National collegiate stars shine at PNGA Men’s Amateur; Quarterfinal matchups set
Pullman, Wash – The Rounds of 32 and 16 in the 124th PNGA Men’s Amateur took place today at Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Wash. The championship is being held this week, July 6-11.
The championship, administered by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association, consists of 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying held on July 6-7, followed by a cut with the low 64 players advancing to single-elimination match play. Each match will be contested over 18 holes, with the exception of the final match, which will be played over 36 holes and held on Saturday, July 11.
Conditions were sunny with moderate winds, similar to previous days of the championship.
Championship Links
Harrison Moir (Portland, Ore.) and Ryder Odem (Las Vegas, Nev.) each won their morning rounds, with Moir eking out a 1-up win over Aaron Buck and Odem taking down Wyatt Bromwell 2-up. Dueling in the Round of 16, Odem and Moir hardly gave each other an inch in a brilliantly competitive match. Moir successfully tied Odem on hole 11, and for the next seven holes, the two posted identical numbers, forcing extra holes. Going off hole 10, Moir found trouble off the tee and couldn’t recover, allowing Odem to claim the 19-hole match.
Originally from Kirkland, Wash. and a graduate of The Bear Creek School in nearby Redmond, Odem is entering his third season at the University of Denver (Colorado).
Pepperdine University’s Byungho Lee (Plano, Texas) enjoyed a productive morning, winning his Round of 32 match over Joshua Ince, 4&3. In his afternoon Round of 16, Lee drew Garrett Harrison and maintained a steady lead over him over what turned out to be a 17-hole match, never trailing and ultimately advancing to the quarterfinal with a 2&1 margin.
Lee is a rising junior at Pepperdine and won the 2026 Texas Amateur in his home state. His college teammate, Luke Dariotis (Sacramento, Calif.), is also a quarterfinalist, having defeated Ian Schoonmaker and Shaunak Nair Thursday, the latter match in 21 holes.
Sam Renner (Bend, Ore.) entered this week having won 12 consecutive matches over the previous two PNGA Men’s Amateur championships en route to the titles in both. He entered this championship trying for his third consecutive title, a feat not accomplished since Jack Westland did in 1938-1940. Teeing up in the Round of 32 after handily winning his first match on Wednesday, Renner found himself closely knotted with Luke West (Coeur D’Alene, Idaho), but ultimately advanced to yet another Round of 16.
Renner versed TingWei (Tim) Chang, who had defeated David Martinez 3&2 in the morning. Renner and Chang won the first and second holes, respectively, but Chang pulled away soon after, making the turn 5-up over Renner, who had shot a 44 on the front side. Renner thundered back, going 4-down to 1-down in a five-hole stretch, but ultimately could not get any closer, and Chang took a 1-up win.
Chang recently completed his second season at the University of Oregon and is a product of IJGA Golf Academy in Florida.
Other players to advance include Naoki Easterday (Portland, Ore.), Nilay Naik (Lake Oswego, Ore.) Grant Gudgel (Stillwater, Okla.), and Alex Cooke (Spokane, Wash.). In this afternoon’s Round of 16, Cooke defeated Ben Borgida (Shoreline, Wash.), a junior on the WSU men’s golf team playing on his home course, in 20 holes to advance.
Quarterfinal matchups can be found here.
First held in 1899, the PNGA Men’s Amateur is among the oldest amateur golf championships in the world. Players will compete for the Macan Cup, which is named after legendary golf course architect A.V. Macan, a member of the Pacific Northwest Golf Hall of Fame and winner of this championship in 1913.
The PNGA Men’s Amateur was last held at Palouse Ridge in 2014 and won by James Beale. A design of Northwest native John Harbottle III, Palouse Ridge opened in 2008, replacing the old 9-hole WSU Golf Course that had previously existed on the land since 1925. The course is owned by Washington State University and is managed by CourseCo. A public course, it serves as the home of the WSU men’s and women’s golf teams. The layout has a grand and epic scale, flowing over the Palouse hills, and has long since been a regular destination for NCAA and AJGA championships, the men’s and women’s Pac-12 Championships, in addition to those of the PNGA and WA Golf.
The PNGA Men’s Amateur Championship is one of the 11 major, regional, amateur championships for men, women, juniors, and seniors conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
