DuPont, Wash. (Wednesday, August 4, 2010) – Six players advanced to the 110th U.S. Amateur Championship through the 36-hole U.S. Amateur Sectional Qualifying being played at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. After heavy fog delayed play for 2 and a half hours this morning, 18-hole leader Carl Jonson of Bainbridge Island, Wash. carded a 1-over par 73 to follow-up his first round of 8-under par 64 to capture medalist honors in the field of 144 players.
Jonson, 17, who will be entering his senior year of high school this fall and recently committed to play golf for UNLV beginning in 2011, got off to a good start in his second round by making two birdies to go along with one bogey on the front nine for a 1-under par 35. He managed the back nine with a 2-over par 38 to finish with a two-round total of 7-under par 137 which was two shots clear of second place.
Finishing in second were Cameron Peck of Olympia, Wash. and Cory Renfrew of Victoria, B.C. who each shot a 36-hole total of 5-under par 139. Both Peck, who is the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion, and Renfrew, who was runner-up at this year’s PNGA Men’s Amateur, came into this week hot having finished in the top-10 at last week’s Pacific Coast Amateur Championship.
Other qualifiers include: University of Idaho junior Jarred Bossio (140) of Olympia, Wash., 2010 PAC-10 Co-Player of the Year and a junior at the University of Oregon Eugene Wong (141) of North Vancouver, B.C., and UNLV sophomore Kevin Penner (141) of Sammamish, Wash.
The Home Course is the assisting course for the 110th United States Amateur Championship. It will be hosting the stroke play qualifying rounds on Monday, August 23 and Tuesday, August 24 of the championship. The Home Course is cooperatively owned and operated by the Pacific Northwest and Washington State Golf Associations. In only its third year open to the public, The Home Course has hosted numerous men’s, women’s and junior championships, including the Sahalee Players Championship last month.
The 110th United States Amateur Championship will be held August 23-29 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. The U.S. Amateur is one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association (USGA). Other championships include the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, the U.S. Women’s Open and nine other amateur championships.
The 2010 U.S. Amateur is the first USGA championship to be conducted at Chambers Bay. The state of Washington has hosted 21 USGA championships prior to this year, including the 1952 U.S. Amateur at Seattle Golf Club (won by Jack Westland). The 2010 U.S. Senior Open was just held at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish. The 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur will be played at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton July 18-23, and Chambers Bay will host the 2015 U.S. Open June 18-21.
As a local representative of the USGA, the Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) typically hosts one U.S. Amateur Sectional Qualifier annually in the state of Washington. In 2010, with the assistance of The Home Course and Palouse Ridge Golf Club, the WSGA successfully arranged an increase to the field size to give the maximum opportunity for eligible amateur golfers to qualify in their home state.
The WSGA is the local representative of the United States Golf Association and conducts the sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Amateur Championship. As the USGA’s regional representative in Washington and Northern Idaho, the WSGA conducts numerous USGA national championship qualifiers each year, including for the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Senior Amateur and more.