109th Oregon Amateur Championship Begins June 18th at Bend Golf Club
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BEND, Ore. – The 109th edition of the Oregon Amateur Championship will take place June 18-23, 2018 at Bend Golf Club in Bend, Ore.
The state’s premier amateur golf championship, the 2018 Oregon Amateur will feature 123 men and 26 women players. After 36 holes of stroke play qualifying on Monday and Tuesday, match play will begin with the top 64 men and all women’s competitors.
Round one matches will commence on Wednesday, June 20, with the men playing two matches on Thursday. Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will take place on Friday, June 22, with the 36-hole final match for men and women occurring on Saturday, June 23.
“We’re excited to be coming back to Bend Golf Club for the 109th Oregon Amateur Championship,” said Brent Whittaker, OGA Director of Tournament Operations. “We have an extremely impressive field this year, and the course will surely test the skills and abilities of all competitors.”
The defending Women’s champion, Gigi Stoll (Tigard, Ore.) is back and looking for a fourth Oregon Women’s Amateur title. However, the men’s champion from 2017 – Cole Madey (West Linn, Ore.) of UCLA – is not playing in this year’s event. Instead, he’ll play in the 57th Northeast Amateur, an invitational with an outstanding field of amateur players from across the country.
The men’s field is extremely strong in 2018. Two former champions are playing – Ron Garland (Phoenix, Ariz.), the 1986 winner, and Blake Seabaugh (Tigard, Ore.), the 2008 champion – the 2008 Oregon Amateur was also held at Bend Golf Club. Seabaugh has had plenty of success the past couple of years after returning to competitive play, advancing to the semifinals of the 2017 Oregon Amateur and winning this year’s OGA Tournament of Champions in April. He also played in the 2018 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, with partner JC Riter (Portland, Ore.), who is also in this year’s field.
Brian Humphreys (Vancouver, Wash.), the runner-up in the past two Oregon Amateurs, will hope that the third time is the charm in 2018. Humphreys will be entering his junior season at Boise State in the fall. Fellow collegian Bryce Wortman (Creswell, Ore.), the 2015 Oregon Junior Amateur champion and current golfer at San Jose State, will be in the field, along with 2017 Oregon Junior Amateur winner Craig Ronne (Klamath Falls, Ore.) and 2016 winner Spencer Tibbits (Vancouver, Wash.). Ronne will begin his college career at the University of Oregon in the fall, while Tibbits recently finished his freshman year at Oregon State, where he was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
OGA champions from 2017 that are playing at Bend GC include Arthur Kim (Tigard, Ore.), winner of last year’s OGA Tournament of Champions; Max Murai (Beaverton, Ore.), champion of the 2017 Oregon Public Links; and Trevor Harding (Portland, Ore.) and Brent McKee (Portland, Ore.), who won their second-consecutive Oregon Amateur Four-Ball title last year.
Perennial mid-amateur competitors Jim Dunlap (Tigard, Ore.), Justin Kadin (Corvallis, Ore.) and Jay Poletiek will be looking to win their first Oregon Amateur title. Also in the field is Robbie Ziegler (Portland, Ore.), winner of the 2006 Oregon Junior Amateur and qualifier for U.S. Amateur in 2015 and 2016. Ziegler won his second-consecutive Royal Oaks Invitational Tournament title earlier this month.
Along with Tibbits, fellow Beavers Alec Berrey (Corvallis, Ore.) and Richie Mikesell (Bend, Ore.) will be representing OSU next week. Marcel Boet (Eugene, Ore.) will be the lone University of Oregon men’s player competing.
The women’s field will be led by Stoll, three-time Oregon Women’s Amateur champion (2014-15, 2017). Stoll is coming off perhaps her biggest achievement yet, helping the University of Arizona women’s golf team win the NCAA Division I National Championship in May. Past champion Kailin Downs (Oregon City, Ore.), winner in 2002, is also in the field. Downs is the Head Coach of the women’s golf team at Portland State University.
Challenging Stoll will be Ellen Secor (Portland, Ore.), who just last month won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship with her Colorado State teammate, Katrina Prendergast. Secor also earned medalist honors and the No. 1 seed in match play at last year’s Oregon Amateur.
Also playing is Oregon State’s Ellie Slama (Salem, Ore.). Slama set the OSU scoring record in her freshman season, winning the individual title at the Ron Moore Invitational in October. She won the 2015 and 2017 Oregon Junior Amateur titles.
Last year’s runner-up, Amanda Jacobs (Portland, Ore.), will be looking to take it one step further in 2018. Along with her second place finish in 2017, Jacobs advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship for the second year in a row. Also in the women’s field is Gretchen Johnson (Portland, Ore.). Earlier this year, Johnson won the OGA Women’s Tournament of Champions, and also finished runner-up at the 2018 Oregon Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
Hometown product Madison Odiorne (Bend, Ore.), of Washington State, will be looking for her first OGA Championship. Odiorne advanced to the finals of the 2015 Oregon Women’s Amateur but lost to Stoll in the championship match. Three other local players will be looking for success next week: Amy Anderson (Bend, Ore.), who won last year’s Oregon Women’s Amateur Four-Ball title with playing partner Downs; Tianna Brown (Redmond, Ore.), who plays for George Fox University, and Rosie Cook (Bend, Ore.), perennial OGA competitor with many top-5 finishes in the past five years.
Madi Daniel (Bakersfield, Calif.) will be representing the Oregon Women’s Golf Team at Bend GC. Hannah Swanson (Forest Grove, Ore.), 2016 Oregon Women’s Stroke Play champion, recently finished her college career at Portland State. Haley Greb (Pendleton, Ore.), who won the 2016 Oregon Junior Amateur, plays with Secor at Colorado State University.
Bend Golf Club will be hosting its third Oregon Amateur Championship, after serving as host in 1978 and 2008. The course is designed by Chandler Egan, the legendary golf course architect, as golf holes wind through tall pine trees in its classic design. The course has undergone changes within the last five years, as tees have been added and trees have been removed to diversify the layout. Bend Golf Club will play at 7,058 yards for the men, and 6,207 yards for the women’s field.
