Change of venue for 2021 — to Chambers Bay — means 3 of the last 4 Pacific Coast Amateurs will have been contested at U.S. Open sites; Colorado will send a 3-person team to the event
By Gary Baines – 3/30/2021
A team representing Colorado and the CGA competes in the Pacific Coast Amateur every year — at least every year with the exception of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of so many events.
The Pac Coast is normally held at outstanding golf courses. However, it’s a rare treat for it to be conducted at a U.S. Open venue.
But after a change in the 2021 schedule — again related to Covid-19 — the Pacific Coast Amateur will be held at a U.S. Open site for the third time in five years, and for the third time in the last four years in which the event has actually been conducted.
Officials from the Pacific Coast Golf Association formally announced last week that the 2021 championship will be hosted by Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., from July 20-23. It will be the second time Chambers Bay — home of the 2015 U.S. Open — will be the Pacific Coast Amateur site after also doing so in 2017. In addition, The Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco last hosted the Pac Coast in 2018 after five U.S. Opens were contested there.
So suffice it to say the Pacific Coast Amateur is in the midst of one of its best stretches ever of particularly stellar venues.
But Chambers Bay wasn’t supposed to host the event this year. The 54th Pac Coast Am was scheduled to be held at Royal Colwood Golf Club in Victoria, B.C., but restrictions regarding Covid-19 and uncertainties about crossing the U.S.-Canada border this summer led to the change in venue.
“The brief but rich history of Chambers Bay makes it an ideal venue for this championship,” said Troy Andrew, executive director of the Pacific Coast Golf Association.
Colorado sends a team of three top amateur golfers each year to the Pac Coast. In 2019, 57-year-old Greg Condon of Monte Vista, the oldest player in the field, finished 15th in the Pacific Coast Amateur held in Albuquerque. The three-man squad representing the CGA — Ross Macdonald of Castle Rock, Ryan Burke of Longmont and Jared Reid of Denver — finished 12th out of 15 teams in the 36-hole Morse Cup competition.
The last time the Pacific Coast Amateur was held in Colorado was in 1988 at Bear Creek Golf Club in west Denver, where Billy Mayfair won the individual title for the second consecutive year.