s championship concluded at Emerald Valley Golf & Resort in Creswell, Ore. when Emmett Oh of Calgary, Alta. birdied the 36th hole to defeat Derek Bayley of Rathdrum, Idaho 1-up in the final match.
Oh joined an elite group of past champions that includes names such as Tiger Woods, Jeff Quinney, Ben Crane, Jeff Coston, Nick Flanagan, Jim McLean and Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Famers Chandler Egan, Harry Givan, Jack Westland, Bud Ward and George Holland, among many others.
One of the oldest amateur golf championships in the world, players will compete for the Macan Cup, which is named after legendary golf course designer A.V. Macan, a member of the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame and winner of this championship in 1913.
Some of the players to watch for in this year’s championship:
Bayley returns this year to try to better his runner-up finish in last year’s championship. He is a recent graduate of Washington State University, where he starred all four years on the school’s men’s golf team. He finished second in the 2016 and 2017 Washington State Amateurs, won the 2016 Idaho State Amateur, and won the 2016 Rosauers Invitational playing against the region’s PGA professionals
- Former University of Arizona golfer Reid Hatley of Hayden Lake, Idaho, was the PNGA Men’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year for three consecutive years (2015-17) and won the PNGA Men’s Mid-Amateur in 2013. Last month he finished tied for sixth in the Mexican Amateur
- Chase Carlson, of Colorado Christian University, won the 2016 Washington State Amateur
- Graysen Huff of Eagle, Idaho was named the 2014 PNGA Junior Boys’ Player of the Year
- Joe Neuheisel of Scottsdale, Ariz. is the 21-year-old son of former Washington and UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel
- Gabe Spach of Seattle won the 2016 PNGA Junior Boys’ Amateur, held at The Home Course
Other top players include Jason Aspelund of Federal Way, Wash., who is a grounds operation manager for Alaska Airlines and was a high school soccer star who played that sport collegiately; Craig Larson of Tacoma, Wash., who teamed with former major league pitcher Erik Hanson to win the 2016 PNGA Senior Team championship; and Jeff Ward of Bend, Ore., the 2014 PNGA Mid-Amateur champion.
Three players from British Columbia are in the field, incuding Trevor Yu of Vancouver, Golf Canada National Development Team Member Thomas Critch from Victoria, and Langley's Jaewook Lee.
The Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship is one of 15 major, regional, amateur championships for men, women, juniors, and seniors conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
Opened in 2007, The Home Course is cooperatively owned and operated by the Washington State Golf Association and Pacific Northwest Golf Association, and along with hosting the 2009 PNGA Men’s Amateur has been the site of numerous local, regional and national championships, including being the companion course to Chambers Bay for the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the venue for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. The Home Course will also be the companion course to Chambers Bay for the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.
Click here for a complete listing of championships held at The Home Course.