Rising college junior wins 2024 Pelzer Golf Northwest Open Invitational
Published 9:22 am Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Bellingham Golf and Country Club assistant golf professional Daniel Campbell looked to win back-to-back titles at the 2024 Pelzer Golf Northwest Open Invitational at The Home Course in DuPont from Aug. 19-21.
After winning last year’s tournament and carding an 8-under-par 208 to win by four strokes, Campbell fired back this year and finished with an impressive 17-under-par 199.
However, that was one stroke more than Oregon State University’s Collin Hodgkinson, a rising junior on the Beavers men’s golf team, who posted an 18-under-par 198 to become the sixth amateur to win the Northwest Open since the tournament’s inception in 2006.
Hodgkinson shot a 5-under-par 67 in the first round, creating a seven-way tie for first place. Campbell was in a nine-way tie for 11th with a 3-under-par 69. At the conclusion of the second round, Hodgkinson was at 12-under after shooting a 7-under-par 65, placing him alone in second place, two strokes less than Campbell who also carded the same score and held the solo third-place position. In the final round, Hodgkinson shot a 6-under-par 66 to finish atop the leaderboard, one stroke less than Campbell who finished second — three strokes less than third-place James Hall and five strokes less than fourth-place Joshua Scothorne.
Another factor that made the Oregonian’s victory impressive was that he not only bested the rest of the field, which consisted of other amateur and professional golfers spanning Washington, Oregon, Northern Idaho, Western Montana and Alaska, he did it with 27 pars, 22 birdies, one eagle, two bogeys and two double bogeys.
Hodgkinson was ranked 44th nationally after graduating from high school and was the 2021 Pacific Northwest Junior Boys Amateur champion.
The Home Course is a Par-72 course that ranges between 2,239-7,420 yards. Some of the par 5s exceed 550 yards (hole No. 5 is 653 yards), and 75 percent of the par 3s are more than 200 yards if teeing off from the Dynamite tees. For the tournament, however, the black, blue and white tees were used interchangeably.
There were also some Snohomish County locals in the tournament:
—Fifth place: Rodolfo Caparas, Mill Creek Country Club: 68-68-68 — 204 (-12)
—29th: Austin Duffy, amateur, Everett Golf and Country Club: 70-71-71 — 212 (-4)
—47th: Johnny Carey, amateur, Mill Creek Country Club: 70-73-72 — 215 (-1)
—47th: Matt Epstein, Everett Golf and Country Club: 70-71-74 — 215 (-1)
—52nd: Koen Solis, amateur, Mill Creek Country Club: 72-67-77 — 216 (E)
—86th: Henry Kippenhan, amateur, Jackson High School senior, Everett Golf and Country Club: 74-71-77 — 222 (+6)
