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The Seattle Amateur Players Tour opened its 2027 season on Sunday, October 11th at Lake Spanaway Golf Course in Tacoma, Washington for a premier amateur golf tournament, and the first of the season’s Seattle amateur golf tournaments delivered a pair of ties at the top before the day was done. A field of 20 players competed across four divisions, with Mid-Am Net and Senior Net run alongside, so that every player in the Puget Sound chapter was measured against people of his own standard.
Lake Spanaway has long been one of the most decorated public tests in the Pacific Northwest, a course that has been recognized on a national level and that consistently ranks among the top layouts in the region. Its championship résumé is as deep as anything in Pierce County: the PNGA Men’s Amateur Public Links Championship in 1997 and the Women’s Amateur Public Links a year later, the WSGA Men’s Amateur Championship in 2004, a four-championship WSGA week in 2018 that included the Women’s Amateur, Women’s Mid-Amateur, Senior Women’s Amateur and Super Senior Women’s Amateur, the WSGA Senior Men’s and Super Senior Men’s Amateur Championships in 2019, and U.S. Amateur sectional qualifying in both 2018 and 2019. It has also hosted USGA U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifying, a USGA Women’s Amateur Qualifier in 2022 and a USGA Junior Amateur Qualifier in 2023. The accolades extend beyond the tournament board — the Seattle PI rated it one of the region’s driest courses in 1999, the Seattle Times named the 15th one of the top 18 holes in the Puget Sound in 2002 with seven other Lake Spanaway holes drawing Honorable Mention or Runner Up recognition, and in 2003 the same paper called it one of the “Best Bang for the Buck” courses in the area. That signature 15th lived up to the billing on Sunday: the par 4 did not surrender a single birdie all day and played better than a stroke and a quarter over par, with just four players walking off with a par.
Division 2 produced the tightest finish of the day and the lowest numbers on the property. Graham Root of Seattle, Andrew Black of Seattle and James Lees of Seattle all signed for 10-over 78, the low round of the day, and when the dust settled it was Root who took the title. Root built his number on patience — 11 pars on the card, a 1-over 37 on the way out, and his lone birdie of the round at the par-3 17th, one of only two birdies the hole gave up to the entire field. Black earned runner-up honors with a 2-over 38 start and birdies at the par-3 3rd and the par-3 14th, while Lees matched the pair with the day’s most efficient closing stretch of the three, playing the final six holes in 2-over and picking up birdies at the par-5 5th and the par-5 9th. Behind the logjam at the top, the division stayed compressed — one player at 79, then a cluster of three more bunched together at 84.
Division 3 came down to a pair at the top as well. Indranil Chakravarty of Bellevue and Nick Girard of Kirkland each posted 15-over 83, and it was Chakravarty who walked away with the division. He went out in 4-over 40 and came home in 7-over 43, with birdies at the par-5 9th and the par-3 14th, and played the last three holes in just 1-over to hold his position. Girard got there from the other direction entirely, turning in 7-over 43 before a 4-over 40 on the inward half that included a level-par run through the 16th, 17th and 18th. His birdie came at the par-4 4th. The next number in the division was 85, which tells the story of how firmly the two of them separated themselves from the rest of the flight.
Division 4 belonged to Bill Peabody of Olympia, who ground out a 19-over 87 for a four-shot win. Peabody played the two nines within a stroke of each other, 8-over 44 going out and 7-over 43 coming home, and his birdie arrived early on the inward half at the par-5 10th. Mark Hewitt of Bothell took runner-up honors at 23-over 91, matching Peabody stride for stride on the front nine with an 8-over 44 before the back got away from him.
In Division 5, Robert Gustman of Lynnwood claimed the division with a 30-over 98, going out in 12-over 48 and coming back in 14-over 50. He gathered four pars across a Lake Spanaway course that gave up precious little on the inward half — the par-4 11th and par-4 12th, the two hardest holes on the card, combined for zero birdies from the entire field all day.
Mid-Am Net came down to a single stroke, and Graham Root answered where it mattered most to complete the double-dip. His net 5-over 73 was the lowest net number in the contest, pairing with his Division 2 title to give him both of the day’s biggest prizes. Andrew Black and Brandon Paul Weaver, both of Seattle, finished one back at net 6-over 74 to round out the money positions — a second runner-up finish on the day for Black, while Weaver turned in an even-par 36 on the front nine, the cleanest outward half anyone in the chapter posted on Sunday, with birdies at the par-5 5th and the par-5 10th.
Senior Net finished dead even. Bill Peabody and Mike Cannon, both of Olympia, tied at net 6-over 74, sharing the points and splitting the purse with the trophy settled on the card. For Peabody, it completed a double-dip alongside his Division 4 title. Cannon got there the hard way, opening with a 9-over 45 before flipping the switch on the back nine — a 4-over 40 inward that included birdies at the par-5 13th and the par-3 17th, to go with one at the par-4 1st, giving him a round-high three birdies among the players in contention. It was the closest contest on the board from top to bottom, with three players finishing within two shots of the lead.
Next up in the Seattle chapter — a trip to Gold Mountain on Saturday, October 24th. Space is limited and registration closes October 18th!
