Jose Islas shares the round one lead (Pacific Coast Golf Photo)
Jose Islas of Mexico and
Jack Buchanan of Australia both shot rounds of 5-under 65 to grab a share of the lead after the opening round of the 56th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, hosted this week at Capilano Golf and Country Club in West Vancouver, B.C.
Islas started the day on fire, carding five birdies en route to a 5-under front-nine. He leveled off on the back with three birdies against three bogeys to finish the day with a 65.
No stranger to success on the big stage, Islas won the
Mexican National Amateur earlier this summer and earned an invitation to the
2023 U.S. Amateur. He played one year of college golf at the University of Oregon before leaving the program after the 2022 season.
Buchanan's round of 65 today included five birdies against zero bogies, making him one of just three players to go bogey-free on the day.
One of seven Australians in the field this week, Buchanan has participated in four Elite Amateur Series events so far this year. He made it to the second round of match play at the North and South Amateur.
In the Morse Cup competition, three teams are tied atop the leaderboard at 5-under par: the Arizona Golf Association, the Oregon Golf Association, and the Wyoming State Golf Association.
The Morse Cup team competition takes place concurrently during the first two days of the championship. There are 15 member Pacific Rim golf associations that comprise the Pacific Coast Golf Association, and each golf association selects three players to represent them in this team competition.
The two top scores from each team in rounds one and two will count for the Morse Cup portion of the event.
NOTABLE
19-year-old Cooper Jones of Highland, Utah, opened with a 4-under 66 and sits one shot back. He’ll be an incoming freshman on the BYU men’s golf team in the fall.
Kazuma Kobori of Christchurch, New Zealand, opened with a 4-under 66. He sits one shot off the lead.
Nolan Thoroughgood of Victoria, B.C., shot a 2-under 68 and sits three shots back. His first-round score was the lowest among the 11 native Canadians in the field.
Zach Place of Roselle, Ill., hit a hole-in-one on the 166-yard 11th hole using a pitching wedge. This was his first career hole-in-one.
The 436-yard par-4 10th hole played as the toughest hole in round one. The hole saw just four birdies against 29 bogies or worse. Hole number five, a 521-yard par 5, played as the easiest hole in round one, yielding six eagles and a whopping 42 birdies.
ABOUT THE Pacific Coast Amateur
Although its present history only dates from
1967, the Pacific Coast
Amateur Championship's roots make it one of
the
oldest amateur
golf championships in American history. The first
tournament was
held on the links of San Francisco Golf Club at
The
Presidio, April 24-
27, 1901. Championships were held annually
through 1911, all being
conducted in California except for the 1909
championship, which was
held at Seattle Golf Club in Washington. The
Pacific Coast Amateur
then ceased to exist, only to be reconstituted at
Seattle Golf Club on
August 10-12, 1967 with the Pacific Northwest,
Northern California,
Southern California, Oregon and Arizona golf
associations
participating.
Today, 15 member Pacific Rim golf
associations comprise
the Pacific Coast Golf Association. Players can
be
invited to this 72-
hole stroke play event by their Pacific Coast G.A.
member golf
association, or as an individual.
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