Courtesy of Rick Brown

Owen Sawyer (above) started the final round of the 123rd Iowa Amateur with a seven-shot lead in his back pocket. 

It grew to eight shots after just two holes Wednesday at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club, and the Iowa State junior-to-be from Cedar Falls cruised to the biggest victory of his golfing career. 

A final-round 70 and a 54-hole score of 12-under-par 203 gave Sawyer an eight-shot victory over his Iowa State teammate and 2023 IGA Match Play champion Zach May (69), 15-year-old Jonathan Ward of Waukee (71) and Drake golfer Jake Weissenburger (70). 

“The last couple days I hit driver well and I was never really scrambling,” Sawyer said. “I was in play all week and that helped. I gave myself a lot of opportunities to make birdies and took advantage of that.”

Par was adjusted from 72 to 71 for the final round. The tee on the par-5 13th was moved up and the hole was played as a par-4 because of wet conditions. 

The victory also punched Sawyer’s ticket to the U.S. Amateur, to be contested at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif., August 11-17. There’s an Iowa connection there, too. Davenport club pro Jack Fleck pulled off one of the greatest upsets in sports history when he beat Ben Hogan in a playoff for the 1955 U.S. Open. 

Sawyer, who was the co-leader after an opening 68 Monday, left the field in his dust with a second-day 7-under-par 65 that was the tournament’s lowest round by three shots. 

He ran off 24 consecutive bogey-free holes until he surrendered a shot on the South Course’s demanding par-4 4th hole on Wednesday. Another bogey at the 5th cut Sawyer’s lead to six shot, and slightly opened the door of opportunity for the field. 

“I felt good (going into the final round,” Sawyer said. “I told myself I wanted to think like I was even par to start the day. Recently I have been struggling with my game and I began trying to free myself up more and that helped this week. This feels really good. I was disappointed how the match play came out (finishing runner-up), but I’ve been working really hard since then. It’ll be fun to go play the U.S. Amateur here in a few weeks. I hope this momentum continues into the fall (at Iowa State).”

Sawyer had also been in contention for this prestigious title in 2023, when he started the final round one shot back of Charlie Hoyle at Glen Oaks in West Des Moines. But a front-nine 39 crushed his chances. He shot 75 and settled for a third-place finish. 

Sawyer said Tuesday that he learned some lessons from that 2023 experience. And he showed it a day later after those back-to-back speed bumps on the front nine. Owen slammed that door of opportunity shut with a birdie on the par-5 6th, and was again up by eight shots two holes later. 

A runner-up to Braeden Nelson at the IGA Match Play last month, Sawyer was never challenged after that. His eight-shot triumph tied the second-largest margin of victory at the Iowa Amateur since the championship switched from match play to medal play in 1960. 

Ben Herrera holds the record with a 10-shot victory at Sunnyside Country Club in Waterloo in 2009. Herrera had a record eight-shot lead heading into the final round. 

Jon Olson won by eight shots in 2012 at Spirit Hollow in Burlington and Jack Webb won by eight shots in 1960 at the Wakonda Club in Des Moines. An amateur and the basketball coach at Atlantic High School at the time of his second Iowa Amateur triumph, Webb later turned pro and was the head golf professional at Wakonda for many years. 

Sawyer said Tuesday that he learned some lessons from that 2023 experience. And he showed it a day later after those back-to-back speed bumps on the front nine. Owen slammed that door of opportunity shut with a birdie on the par-5 6th, and was again up by eight shots two holes later.

This is also the fifth time the Iowa Amateur champion has been 12 under par or better since the tournament went from 72 to 54 holes in 1983. Mike McCoy has the record, going 20 under in winning the 2010 title at Bent Tree in Council Bluffs. Herrera finished 14 under in 2009. Hoyle was 13 under at Glen Oaks in 2023 and Olson was 12 under at Spirit Hollow in 2012. 

This is the 12th time that the Des Moines Golf and Country Club has hosted the Iowa Amateur, including the first two in 1900 and 1901. It’s also the fourth time the current Pete Dye-designed layout has played host (2002, 1980, 1977). 

Sawyer’s victory was the exception to the rule. He joins Dr. John Maxwell of Keokuk (1900) and Rudy Knepper of Sioux City (1920) as the only players from outside Greater Des Moines to win this championship when it was hosted by Des Moines Golf. 

Three Des Moines Golf and Country Club members have won the Iowa Amateur on their home course – Robert Finkbine,1901; Warren Dickinson, 1903; and Brad Schuchat, 1980. Scott Hart, the 2003 winner at Des Moines Golf, didn’t join the club until 2006. 

Hart is joined by five more Des Moines-area golfers who got their names on the Elliott Family Iowa Amateur Trophy when the championship was contested at Des Moines Golf – Mike McCutchen, 1977; Denmar Miller, 1938; Roland “Tip’ Harrison, 1913; Bill Sheehan, 1911 (when Des Moines Golf and Waveland who co-hosts); and B.F. “Bood’ Guinand, 1908.

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Sawyer’s two productive trips around the South Course, to the tune of 68-65, give him a touchdown lead over defending champion Nate McCoy and 15-year old Jonathan Ward, winner of the Iowa Junior Amateur earlier this summer.

Courtesy of Rick Brown

Owen Sawyer’s scorecard was a thing of beauty Tuesday. 

Seven birdies. No bogeys. A second-round 65 that gives him a seven-shot lead heading into Wednesday’s final round of the 123rd Iowa Amateur at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. 

“I’d be pretty happy with another one of those (in the final round),” said Sawyer, who will be a junior at Iowa State. 

Sawyer’s two productive trips around the South Course, to the tune of 68-65, give him a touchdown lead over defending champion Nate McCoy and 15-year old Jonathan Ward, winner of the Iowa Junior Amateur earlier this summer. 

McCoy, trying to win this prestigious title for the third time in four years, shot a second straight 70 on Tuesday. Ward, playing his home course, has shot 69-71. 

Three more players are tied for fourth at 3 under par – Jamie Faidley (69-72), Max Tjoa (69-72) and Jake Weissenburger (68-73), who had shared the first-round lead with Sawyer. Tjoa tied for second in the Iowa Amateur behind McCoy in 2024 at Finkbine in Iowa City, and was second alone behind Charlie Hoyle in 2023 at Glen Oaks in West Des Moines. 

That 2023 Iowa Amateur was Sawyer’s best finish in the championship, contested this week at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club for the 12th time. 

Sawyer opened with rounds of 67-66 at Glen Oaks and trailed Hoyle by a shot heading into the final round in 2023. But he had a 39 on the front nine, went on to shoot 75 and finished third. 

“That’s past history,” said Sawyer, a runner-up to Braeden Nelson in the IGA State Match Play Championship in June. “I learned some good lessons from that. I got off to a bad start, got down and started pressing a little bit. I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. And I’ve played well enough that even when I’ve gotten off to some bad starts I’ve come back to shoot good scores.” 

Sawyer started on the back nine Tuesday and turned in 32. His bogey-free run was in jeopardy on the par-4 7th, his 16th hole. He missed the fairway right, then tried to hit a punch shot under trees but it got caught up in long rough in front of the green. His third came up 15 feet short of the hole but he made the par-saver. 

Much of the buzz at this year’s championship has centered around the diminutive Ward, who is in the title hunt and has the look of a future standout. 

Ward could become the youngest winner of this championship. He would also become the first male to win the Iowa Amateur and Iowa Junior Amateur in the same season. 

A sophomore at Waukee High School, Ward was 7 years old when Andrew Reedy, an assistant golf pro at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, started working with him.

“Pretty early in my tenure, we were able to recognize this kid really wanted to be good,” Reedy said. “There are stories of having to pull him off the putting green so he would go home at night.” 

Ward’s victory at the Iowa Junior Amateur got him a spot in the U.S. Junior Amateur played last week at Trinity Forest Club in Dallas,Texas. Ward shot 75-78 and missed the cut for match play, but didn’t leave empty-handed. 

“His takeaway was, “I work really hard, but after being out here seeing these kids I have a long way to go,’ ” Ward told Reedy. “That’s a really mature outlook for a 15-year-old kid to have.” 

Reedy points out that Ward is part of a young and deep talent pool of youngsters being groomed at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. Another is Nelson, the Iowa Match Play champion who has committed to play his college golf at Wisconsin. 

But Ward is a shining example of a bright future. 

“He’s really special,” Reedy said. 

Faidley, a six-time Des Moines Golf and Country Club club champion, took Ward with him to play in a practice round before last year’s Iowa Match Play Championship at Talons Golf in Ankeny. 

“I told his dad, “He’s got what it takes,” Faidley, 44, said of Ward. “Whatever it is mentally, he’s got it. He doesn’t need advice from me. I need advice from him. He’s out here all the time, and he’s grinding. He’s a good player, and he’s a bulldog.”

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Courtesy of Rick Brown

It took some time for Owen Sawyer (right) to flush away the disappointment of his close call at the IGA Match Play Championship in late June

“I definitely struggled with it a little bit,” Sawyer recalled Monday during the first round of the Iowa Amateur. “The good thing is that I was able to learn from that.”

Sawyer, who will be a junior at Iowa State this fall, lost to Braeden Nelson in the match-play final, 1 up. Nelson took the lead on the 12th hole, then they halved the last six.

“I wasn’t happy with the outcome,” Sawyer said. “I needed to work a little harder.”

The 123rd Iowa Amateur kicked off a three-day stay at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club Monday, and Sawyer is right back in contention. He shot a 4-under-par 68 and is tied for the first-round lead with Drake junior Jake Weissenburger.

Both leaders had six birdies and two bogeys on their cards.

Three more players are a shot out of first after posting 69s – Jamie Faidley, Maxwell Tjoa and Jonathan Ward.

“Everything was pretty good today,” Sawyer said. “Nothing over the top good. Nothing over the top bad.”

Weissenburger, from Clive, is coming off a victory in the Des Moines City Tournament last weekend at Waveland.

Weissenburger (left) finished 22 under par, one shot better than two-time Iowa Amateur champion Jon Brown. Weissenburger shot 64-66-64, twice posting a 30 on Waveland’s front nine. A 14-time City champ, Brown shot 67-64-64. Third-place finisher Owen Howe was nine shots back.

“It was crazy, that last round,” Weissenburger said. “I was going low and he (Brown) just kept it up most of the day. Hats off to him. It was a lot of fun.”

Weissenburger tied for ninth in the Iowa Amateur last season at Finkbine in Iowa City, after taking the lead into the final round.

“I’m not going to think about that, to be honest,” Weissenburger said. “I’m going to try and have a good round (Tuesday), make the cut and see what happens. Just a shot at a time.”

Faidley, 44, a six-time club champion at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club, got it to 5 under for the round when he had four 3s in a five-hole stretch of the back nine. That included an eagle on the par-5 13th. But a pair of bogeys on the 15th and 16th knocked him out of the lead.

“I’ve probably got some expectations of doing well, but I like it out here,” Faidley said.

Ward, who won the Iowa Junior Amateur this summer, is also a Des Moines Golf member. He had a share of the lead, too, until a bogey at the 17th.

“I’ve been playing here since I was 4 or 5 years old,” Ward said. “My dad has been a member here for like 25 years.”

Ward said he feels comfortable playing at Des Moines Golf. The State junior crown gives him more confidence.

“It felt good winning a big event,” Ward said.

Tjoa, who plays golf at Iowa, had four birdies to offset just one bogey.

“I was just being patient with my putter,” Tjoa said. “The front nine I had some pretty good looks for birdie but they just weren’t dropping.”

Tjoa said playing with patience is an improving part of his game.

“It’s something I’ve picked up the last couple of years,” Tjoa said. “Before, I would get frustrated. Now I keep level-headed.”

Defending champion Nate McCoy got off to a slow start Monday with a bogey-birdie-bogey start.

“I thought, “Oh, boy, is this the way I’m going to play?’ ” McCoy said. “I just didn’t want to shoot myself out of the tournament.”

McCoy managed to get around in 70. McCoy got off to a slow start in the Iowa Amateur last summer at Finkbine, posting a first-round 70. But he moved into a tie for fourth after a second-round 67 and closed with a 66 that included two eagles on the back nine.

“I think I was 40th or 50th after the first round last year,” Nate said. “I remember my dad telling me starting the final round,”These guys don’t know how hard it is to win one of these. Guys are going to come back,’ ”

Sage advice. Nate’s father, Mike, has won six Iowa Amateur titles. Mike shot 73 Monday, rallying with a 2-under-par 34 on the back nine.

Play in Tuesday’s second round of the Iowa Amateur, hosted by the Des Moines Golf and Country Club for the first time since 2003 and the 12th time overall, starts at 7:30 a.m. The low 60 scores and ties move on to Wednesday’s final round.

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