Four leaders crowd 58th Pacific Coast Amateur leaderboard through 36 holes
Eugene, Ore. – After a difficult scoring day, Baron Szeto (Moraga, Calif.), Daniel Heo (Buena Park, Calif.), Dylan Ma (Goleta, Calif.) and Cooper Humphreys (Kelowna, B.C.) emerged tied for the lead after two rounds at the 58th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship. The championship is being held this week at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Championship Links
Szeto, Heo and Ma, who all teed off before 8:20 a.m., each delivered sub-70 rounds, with Ma’s 67 the lowest of the day.
Szeto is No. 346 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and a rising senior at California Polytechnic University. His 3-under par day included five birdies and just two bogeys, jumping 11 spots on the leaderboard after round one.
Ma, a rising sophomore at the University of California Santa Barbara, made up similar ground. He carded five birdies and an eagle, the latter erasing the effects of a double bogey on his ninth hole. Ma is coming off his freshman season where he earned All-Big West Honorable Mention honors with the Gauchos. After posting an even-par score in the first round, Ma’s second round vaulted him up 18 spots.
Heo bogeyed hole Nos. 2 and 3, but the rising Cal senior posted a clean card after that to escape with a 2-under round of 69, matching his score from the opening round. Heo’s most recent collegiate season saw him notch three top 10 finishes. He also won the 2022 CIF/SCGA SoCal Boys High School Championship individual title.
Humphreys’ second round included just seven pars. He birdied three of his first four holes and eagled the par-5 sixth, but encountered difficulty on hole Nos. 8, 9 and 10, going four-over during that stretch. Birdies on Nos. 13 and 15 helped counteract one more bogey en route to a 1-under round. Humphreys just completed his freshman season at the University of San Diego and is a two-time B.C. Amateur champion.
In Morse Cup competition, the teams of AZ Golf and the Oregon Golf Association finished in a tie for first at 3-under, marking the first time in 30 years the championship has been shared (1995). AZ Golf’s team featured Mahanth Chirravuri, Rylan Johnson and Johnny Walker, while the OGA relied on Sam Renner, Cole Rueck and Dane Huddleston.
Each of the 16 member Pacific Rim golf associations selected three players to represent them in the Morse Cup team competition, and the two top scores from each team in the first and second rounds counted toward the Morse Cup.
Notable
- Eighteen-hole leader Gabriel Smith followed his opening-round 64 with a 6-over 77. He remains T8 and in the championship hunt at 1-under par, three strokes behind the new leaders.
- Mahanth Chirravuri and Jay Leng each carded 2-under rounds of 69 to put themselves at that same score for the championship. Chirravuri is WAGR No. 38, and Leng is No. 132.
- Montana’s Liam Clancy recorded an ace on the par-3 seventh hole, which played as the most difficult hole throughout the first round.
- No. 8 played as round two’s most difficult hole, with the 485-yard par 4 yielding just seven birdies and 51 bogeys or worse.
- No. 13, a 525-yard par 5, played as the day’s easiest, giving way to two eagles, 44 birdies and just seven bogeys or worse.
About Eugene Country Club
Organized in 1899 and incorporated in 1912, Eugene Country Club is the second-oldest country club in Oregon. Originally designed by H. Chandler Egan, the course was remodeled by the great Robert Trent Jones in the late 1960s. The venue has been the site of multiple high-level events and USGA national championships. 2025 marks the ninth time it has hosted the Pacific Coast Amateur. More information can be found at eugenecountryclub.com.
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, 16 Pacific Rim golf associations comprise the Pacific Coast Golf Association, including the Montana State Golf Association, which joined in 2025.
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 competition, 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. For more information visit eliteamateurgolfseries.org.