Charlie Kern leads PNGA Am
Photo from William and Mary

The championship is being held at Sunriver (Ore.) Resort, and is conducted by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA).

Aaron Whalen of Ephrata, Wash. also advanced to tomorrow’s Round of 32, defeating Daniel Luftspring of Toronto, Ont., 2 and 1.

Whalen, who last month had won the Washington 2A High School Championship and has committed to play golf at Washington State University in the fall, had tied Kern in the championship’s two rounds of stroke play qualifying, but Kern won medalist honors, and the No. 1 seed, by winning a playoff with Whalen.

Today’s Round of 64 was held on the resort’s Meadows course. The Round of 32 will be held tomorrow morning, followed by the Round of 16 matches in the afternoon, with both rounds being held on the resort’s Woodlands course.

Each match is being contested over 18 holes, with the final match, to be held Sunday, July 12, being played over 36 holes.

Kern, who just graduated from William & Mary in Virginia where he played on the men’s golf team, had made it to the quarterfinals of last year’s championship, and last week finished T-7 at the Sahalee Players Championship, the first leg of the Western Swing.

Other notables to advance are UCLA freshman and last year’s runner-up Cole Madey of West Linn, Ore.; Tyler Salsbury of Enumclaw, Wash., champion of the 2014 Washington State Men’s Amateur; Sam Warkentin of Bainbridge Island, Wash., the 2014 PNGA Junior Boys’ champion; Alistair Docherty of Vancouver, Wash., who won the 2015 Oregon Amateur; Dylan Wu of Medford, Ore. who finished runner-up to Docherty; and Shintaro Ban of San Jose, Calif., a freshman at UNLV whose older brother, Shotaro, won this championship in 2012.

The Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur is one of the oldest amateur golf championships in the world. 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. 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.

The PNGA was founded on February 4, 1899. It is a 501c3 charitable, international, amateur golf association dedicated to preserving the true spirit of golf by supporting its allied associations, conducting quality championships, and promoting activities beneficial to golfers in the Pacific Northwest.