Quarterfinal matches set at 121st PNGA Men’s Amateur
University Place, Wash. – The quarterfinal matches are set at the 121st Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship, hosted this week July 17-22 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
The rounds of 32 and 16 were held today as the region’s best players battled it out under the hot summer sun during the championship’s second day of match play.
Championship links:
No. 1 seed Aiden Krafft of Albuquerque, N.M. secured his spot in the quarterfinals after defeating Davis McDowell of San Rafael, Calif. by a score of 2 up in this morning’s round of 32. In the afternoon round of 16, Krafft defeated John Morrow of Delta, B.C. in a back and forth match that was sealed with a tying birdie on the final hole.
Krafft, a rising sophomore on the University of Oregon men’s golf team, will face off against No. 41 seed Ethan Chung of Eastvale, Calif. in tomorrow’s quarterfinal round. Chung is a rising redshirt-junior on the University of California men’s golf team.
In quarterfinal match number two, No. 4 seed Nicholas Watts of Springfield, Ore. will face No. 12 seed Joshua Koo of Cerritos, Calif. Watts plays collegiately on the San Jose State University men’s golf team. Koo played one season of golf on the University of Washington men’s golf team and is set to transfer to Pepperdine this coming school year. He is currently ranked inside the top-1000 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
No. 2 seed Ben Borgida of Shoreline, Wash. will face No. 7 seed Ryan Voois of Ladera Ranch, Calif. in quarterfinal match number three. Borgida is heading into his sophomore year as a member of the Washington State University men’s golf team. Voois is a rising sophomore on the University of Illinois men’s golf team and played in five events during his freshman season.
Quarterfinal match number four will feature No. 3 seed Jack Cantlay of Los Alamitos, Calif. and No. 54 seed Jackson Jacob of Langley, B.C. Cantlay the younger brother of eight-time PGA TOUR winner Patrick Cantlay, recently finished his freshman year on the Long Beach State University men’s golf team where he was named Big West Freshman of the Year. Jacob is entering his 4th year as a member of University of the Fraser Valley golf team. He won the 2023 Canadian University/College Championship.
The quarterfinal rounds will take place tomorrow morning, Friday, July 21, beginning at 7:00am followed by the semifinal matches in the afternoon. The 36-hole championship match will be contested on Saturday, July 22.
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.
This year marks one of the strongest international fields in the championship’s long history.
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 Chambers Bay
Chambers Bay opened in 2007 and was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. Owned by Pierce County, the municipal course has already been the site of numerous regional and national championships, including the 2010 U.S. Amateur and becoming the first course in the Pacific Northwest to host the U.S. Open, which it did in 2015. It also hosted the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur. Chambers Bay has twice hosted the Washington Men’s Amateur (2013, 2020) and the Pacific Coast Amateur (2017, 2021). The Home Course has served as the assisting course to Chambers Bay for two USGA national championships. Visit chambersbaygolf.com and thehomecourse.com for more information.
