Devon Bling of Ridgecrest survived a five-man playoff to win the 54th Pacific Amateur Championship on the fifth extra hole at Chambers Bay Golf Club in University Place, Wash.
Bling, a recent graduate of UCLA, needed the five playoff holes to turn back Walker Lee of Houston on the first extra hole, Dylan Menante of Carlsbad and Pepperdine and Sam Choi of Anaheim on the third, and finally Joe Highsmith of Lakewood, Wash., and Pepperdine on the final extra hole.
“It feels incredible to come out on top,” said Bling, who was runner-up in the 2018 U.S. Amateur Championship. “I fought all the way to the end and I’m super happy to be able to come out on top. The course was playing harder today, but nothing fell in. Today was just one of those days where nothing would go in, but that’s just golf.
“I feel like if I hit solid shots into the middle of the green and give myself looks for birdie, it’s gonna take a lot to beat that. My strategy in the playoff didn’t change, but I knew it was gonna be a grind.”
Bling, who played in the played in the 2019 Masters and was one of four amateurs to make the cut, finished with a score of 71-66-62-73—272, 12-under-par, making a birdie on the 18th hole in the final round to get into the playoff.
Menante posted a score 69-64-74-65—272, Highsmith totaled 69-70-65-68—272, Choi finished at 69-70-65-68—212, and Lee wound up at 69-70-63-70—272.
R.J. Manke of Lakewood, Wash., and Pepperdine was sixth at 71-67-69-67—274, followed by Hazen Newman of Las Vegas at 69-67-69-70—274 and Bo Jin of Encinitas at 73-66-68-69—276, while Youseff Guezzale of San Diego shot 70-70-70-67—277 to tie for ninth with Gavin Cohen of Tucson, Ariz., who came in at 66-69-68-74—277.
Former winners of the Pacific Coast Amateur include Billy Mayfair, Will Zalatoris, Aaron Wise, Jason Gore, Michael Putnam, Curt Byrum, Doug Ghim, Mark Pfeil, Jim McLean, Ron Commans, Todd Demsey, Ben Crane, David Berganio, Brock Mackenzie, Corey Pereira, Todd Fischer, Brian Henninger, Dr. Ed Updegraff, Mike Davis, John Fought, Greg Bruckner, Mark Johnson, Patrick Nagle, Ryan LaVoie and Isaiah Salinda.
Last year’s tournament was cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
For complete results, visit https://pcga-2021pacificcoastamateurchampionship.golfgenius.com/pages/7534886314118745839
