The Pacific Coast Amateur being at Poppy Ridge marks the first time the prestigious event has been in NorCal since the 2018 championship at The Olympic Club.
What happened that year?
Then-Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda, coming off a win at the 2017 NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship, shot a final round 1-over 72 to come in at 12-under 272, defeating runner-up Austin Eckroat of Oklahoma by one stroke.
Salinda’s big surge came in the third round, when he posted a competitive record 62 on the Lake Course. A native of South San Francisco, Salinda was on familiar turf, having grown up as a junior member at Olympic Club.
“This is definitely my biggest win against an elite field,” said Salinda, who would later win the Korn Ferry Tour Panama Championship in 2024. “It still hasn’t sunk in.”
Eckroat, a sophomore at Oklahoma State, had a chance to catch Salinda with a birdie on the iconic 18th but made par. He’d finish with a 70 and total of 273.
In the annual Morse Cup competition, a 36-hole play team competition using predetermined rosters representing the 15 member associations of the Pacific Coast Golf Association, Washington State Golf Association took the title with a score of 4-under 280, defeating the NCGA and SCGA by a shot.
Team NCGA was represented by 2016 NCGA Player of the Year Shintaro Ban, former Junior Tour of Northern California Player of the Year Justin Suh and 2018 California Amateur champion Bobby Bucey.
The Pacific Coast Amateur has been held in NorCal 11 times since the event returned in 1967. Other NorCal courses that have hosted since 1967 are Pebble Beach Golf Links, Poppy Hills, Martis Camp and now Poppy Ridge.
The first tournament was held on the links of San Francisco Golf Club at The Presidio in 1901. After being played until 1911, the Pacific Coast Amateur then ceased to exist, only to be reconstituted at Seattle Golf Club in 1967.