Returning Champ Ziegler Headlines Strong Men's Field
By Ron Bellamy
A year ago, Robbie Ziegler won the Oregon Men’s Amateur at Bend Country Club. The then-28-year-old former University of Oregon golfer defeated San Jose State’s Bryce Wortman in the semis, and Oregon State’s Spencer Tibbits, almost a decade younger, 2-and-1 in the 36-hole championship match.
A surprise? Well, it was to Ziegler, at least, and it was a meaningful victory.
“It’s pretty special to win a State Amateur, the state you live and grew up in,” Ziegler said recently. “It’s a pretty big deal. Honestly, it caught me off guard a little bit. I really didn’t expect to win. But I played really well and I kind of carried that into the finals and luckily I capped it off.
“Growing up in the state I have an appreciation for what the OGA does, for junior golfers and older golfers. They do a lot for the state. It’s the biggest tournament in the state, so it was pretty special to win the biggest event in the state of Oregon.”
Such are the fields for the Oregon Amateur that no champion has repeated since Nick Chianello in 2012-13; there have been five different winners in the last five years. And it’s not as if Ziegler will be getting top-flight practice time in the week leading up to this year’s tournament, which starts June 17 at Portland Golf Club ; in his role in sports marketing for Adidas Golf, in which he oversees amateur golf, he’ll spend the previous week supporting clients at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
“We’ll see,” he said. “I travel a lot for work. Every tournament is different. Sometimes I come in rusty, and sometimes I’ll have a few days leading up to it where I can get a little practice in. I’m going to be at the U.S. Open leading up to this, so I’m not going to be touching a golf club, so it’s going to be interesting.
“But I’ve learned to go with the flow nowadays, it’s not worth getting worked up about. But just like last year, hopefully I’ll find something. Match play is a different game, just one on one. Hopefully I’ll get a little ju-ju going for this year.”
The tournament will consist of two rounds of stroke play qualifying to cut the field to 64, and single-elimination match play culminating with the 36-hole championship match on Saturday, June 22.
The field will include Tibbits, of Vancouver, Wash., who just completed his sophomore year at OSU, and who is fresh off an appearance in the 2019 U.S. Open.
Other top competitors include University of Oregon golfer Craig Ronne, the 2017 Oregon Juniors champion who was a strong contender in the Oregon Am and Oregon Stroke Play tournaments last year, as well as former Oregon Am winner Jack Dukeminier (2011), former OGA Public Links champion Calvin Green (2016) and the 2018 Oregon Juniors champion, Nate Stember.
“It’s a great mix of players,” Ziegler said. “Obviously, you get some of the Ducks and Beavers, the current college players. Those guys are always a tough out because they’re playing all year.
“And a lot of guys my age, who I grew up with in Junior golf, most of them are playing as well. So it’s a good mix of young, current college players, high-end junior players and the mid-amateurs who are very capable of making a run as well.
“It’s a great slate of different type of players.”
