Tournament Champions
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The Portland Amateur Players Tour returned to OGA Golf Course on Saturday, October 24th in Woodburn, Oregon for the POR Fall Break Open, the latest stop on the chapter’s calendar of Portland amateur golf tournaments. A field of 23 players competed across four divisions, with the Mid-Am Net and Senior Net games running alongside the gross competitions. Players are flighted into divisions based on their APT Tournament Index.
OGA Golf Course played to a par of 72. The par-4 2nd ranked as the hardest hole on the card, playing a shot and a half over par and giving up exactly one birdie from the 23 players who faced it. The par-5 4th was the next-toughest assignment, surrendering a lone birdie of its own and playing nearly a stroke and a half over par — a three-shot hole that handed out almost nothing all day.
In Division 2, Benjamin Ciobanu of Vancouver, WA came out of a one-shot scrap with a 10-over 82 and a trip to victory lane. Ciobanu did his best work early, picking off the par-4 2nd for the only birdie that hole gave up all day, adding a second at the par-5 5th and turning in 3-over 39. He signed for ten pars in all, and his 82 stood as the third-lowest round anywhere in the field. The margin, though, was never comfortable. James Roberts of Tigard, OR trailed by five after six holes and by six at the twelve-hole mark, then went to work on the inward holes. Roberts was still four back with three to play and came home 11-over 83, close enough to make Ciobanu’s final hole matter. Runner-up honors by a single stroke.
Division 3 belonged to Fred Corona Jr. of Gresham, OR, and he won it without a single birdie on the card. Corona instead leaned on eleven pars, the most patient round of the day in the division, and improved as he went — out in 7-over 43, home in 5-over 41, with the closing six holes played in 4-over for a 12-over 84. Prabhakar Lama of Happy Valley, OR gave chase and stayed inside a shot through six holes and two through twelve before the gap stretched to four with three to play. Lama’s 15-over 87 was good for second by three, and four players in the division finished within seven shots of the lead.
Division 4 produced the best golf of the day. Mauricio Sanchez of Portland, OR posted a 7-over 79 for medalist honors across the entire field, the low round at OGA on the day, and he needed every bit of it. Sanchez got one of his two birdies at the par-5 4th — one of only two players in the whole field to birdie either of the day’s two toughest holes — and added another at the par-5 11th. He turned in 3-over 39 and matched it nearly stroke for stroke coming home in 4-over 40, playing the last three holes in 1-over to close it out. Jesus Jared Soria of Beaverton, OR made him do it. Soria sat exactly one shot back after six holes, one back after twelve and one back with three to play, birdieing the par-5 9th on the way to a 4-over 40 outward and a 5-over 41 inward. His 9-over 81 was the second-lowest round in the field, and the two of them were the only players in the division within two of the lead at the finish.
In Division 5, Alfred Hughes of Beaverton, OR controlled the contest from the opening stretch and never gave the lead back. Hughes was four clear after six holes, six clear after twelve and seven ahead with three to play, his best moment coming at the par-3 6th, where he made the only birdie of his round en route to a 22-over 94 and a five-shot win. Javier Ramirez, also of Beaverton, OR, closed with a 27-over 99 to take second.
The Mid-Am Net game was the most decisive result of the afternoon, and it completed a big day for Mauricio Sanchez. Having already won Division 4, Sanchez turned his 79 into a net 6-under 66 and completed the double-dip with a seven-shot win. It was not a wire-to-wire stroll. Benjamin Ciobanu was dead level with him through six holes and had edged two clear by the twelve-hole mark, only for Sanchez to turn it around and lead by one with three to play before pulling away over the closing holes. Ciobanu, already a winner in Division 2, finished in 2nd.
The Senior Net came down to the final hole, and it went the other way. Fred Corona Jr. carried his Division 3 title into the senior game and looked like doubling up, leading by two after six holes and by five after twelve. Ken Malmin of Portland, OR had other plans. Malmin was still four behind with three holes to play, then closed with a run that erased all of it, signing for a net 1-over 73 to win by a single stroke over Corona’s net 2-over 74. Three players finished within two shots of the lead and six were inside seven, making it the tightest contest on the board. Corona’s second-place finish still gave him two results worth keeping from a day in which he and Sanchez and Ciobanu each cashed in two different contests.
The day’s scoring told a consistent story: 23 players, one birdie apiece at the 2nd and the 4th, and a leaderboard that never let a winner relax. Sanchez’s 79, Soria’s 81 and Ciobanu’s 82 were the three lowest rounds turned in, and all three came from players who had to answer a closing stretch to keep what they had.
Next up in the Portland chapter — the POR Veteran’s Day Open on Saturday, November 7th, an Elevated Event on the 2027 schedule. Space is limited and registration closes November 1st. Two weeks after that, the POR Thanksgiving Open follows on Saturday, November 21st, with registration closing November 15th.
