59th Pacific Coast Amateur: Jaden Dumdumaya surges to three-shot lead with 65

The West Coast's premier amateur test moves to a brand-new stage

The 59th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship gets underway Tuesday at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, Calif., where 72 holes of stroke play (July 21–24) will crown the next name on the Ed Updegraff Perpetual Trophy. Hosted this year by the Northern California Golf Association, the championship brings together players from seven countries representing the 15 member associations of the Pacific Coast Golf Association.

It's a landmark week on two fronts. This is the first time Poppy Ridge — owned and operated by the NCGA — has hosted the Pac Coast Am, and it comes in the NCGA's 125th anniversary year. The association was founded in 1901 for the express purpose of sending a team to the very first Pacific Coast Amateur at San Francisco Golf Club, so the championship's arrival on NCGA soil is a full-circle moment more than a century in the making. Sister course Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach hosted the championship in 1996.

The Pac Coast Am is one of seven events in the Elite Amateur Golf Series, offering World Amateur Golf Ranking points, Elite Amateur Cup standing, and exemptions into USGA championships, PGA TOUR events, and Korn Ferry Tour starts for top finishers. The champions' roll tells you everything about the pedigree: Will Zalatoris, Aaron Wise, Andrew Putnam, Jason Gore, and Billy Mayfair all won here before finding success on the PGA TOUR.

Last year: Dumdumaya's Eugene comeback

Jaden Dumdumaya of Benicia, Calif. returns to defend the title he won in dramatic fashion at Eugene Country Club last July. Eight shots off the lead after an opening 73, the USC Trojan stormed back with a third-round 66 and a closing 68 — capped by a clutch up-and-down par save at the 72nd hole — to finish at 6-under 278 and win by a single stroke. The victory made him the third NorCal native in a decade to lift the trophy, joining Isaiah Salinda (2018) and Will Zalatoris (2016).

The man he beat is back, too. Dylan Ma, who shared the 54-hole lead at Eugene and finished runner-up by one, arrives off a season at UC Santa Barbara that included All-Big West Honorable Mention honors and a seventh-place finish at the Big West Championships. A rematch at the top of the leaderboard would be a fitting storyline for Poppy Ridge's debut.

Players to watch

Jaden Dumdumaya (Benicia, Calif.) — The defending champion sits No. 87 in the WAGR and placed third at the 2026 Big Ten Men's Golf Championships as a rising junior at USC. He'll tee it up for the host NCGA.

Joshua Kim (Danville, Calif.) — No. 143 in the WAGR, the UCLA rising sophomore won the 2026 Big Ten individual title, earned All-Big Ten First Team honors, and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Another NCGA representative with home-state momentum.

Ryan Abuan (Temecula, Calif.) — WAGR No. 308. The SCGA's UNLV standout won The Prestige in 2025 and finished fourth at the 2026 Southwestern Invitational.

Collin Hodgkinson (Beaverton, Ore.) — WAGR No. 587 with three counting wins, including the 2025 Washington Men's Amateur. Added fourth-place finishes at the 2026 Washington Am and Royal Oaks Invitational.

Drew Woolworth (Lake Oswego, Ore.) — The incoming Georgia freshman is No. 17 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings with two WAGR wins, the latest at the 2026 Sacramento Junior Championship.

Drake Harvey (Las Vegas, Nev.) — No. 14 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and a 2025 Rolex AJGA All-American. The BYU signee owns two WAGR wins, most recently at the 2026 Scott Robertson Memorial.

Dylan Ma (China / UC Santa Barbara) — Last year's runner-up gets another crack at the title after a 2026 All-Big West Honorable Mention season.

Keep an eye on the deep Presidential Invitation contingent as well, headlined by Stanford's Edan Cui and Ethan Gao, Cal's Charlie Bundy, Long Beach State's Jack Cantlay, and 2012 U.S. Amateur runner-up Michael Weaver.

The venue: A reborn Poppy Ridge

Originally opened in 1996 as a 27-hole facility with three nine-hole loops, Poppy Ridge emerged from a 13-month total redesign in May 2025 as an 18-hole championship course with entirely new routing. Architect Jay Blasi — who worked alongside Robert Trent Jones II on Chambers Bay, itself a three-time Pac Coast Am host (2017, 2021, 2024) — built wide, undulating fairways designed for playability, variety, and flexibility.

The agronomy is as modern as the routing: Santa Ana Bermuda fairways paired with Prestige Bentgrass greens create a firm, water-efficient playing surface. The rebuilt course hosted a slate of NCGA championships in 2025 and has nine more on the calendar in 2026, with the Pac Coast Am as the crown jewel. A renovated practice facility, short game area, and the executive nine-hole "Ridge 9" round out the property.

"The newly redesigned Poppy Ridge is an exceptional championship venue that will attract the world's top amateurs and deliver a rigorous, fair test to determine the most deserving champion," said PCGA executive director Nate Schroeder.

Confirmed field

The field is built from three-player teams sent by PCGA member associations — who also compete for the Morse Cup team title — plus a large group of Presidential Invitations.

Presidential Invitations

About the championship

First played in 1901 on the links of San Francisco Golf Club at The Presidio, the Pacific Coast Amateur ran until 1911 before going dormant, then was reconstituted at Seattle Golf Club in 1967. Today it stands as one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur championships in North America, contested by 15 member Pacific Rim golf associations under the PCGA banner.

Stay with AmateurGolf.com all week for round-by-round coverage from Poppy Ridge.