Five players tied for Pacific Coast Amateur lead with record rounds
Livermore, Calif. – Colin Prater (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Jaden Dumdumaya (Benecia, Calif), Thayer Plewe (Cortez, Colo.), Matthew Robles (Downey, Calif.) and Sihao Cong (Temecula, Calif.) all shot course-record rounds of 63 and collectively lead the 59th Pacific Coast Amateur following the first round. The championship is being held this week, July 21-24, at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, Calif.
Championship Links:
Prater, 31, has long been a consistent and well-known presence in Amateur Golf. No. 295 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), he is a science teacher at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs and garnered widespread attention when he qualified for the U.S. Open in 2024.
Taking on Poppy Ridge today, Prater didn’t land himself in much trouble. He birdied the par-4 second and fourth holes, before holing out from a bunker on the seventh for an eagle. Making the turn in 30, Prater’s back nine wasn’t quite as explosive, but he still managed two more birdies to complete a bogey-free round of 63.
“We got lucky, going out kind of early, the wind was down,” he said after his round, which began at 8:10 a.m.
Continued Prater, on his attitude in this championship, “I’m older than all these young college studs, so I’m just trying to execute one shot at a time.”
Dumdumaya is the defending PAC Coast champion and played up to the part with a bogey-free Tuesday. He birdied half of his opening 12 holes and gained one more shot with a birdie on the par-5 18th.
Dumdumaya is a rising junior at the University of Southern California (USC). He is ranked 87th in WAGR, higher than any other player in this field.
Plewe, too, did not register a bogey, and his seven birdies came on holes 1, 6, 7, 10, 12, 16 and 18. Going out in 32 and coming in in 31, he demonstrated a fine understanding of Poppy Ridge’s layout and is a contender. Plewe is a rising sophomore at the University of New Mexico, where he was named was named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year during the 2025-26 season.
Robles, like Prater, shot 30 on the front side. The only of the five leaders to bogey a hole, Robles did so on the long par-4 13th, but birdies on 16 and 18 erased any damage. He is a rising junior at the University of Santa Clara, after two All-WCC selection seasons.
Cong could not make it to Livermore for a Monday practice round, but that didn’t stop him from carding an eagle on his opening hole. Building from there, he found himself out in 31 and eventually 6-under by the time reached the 15th tee. He birdied that hole and parred the rest to submit a clean scorecard of his own.
“It was only my second time ever seeing this course,” Cong told AmateurGolf.com after his round. “My team played a practice round here once, but other than that, nothing.”
Cong is a member of the University of California, Berkely (Cal) golf team and completed his redshirt sophomore season in 2025-26.
In the Morse Cup Competition, the Colorado Golf Association, with the help of Prater and Plewe, have the solo lead at 14-under par. The Southern California Golf Association is second, one shot behind at 13-under.
The Morse Cup team competition takes place during the first two days of the championship. Each of the 16 member Pacific Rim golf associations selects three players to represent them in this team competition, and the two top scores from each team in the first and second rounds will count toward the Morse Cup.
Other Notables:
- Matthew Diehl (Redlands, Calif.) is in solo sixth, one shot behind the five leaders. A rising junior at Grand Canyon University, he qualified for the 2025 U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club and will play the 2026 championship at Merion Golf Club.
- Collin Hodgkinson (Beaverton, Ore.), Alex Papayoanou (The Woodlands, Texas) and Ty Holbrook (Boulder, Colo.) are tied for seventh at 5-under par. Papayoanou’s round included two eagles, including one on the par-4 ninth hole.
- Two hole-in-ones were recorded in round one, both on hole 8, a 185-yard par-3. The first came from Benjamin Albin (Santa Fe, N.M.) , and Stanley Lin later matched the feat.
- The two long par-3’s, holes 5 and 14, played as the hardest two holes. Holes 1 and 18 — both par-5’s — played the easiest.
About Poppy Ridge
Located in Livermore, Calif., Poppy Ridge Golf Course is one of two golf courses owned and operated by the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA), the other being Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif. The course officially reopened on May 31, 2025, after a 13-month construction and grow-in process, where an 18-hole golf course has been created with completely new routing and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The new championship-caliber venue hosted a multitude of NCGA championships in 2025 and is set for nine more in 2026. A newly renovated practice facility and short game area are complemented by an executive nine-hole course, appropriately named “The Ridge 9.”
About the Pacific Coast Golf Association
The Pacific Coast Amateur Championship is one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur golf championships in North America. 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. Today, 15 member Pacific Rim golf associations comprise the Pacific Coast Golf Association. For more information visit, pacificcoastamateur.com.
About the Elite Amateur Golf Series
Launched in 2022 to challenge the best of the best in amateur golf, the Elite Amateur Golf Series brings together the top amateur championships in a collective series of competitions, the Elite Amateur Cup. In addition to hosting the best players, Elite Amateur Cup events are contested at the best sites and have the longest history of successful champions. The Elite Amateur Golf Series maintains a proven track record that prepares elite players for the toughest competitive tests, making the championships the majors of amateur golf. Visit eliteamateurgolfseries.org for more information.