Brown and Renner to square off in final match at PNGA Men’s Amateur
Walla Walla, Wash. – Bryden Brown of Moscow, Idaho and Sam Renner of Bend, Ore. will face each other in the final match of the 122nd Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship, being held this week at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Wash.
The 36-hole final match will be held Saturday, July 13, and will tee off the No. 1 tee at 7:30am for the morning round and 12:30pm for the afternoon round. An awards ceremony will be held immediately following the completion of the match.
Championship links:
To reach the final match, Brown, the No. 11 seed in this week’s match-play bracket, powered through today’s quarterfinal and semifinal matches. He came from behind in the quarterfinals to defeat No. 30 seed Kristof Panke, 3 and 2. Tied after 13 holes, Brown won the next three holes to close out the match. In his semifinal match against No. 47 seed Charlie Olson, Brown birdied the first hole and never looked back, holding the lead until the final hole, winning 1-up.
Brown is a rising junior at Lewis-Clark State College. He won three tournaments during last season, and was named Cascade Conference Golfer of the Week four times.
Renner is the No. 1 seed in the match-play bracket, having won medalist honors in 36-hole qualifying by shooting rounds of 65-68. He has steamrolled his way through the bracket this week, winning five matches, with the margins of victory no closer than 3 and 2 except for this afternoon’s semifinal match against Derek Lekkerkerk of Twin Falls, the No. 13 seed who took Renner all the way to the 18th hole before Renner closed out the match with a birdie to win 1-up.
Lekkerkerk was 1-up after 12 holes, but the two players were tied as they stood on the 18th tee, but Renner’s birdie on the long downhill par-5 closed it out.
Renner is a rising junior on the Washington State University men’s golf team, where he currently holds the program’s best career scoring average, at 71.97. He helped the Cougars win the 2024 National Golf Invitational, the program’s first postseason tournament win, by finishing second individually, at 14-under.
First held in 1899, the PNGA Men’s Amateur is 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.
Past champions include 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.
The PNGA Men’s Amateur is one of 11 major, regional, amateur championships for men, women, juniors and senior conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
About Wine Valley Golf Club
Opened in 2009, Wine Valley was designed by Northwest native Dan Hixson, and is owned by Dan Pliska, who also owns Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Ore. Wine Valley has already been the site of numerous regional championships, including the Northwest Open Invitational every year from 2010-2021, and previously hosted the PNGA Men’s Amateur in 2012 and 2016, and the PNGA Women’s Amateur in 2013. Visit winevalleygolfclub.com for more information.
