Sterling’s Shane Sundberg, a 2023 graduate of Soldotna High School, won the Alaska State Amateur Championship from Friday to Sunday, Aug. 2 to 4, at Moose Run Golf Course at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Sundberg finished the three-day tournament at 3-over-par 219 to defeat Anchorage’s Jack Carr by four strokes.
The Sterling golfer works with Bill Engberg at Kenai Golf Course. Engberg has been on the Kenai Peninsula golf scene for about 30 years and can’t remember any other man who won the State Amateur while living on the peninsula.
Sundberg was third at the State Amateur two years ago and fourth last year. This school year, he completed his first year playing college golf at Southwestern Oregon Community College.
He said that college experience helped him at the Amateur.
“I’ve just rounded out my game better playing golf all winter down in college,” he said. “I definitely got a little bit better, and I think that pushed it over the edge.”
Moose Run has two courses — the Creek Course and the Hill Course. The Creek Course, the harder of the two courses, was used Friday and Sunday, while the Hill Course was used Saturday.
“I won the tournament on the Creek Course, for sure,” Sundberg said.
Friday, Sundberg had the low round of 73. Carr was only a stroke behind, but with one player at 75, two at 76 and none at 77, Sundberg already had a nice gap on the field.
“The course was brutal,” Sundberg said of the Creek Course. “The conditions of the course weren’t great, and then the course is just hard to begin with.
“It’s super tight with lots of bushes, and really penalizes any misses. My goal for that course was just to keep the ball in front of me, keep it in play. And I did a great job of that.”
As was the case all three days, Sundberg said he couldn’t have hit the ball any better. Not making some putts left him disappointed when he finished Friday, but then he learned he had the lead anyway.
Saturday, Sundberg fired a 71 on the Hill Course. Again, several foolish errors left him frustrated, but only one player posted a lower score, and Sundberg had a four-shot lead heading to Sunday.
“I put myself in a good spot after the first two days,” Sundberg said. “I played really well on the front nine the third day.
“I made two (double bogeys) on the back nine, but I had a pretty big lead at that point.”
The victory was even sweeter because Sundberg said that this year, a victory in the Alaska State Amateur means qualification for the U.S. Amateur Championship, which will be at Hazeltine and Chaska Town Course in Minnesota.
Sundberg will play practice rounds at the courses Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 10 and 11. Monday and Tuesday will be stroke play, then the top 64 advance to match play starting Wednesday.
“It’s the 312 best amateur golfers in the world,” Sundberg said. “I’m going to go down there and give it my best effort.
“I feel like my best definitely gets me into the top 64, but we’ll see. It’s going to be a fun experience either way.”
After this year at school, Sundberg will look to move on to another college golf program.
“This should be some good exposure for going and trying to play golf for another school after the one I’m at,” he said.
