108th PNGA MEN'S AMATEUR
At The Home Course, Dupont

Score: Top-seeded Tyler Matthews, of Redmond, defeated No. 26 Josh Anderson, of Murrieta, Calif., 5-and-4.

Why he won: Sometimes 40 and 50 yards behind Anderson off the tee, Matthews' long-iron approaches, and putting inside 10 feet finally wore down the 2007 California State Amateur champion.

Turning point: Matthews made a downhill and curling 57-foot birdie putt on the par-4 seventh hole (25th hole) in the afternoon to grab a 3-up lead.

Clinching moment: Facing a 220-yard approach from the right rough, Matthews laced a 4-iron to the middle of the green on the par-4 13th – the match's 33rd hole – while Anderson yanked a shorter approach left in greenside rough. Matthews made a par; Anderson a bogey. Matthews won the title on the next hole.

Quotable: "I'd been kind of teetering, asking (myself), 'Am I good enough to turn pro?' I didn't know, my confidence has been low. This win gives me a boatload of confidence to turn pro in the fall."

Except for a few family members and close friends, and the teenager he once defeated for the KingCo Conference championship in high school for his lone career victory, few had any idea who golfer Tyler Matthews was before this week.

Ask most of the top amateurs in the Pacific Northwest Golf Association about the Inglemoor High and Vanderbilt University graduate, they'd give you a blank stare and shrug of the shoulders.

His opponent – California's Josh Anderson – in the finals of the 108 PNGA Men's Amateur only knew him by his birdie-filled scorecards from previous match-play rounds.

Well, that all changed on a sunny Saturday afternoon on The Home Course in Dupont where the medalist and No. 1 seed from Redmond finished what he started by rolling to a 5-and-4 victory in the championship match.

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A CHAMPION TO BE CROWNED

California's Josh Anderson and Washington's Tyler Matthews are Saturday's 36-hole finalists in the 108th PNGA Men's Amateur at The Home Course. Here is how they match up:

JOSH ANDERSON
Hometown: Murrieta, Calif.
Age: 20.
College: Pepperdine.
World amateur ranking: 240th.
Seed in PNGA Amateur: No. 26.
Road to finals: Wins over No. 39 Cameron Peck (19 holes) in the first round; No. 58 Brian Barhanovich (4-and-3) in the second round; No. 10 James Sacheck (5-and-4) in the third round; No. 2 Chris Williams (2-and-1) in the quarterfinals; and No. 11 Darren Wallace (19 holes) in the semifinals.

TYLER MATTHEWS
Hometown: Redmond.
Age: 22.
College: Vanderbilt.
World amateur ranking: 912th.
Seed in PNGA Amateur: No. 1.
Road to finals: Wins over No. 64 Gregory Moss (5-and-4) in the first round; No. 32 Ian Dahl (19 holes) in the second round; No. 17 Patrick Bauer (2-and-1) in the third round; No. 8 Robbie Ziegler (2-up) in the quarterfinals; and No. 28 Zach MacDougall (3-and-2) in the semifinals.

Gone are the fresh legs of earlier in the week, the warm-greeting expressions of competitive golfing colleagues just starting up one of the best amateur tournaments on the West Coast.

Five grueling days into the 108th PNGA Men's Amateur at The Home Course in Dupont, two men remain standing – California's Josh Anderson and Tyler Matthews, of Redmond – for Saturday's 36-hole championship match.

Both won morning quarterfinal and afternoon semifinal matches Friday to advance to Saturday's showdown, scheduled for 7 a.m. off the first tee.

Matthews, the No. 1 seed and recent graduate of Vanderbilt, defeated Oregon's Robbie Ziegler (2-up) and Canadian Zach MacDougall (3-and-2) while Anderson, a sophomore-to-be at Pepperdine, stopped Idaho teenager Chris Williams (2-and-1) and Canadian Darren Wallace (19 holes).

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The cart that took turns greeting a small gathering of press folks Wednesday, as they tried to get around tight-and-hilly Meridian Valley Country Club, was piloted by Paige Mackenzie.

It was a day to trade her LPGA Tour golfer hat in exchange for the hostess of her upcoming second Paige Mackenzie Charity Shootout, scheduled for Aug. 16-17.

Her charity auction is slated for Aug. 16 at the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, followed by her charity "Horse Race" event, featuring a dozen LPGA Tour players Aug. 17.

All along, the stated golf for Mackenzie is to perk interest in returning the LPGA Tour, which is in the middle of a power struggle between its commissioner and players over dwindling events, to the greater Seattle area.

But as the former University of Washington standout knows, it's going to take a big financial commitment – say, $1.5 million – from a major sponsor to even start discussion about a new tournament.

"It really depends on that," Mackenzie said.

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Warning: Higher seeds at the 109th Pacific Northwest Golf Association Men's Amateur championship were in plenty of danger Wednesday.

Nine of the top-20 seeds lost Wednesday in the opening round of match play at The Home Course in Dupont, including four golfers in the top 10 – No. 5 seed Cheng-Tsung Pan, No. 6 Derek Berg, No. 7 Jacob Koppenberg and No. 9 David Bunker.

Top-seeded Tyler Matthews, of Redmond, had no such issues. He won seven holes in a row to close out the front nine, and throttled 64th-seeded Gregory Moss, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., 5-and-4.

Locals T.J. Bordeaux, of Tacoma, and Olympia's Jarred Bossio, also advanced to today's second round. Bordeaux, the No. 20 seed, walloped Cle Elum's Dan Whitaker, 4-and-2. Bossio needed 19 holes, but the 56th seed upset Bunker, the reigning Canadian Mid-Amateur champion from Woodbridge, Ontario.

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Mike Davis, the United States Golf Association's championship guru who isn't afraid to ruffle a few feathers with bold setup moves, might be considering one for the age for the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place.

Changing a hole's par during a tournament.

Huh?

That is what he told Associated Press reporter Doug Ferguson over the weekend in a telephone interview.

"One thing I'm absolutely positive we'll do in the future, perhaps in 2015 at Chambers Bay, is play a hole certain days as a par 4, and certain days as a par 5," Davis said.

To which the world's No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods responded: "You can't change par in the middle of a tournament."

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This summer, Hawaii's Sam Cyr will play his final circuit of major amateur tournaments before turning professional.

On Monday, he got off to a rousing start at the 108th Pacific Northwest Golf Association Men's Amateur championship at The Home Course in DuPont.

Under blustery morning conditions, Cyr, a two-time NAIA Division I men's champion from Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego, fired a 5-under-par 67 to grab a one-stroke advantage over Longview's Ian Dahl and Canadian Dave Bunker (68).

Four of Cyr's seven birdies came in the first seven holes as he started off the 10th tee. He made birdies at Nos. 10, 13, 14 and 16 before his lone bogey on the par-4 18th.

Locally, Lacey's Cameron Peck (71) is tied for ninth, Graham's Kyle Wesolowski (72), the reigning Puget Sound Amateur champion, is tied for 16th, as is Tacoma's T.J. Bordeaux. Tacoma's Brandon Moore and James Feutz, the 15-year-old from Bellarmine Prep, are tied for 51st after 73s, and University Place's Andrew Putnam (77) is in a group in 86th.

The top 64 from today's final round will advance to match play, which starts Wednesday.

Cyr is an accomplished player in windy conditions. For starters, he hails from Makawao, Hawaii. And for the first two rounds of his run to the NAIA championship last May in Illinois, he faced unpredictable gusts. He ended up as the lone finisher under-par.

As the NAIA champion, he has received invitations to play in the Western Amateur and the Porter Cup before he heads off to PGA Tour Qualifying School next fall.

It was Tiger Woods' first major amateur victory, and the championship gets underway this week on the Pacific Northwest Golf Association's valuable property.

The 108th PNGA Men's Amateur Championship will tee off Monday on The Home Course in Dupont.

Woods is one of the many storied champions of this event, winning in 1994. This is the first time the tournament has been staged in Pierce County since it was held at Oakbrook Country and Golf Club in 2004.

Defending champion Jason Kang, of Fullerton, Calif., has not returned to defend his title, but 2008 runner-up Stephen Hale, of Bakersfield, Calif. is back. He tees off at 8:06 a.m.

Other players to watch include 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Cameron Peck; West Coast Conference player of the year Andrew Putnam; and Pacific-10 Conference tournament champion Darren Wallace, of the University of Washington.

108th PNGA MEN'S AMATEUR
When: Monday through Saturday.
Where: The Home Course, Dupont
Schedule: 36 holes of stroke play Monday and Tuesday. Field is trimmed to top 64 for match play starting Wednesday. Championship match is Saturday.
Admission: Free.
Website: www.thepnga.org

108th PNGA AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
At The Home Course, Dupont
• Monday morning tee times

1st tee at 7:30 a.m.
Cameron Peck, Olympia
Trent Sanders, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Richard Lee, Bellevue

10th tee at 7:30 a.m.
Sam Cyr, San Diego
Cheng-Tsung Pan, Bradenton, Fla.
Derek Berg, Kenmore

1st at 7:39 am
James Sacheck, The Woodlands, Texas
Jens Bracht, Lake Forest Park
Robbie Ziegler, Canby, Ore.

10th at 7:30 a.m.
John Mahler, Edgewood
Jack Paton, Hillsborough, Calif.
Zahkai Brown, Arvada, Colo.

1st at 7:48 a.m.
Andrew Putnam, University Place
Chris Williams, Moscow, Idaho
Gunner Wiebe, Aurora, Colo.

10th at 7:48 a.m.
Austin Hurt, Bainbridge Island
Gaston Delatorre, Brush Prairie
Craig Tallen, Haverford, Pa.

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There are a few reasons Canadian Nick Taylor is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

At the top of the list: Clutch shot-making.

Taylor, a University of Washington senior-to-be, birdied the second-hardest hole Friday in the final round of the 15th Sahalee Players Championship – the downhill 211-yard, par-3 17th over a pond – and captured the title at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish.

None of the contenders posted under-par rounds, but Taylor's 1-over-par 73 was good enough to chase down overnight leader Eddie Olson (77) and Australian Daniel Nisbet (75), whom he was tied with heading to the 17th hole.

Taylor made only the day's fourth birdie while Nisbet made a par. Taylor sank a 25-foot putt from the back plateau of the green, and Nisbet missed a 6-foot birdie attempt.

Both birdied the par-5 finishing hole.

The Husky star finished the championship at 6-under 282, one stroke ahead of Nisbet (283) and two ahead of Olson (284). Defending champion Trent Whitekiller, of Sallisaw, Okla., was in a group in fifth at 288.

Lacey's Cameron Peck (74) placed tied for 28th at 299, and University Place's Andrew Putnam (78) was alone in 54th at 309.

Two 68s vaults Olson into Sahalee Players lead: Eddie Olson is an All-American from UNLV, so he knows a thing or two about heat.

But this kind of pressure-cooker might be a little different heading into today's final round of the 16th Sahalee Players Championship in Sammamish.

Olson shot matching 3-under-par 68s on Thursday in the second and third rounds of the championship, and sits at 9-under 207, good enough for a one-stroke advantage.

But the biggest threats behind him are way more accomplished players.

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