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World-Class Field Set to Compete in 21st Sahalee Players Championship

An impressive field of world-class talent will converge on the Pacific Northwest and Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash. for the 21st Sahalee Players Championship (SPC), to be played next week from June 30-July 2, 2014. The championship will be contested over 72 holes of stroke play, with 36 holes being played the first day, 18 the second, and 18 on the third and final day.

Last year’s championship saw Andrew Yun come from behind in the final round to win by a shot. Yun was the only player to finish under par in the championship. He was playing in his first event since graduating from Stanford, where he was the 2012 Pac-12 individual champion. Yun was born and raised in Tacoma, Wash., winning the Pacific Northwest Junior Boys’ Amateur in 2005.

This year the SPC field will consist of 66 of the top amateur golfers from around the world. Among the players committed to play is Scottie Scheffler, the young phenom from Texas who finished tied for 22nd last month in the PGA Tour’s HP Byron Nelson Championship and who is currently the No. 3-ranked amateur in the world and is the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion.

Sahalee North #1
Sahalee North #1

Also playing will be Cheng-Tsung Pan, the senior-to-be at the University of Washington who qualified for last year’s U.S. Open and has qualified for next month’s British Open, and who last year was ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the world. Other players include Bryson Dechambeau, who finished tied for second in last year’s SPC and is currently the No. 8-ranked amateur in the world, will be returning this year to Sahalee; Hans Reimers of Lake Oswego, Ore. who won the 2013 Oregon Open and was runner-up in the 2013 Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur; Kevin Carrigan of Victoria, B.C., the two-time defending Canadian Mid-Amateur champion; Thomas Lim of Moorpark, Calif. who last week won the Oregon Amateur; and Frank Garber of Kirkland, Wash. who last year won the Pacific Northwest Junior Boys’ Amateur, the Washington Junior Open, Pacific Northwest Junior PGA, the AJGA Ryan Moore Junior Championship, and is the reigning PNGA Junior Boys’ Player of the Year.

There is also a strong international contingent, led by 15 golfers from Australia and five from New Zealand. One of the Kiwis, Tae Koh, won this year’s Australian Amateur.

For a complete list of competitive bios of the players who are committed to the 2014 Sahalee Players Championship, please click here.

Past champions of this prestigious amateur championship include Kyle Stanley, Casey Martin, Peter Uihlein, Nick Taylor, Daniel Summerhays, Ryan Moore, Chris Williams, Arron Oberholser and Jason Gore, among others.

Five of the past 10 SPC champions were winners of the Ben Hogan Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate golfer. More than a dozen SPC participants have gone on to play on the PGA Tour.

The SPC scoring record at Sahalee is the 16-under 272 (68-69-68-67) shot in 2004 by Moore, a native of Puyallup, Wash. now on the PGA Tour.

When asked about the championship, Tournament Director, Mike Jonson said, “The Sahalee Players Championship provides the Northwest with the opportunity each year to witness the performance of some of the world’s finest amateur players.”

Admission is free to watch the championship.

This year will mark the 21st installment of the Sahalee Players Championship. In addition to the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, which was won by Bernhard Langer, Sahalee also tested the world’s best when it hosted the 1998 PGA Championship, won by Vijay Singh, and the 2002 World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational, won by Craig Parry.

The Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA) partnered with Sahalee Country Club 14 years ago to create the “Western Swing” with the Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship. The Sahalee Players Championship is the first leg of the swing, with the Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur being played the following week. The two championships combined with a primary goal of providing amateur golfers in the West an opportunity to play two major national amateur championships without having to travel to the East Coast. This year will mark the 113th Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship, and will be held July 6-11 at Palouse Ridge Golf Club in Pullman, Wash. Visit www.thepnga.org for more information.