July 27, 2018
Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda captured one of golf’s greatest amateur prizes.
Salinda, the winner of last year’s NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship, shot a final round 1-over 72 Friday on the par-71 Lake Course at the Olympic Club to come in at 12-under 272, defeating runner-up Austin Eckroat of Oklahoma by one shot.
The big push from Salinda came during Thursday’s third round, when he posted a competitive course record 62. Salinda grew up as a junior member at Olympic Club.
“Growing up around here, I was a junior member, so I was always pretty comfortable around this course,” Salinda said.
Eckroat, who plays at Oklahoma State, had a chance to catch Salinda but made par on the 18th. He’d finish with a 70 and four-day total of 273.
Another Cardinal, Brandon Wu, finished in third place at 275 after a 70. Cal’s Collin Morikawa finished T-5 at 278 following a 68.
July 26, 2018
When leader Austin Eckroat slowed down, Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda put the pedal to the metal.
Salinda, the winner of last year’s NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship, torched the par-71 Lake Course, carding a competitive course record 9-under 62 to get to a 54-hole total of 13-under 200. He now leads the championship by two shots over Austin Eckroat.
Salinda’s round featured 10 birdies and a bogey. On the back-nine, he’d get red hot, posting birdies on holes No. 14 through No.18 in succession en route to a 30. Longtime member John Abendroth had the record.
Eckroat, who had been in control since the first round, slipped to a 71, and is now in second place at 202.
At five strokes back, and still within striking distance, is fellow Cardinal Brandon Wu. Wu, who won last year’s Porter Cup, shot 70.
Cal’s Collin Morikawa shot his second straight 69 and is T-11 at 210.Shintaro Ban, the 2016 NCGA Player of the Year, fell back with a 73 and is T-14 at 211.
The cutline came at 11-over 224.
Past champions of the Pacific Coast Amateur who have gone on to successful professional careers include PGA Tour winners Billy Mayfair (1987, 1988), Jason Gore (1997) and Ben Crane (1998) as well as Web.com Tour winners Michael Putnam (2004), Andrew Putnam (2010) and Aaron Wise (2015).
July 25, 2018
Oklahoma State’s Austin Eckroat continues to lead at the annual Pacific Coast Amateur Championship on the par-71 Lake Course at The Olympic Club.
On Wednesday, Eckroat followed up an opening 65 with a 67 to put him at a 36-hole total of 10-under 132.
Stanford senior Brandon Wu did make a charge, carding a 68 to stay within three shots of the leader. Wu had a chance to get even closer but bogeyed the 18th.
Two other players making a move up the leaderboard were 2016 NCGA Player of the Year Shintaro Ban and defending NCGA Amateur Match Play winner Isaiah Salinda, who each came in with 67s for a total of 138.
Justin Suh, a senior at USC and former two-time Junior Tour of Northern California Player of the Year, and Bobby Bucey, who won this year’s California Amateur, both shot 72 and are at 143 and 145, respectively.
In the annual Morse Cup competition, a 36-hole stroke play team competition using predetermined rosters representing the 15 member associations of the Pacific Coast Golf Association, Washington State Golf Associaton took the title, defeating the NCGA and SCGA by a shot. The difference was a Joe Highsmith (WSGA) par putt from 13 feet on the iconic closing 18th hole. WSGA would finish the event with a two-day score of 4-under par 280.
Team NCGA, represented by Ban, Suh and Bucey, came in at 3-under 281 along with the SCGA.
Past champions of the Pacific Coast Amateur who have gone on to successful professional careers include PGA Tour winners Billy Mayfair (1987, 1988), Jason Gore (1997) and Ben Crane (1998) as well as Web.com Tour winners Michael Putnam (2004), Andrew Putnam (2010) and Aaron Wise (2015).
July 24, 2018
Austin Eckroat, who plays at Oklahoma State, is the guy to chase after day one of the annual Pacific Coast Amateur Championship on the par-71 Lake Course at The Olympic Club.
Eckroat opened this year’s championship with a 65 after posting seven birdies and a bogey. He’d post a back-nine 31 thanks in part to a hot start. He’d play the first five holes at 4-under.
Canadian Emmett Oh is second at 66, followed by five players, including Stanford’s Brandon Wu, at 67. Wu early in the day held the top spot.
Cal’s KK Limbhasut is T-14 after an opening 70. Among those at 71 are defending NCGA Amateur Match Play champion Isaiah Salinda, former Junior Tour of Northern California Player of the Year Justin Suh, who’s now at USC, and 2016 NCGA Player of the Year Shintaro Ban.
NorCal’s Bobby Bucey, who captured this year’s California Amateur Championship, opened with a 73.
Defending champ Doug Ghim is not competing have since become professional.
In the annual Morse Cup competition, a 36-hole stroke play team competition using predetermined rosters representing the 15 member associations of the Pacific Coast Golf Association, Alberta Golf leads at 4-under. Team NCGA, represented by Ban, Suh and Bucey, is at even-par. The SCGA has won each of the last two years. The NCGA last won in 2015.
Past champions of the Pacific Coast Amateur who have gone on to successful professional careers include PGA Tour winners Billy Mayfair (1987, 1988), Jason Gore (1997) and Ben Crane (1998) as well as Web.com Tour winners Michael Putnam (2004), Andrew Putnam (2010) and Aaron Wise (2015).
July 23, 2018
The 52nd Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, hosted by the NCGA, is set to tee off Tuesday at the Olympic Club.
Situated in metro San Francisco and holding a revered position among golf fans and competitors alike, The Olympic Club has welcomed a plethora of elite amateur and professional events, with its latest addition being the Pacific Coast Amateur. Remembered in recent memory for the 2012 US Open, The Lake Course (par 71, 7162 yards), where Webb Simpson reigned victorious, will test the world’s top amateurs over the course of 72-holes.
“The Olympic Club is truly a special venue,” stated Troy Andrew, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Golf Association, the governing body for the event in conjunction with the NCGA.
“Our Championship has the pleasure of visiting some of golf’s most sought after locations. The Olympic Club sits near the top of every golfer’s bucket list so to be able to invite the world’s best players to San Francisco for a week and have them compete at their peak levels on The Lake Course, is really a perfect Championship situation. We are extremely grateful of The Olympic Club and their membership for having us for the 8th time in our 52 years of competition.”
Doug Ghim, unable to defend his 2017 title due to turning professional, has paved the way for a new champion to be crowned. With 32 players in the top 100 competing this week (according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking), the Pacific Coast Amateur is shaping up to be remembered as one of the strongest fields in amateur golf all summer.
Leading the charge in the 90-player field is world-number-one Braden Thornberry of Olive Branch, Mississippi. Thornberry, playing in his second Pacific Coast Amateur, has won on the big stage before, notching an NCAA Individual Medalist honor in 2017 as a member of the Ole Miss Rebel program. He looks to improve on his T9 finish from 2017 at Chambers Bay and hopefully bring the trophy back home while heading into a busy summer of competitive play.
Not far behind Thornberry in the world rankings and with an equally impressive resume is Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge, California. Morikawa, a recent team member of the successful Team USA at the Arnold Palmer Cup, is no stranger to competition or the Pacific Coast Amateur. With an exceptional list of accomplishments and having last played in the PAC Coast in 2016, he looks to utilize his experience and survive the week at the top of the leaderboard and keep the trophy in California.
The present history of the Pacific Coast Amateur only dates back to 1967, however the roots of the Championship make it one of the oldest amateur golf events in North American history.
On April 6, 1901, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “after many setbacks, the Pacific Coast Golf Association has at last been formed, and before the end of the present month the coast will possess a bona-fide golf champion.”
Inaugural Championship
The first Championship was held on the links of the San Francisco Golf Club at The Presidio, April 24-27, 1901. Championships were held annually through 1911, all being conducted in California except for the 1909 championship, which was held at Seattle Golf Club in Washington.
The Pacific Coast Amateur then ceased to exist, only to be reconstituted at Seattle Golf Club on August 10-12, 1967. The modern era of the PCGA occurred following a meeting of representatives of several golf associations throughout the western United States at Pebble Beach in November, 1965.
The objective of this meeting was to start a golf Championship with the stature that would attract the attention of the USGA and display the ability of amateur golfers in the western United States for possible Walker Cup Team selection. Dr. Ed Updegraff of Tucson, Ariz., was the only western player who had recently participated (1963 and 1965) in the Walker Cup matches.
The Pacific Northwest, Northern California, Southern California, Oregon and Arizona golf associations participated in the inaugural Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Seattle Golf Club in 1967. Today, 15 member associations comprise the Pacific Coast Golf Association, including 13 from the United States and two from Canada.
