Sean Kato takes early lead at Washington Men's Amateur

Sean Kato of Redmond, Wash. shot 7-under par 65 to take the first-round lead in the 94th Washington Men’s Amateur Championship, being held this week at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.

Championship links:

Results | Pairings | Photos

Kato, a rising junior on the Oregon State University golf team, had his round to 8-under before a lone bogey on the par-3 17th hole.

“It was kind of a slow start, but I birdied the holes I needed to,” Kato said after his round. “I putted really well, and felt like I managed my game well. It was fun. I’ve played (Chambers Bay) a lot. I came out here to play with the Youth on Course program when I was young.”

Kato won the 2017 Washington State Junior Championship, and led his Redmond High School squad to the 2017 4A State Championship. He was selected for Team Washington in the Junior Americas Cup for three years, leading the team to the title in 2016.

Tied for second on the crowded leaderboard at 3-under par, four strokes back of Kato, are Andrew Von Lossow of Spokane and Riley Killip of Olympia.

Von Lossow is a two-time Spokane City Amateur champion (2018, 2019), and earlier this summer won the 2020 Pacific Northwest Hickory Championship. Von Lossow played collegiately at Southwest Oregon Community College, and turned professional briefly before regaining his amateur status.

Killip is a rising senior on the men’s golf team at Concordia University in Portland.

Sitting at 2-under, five shots back of Kato, are two-time Washington State Junior champion Max Herendeen of Bellevue, who at age 15 is the youngest player in the field; Boise State University senior Brian Humphreys of Vancouver, Wash.,; Jared Beals of Enumclaw, a senior on the Pacific Lutheran University golf team; Zachary Stocker of Spokane, a rising junior on the Gonzaga University golf team; and Sean Langham of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a senior on the University of Idaho men’s golf team.

The championship consists of 54 holes of stroke play, with the field cut to the low 60 players and ties after 36 holes. The three-day championship is being conducted by Washington Golf (WA Golf).

The first tee time for the second round is 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 12.

Click here for full details on the championship.

For live updates and to stay connected with the championship on social media, follow @PlayWAGolf on Instagram and Twitter and use the hashtag #WAGolfMensAm.

The state’s premier men’s amateur championship, which is a counting event toward the World Amateur Golf Ranking, traditionally attracts the region’s finest players.

Founded in 1922, the WA Golf is a 501c4 non-profit, amateur golf association governed by men and women volunteers. Serving nearly 70,000 individual members at more than 550 member golf clubs and 270 golf courses throughout the state of Washington and Northern Idaho, WA Golf works to continually expand the game of golf to people of all backgrounds.

WA Golf also serves as a statewide representative of the United States Golf Association and works closely with a number of allied associations within the golf industry for the betterment of the game.