Home | Northwest Amateur Golf Tournament

Welcome to the Northwest Amateur Tournament

1921 marked the inaugural year for the Northwest Amateur Golf Tournament at the Spencer Golf and Country Club. That year also marked the beginning of Iowa's second ever golf tournament, the first being the Iowa Amateur. Today, there are well over 100 tournaments held annually in Iowa, but in 1921, 60 people converged on Spencer's new course to inaugurate what was to be the first in over 100 years of prominence.

2025 Northwest Am Results

2025 Northwest Amateur Results

Jackson Laven of Okoboji, IA is the 2025 Northwest Amateur Tournament Champion!

Laven hung around on Sunday afternoon and steadily climbed upward with his four under par 32 on the final 9 holes. Laven was the only player in Championship Flight to shoot under par in the final round from the blue tees played (scored 68). With rounds of 69-65-74-68, 12 under par 276 was the winning score. Laven is a recent graduate of Northwestern College and was GPAC Player of the Year in 2024.

Axton Miller of Arthur, IA and also a Northwestern Red Raider (entering sophomore year), was recently honored as the 2025 GPAC Player of the Year. Miller had a very impressive week as runner-up, holding the lead for much of the tournament. Laven took a one-shot lead with birdie on hole 18, while Miller was playing in the group behind. Miller hit a great approach shot on hole 18 to give himself a chance to tie, but the 12-foot putt for birdie narrowly missed.

Impressive golf was played on Sunday across all flights. The most impressive final day score came from Miles Bollinger of Eagan, MN with a nine under par 63 to win the first flight! Other highlights included Mason Weeks of Spirit Lake, IA, shooting 66 to clinch the 3rd Flight, while James Clark of Lamar, CO shot 66 to win the 5th Flight.

Thank you to participants for making the trip to Spencer for the 103rd Northwest Amateur Tournament! We hope to see you again next year July 30 – August 2, 2026.

To the Members and Supportive Community: Thank you! The amount of clean-up work done on Tuesday and Wednesday was an amazing accomplishment to be proudly remembered for a very long time. A 90 mph derecho storm couldn't stop our great week of golf. The quantity of volunteers, the equipment brought to use, and the hours of hard work that took place to clean-up the storm damage was simply incredible. Add to that 60+ tournament day volunteers who come early and leave late to host a great event. Thank you all so much!

2025 Northwest Amateur

The 104th Northwest Amateur Tournament is scheduled for July 30th through August 2nd, 2026. If you have not played previously, please create your Player Profile. If you have previously played, please visit your Player Profile to update your information and pairing requests.

Create/EditYour Player Profile

Tournament registration will open on June. If you desire to play with a specific group of players, please ensure each player has created a Player Profile. When registering, please designate one player to register all of your players together. When you do so, each player will then receive a confirmation email that they have been registered.

Thank you again for your support and involvement,
The Northwest Amateur Tournament Committee

The Northwest Amateur is a big task to manage… it requires more than 50 to 60 volunteers each year, some arriving at 5:30 am each day and some leaving at midnight. Thank you for making this event another success for Spencer Golf & Country Club and for Spencer, IA. This showing of support can’t be taken for granted. You are so vital to making sure the out-of-town guests have a great experience and desire to come to play next year. Thank you!

Tournament Registration

This covers all your rounds of golf and includes 1 bag of range balls per qualified day.

$225

per golfer

Cart Rental

Two people may share a cart.

$50

per 18 holes

Format

Tournament Format: All participants will play 36 holes over the course of the first three days of the tournament (two days of 18 holes played, one day off). On Saturday night, a cut is made with top 24 and ties in Championship Flight, followed by six flights with 16 players in each flight. The Championship Flight plays 36 holes on the final day (72-hole event) while the other six flights play 18 holes (54-hole event). All participants play from the white tee markers, other than Championship Flight plays from the Blue tee markers for the final 36 holes. The tournament is not handicapped.

Tournament Format: All participants will play 36 holes over the course of the first three days of the tournament (two days of 18 holes played, one day off). On Saturday night, a cut is made with top 24 and ties in Championship Flight, followed by six flights with 16 players in each flight. The Championship Flight plays 36 holes on the final day (72-hole event) while the other six flights play 18 holes (54-hole event). All participants play from the white tee markers, other than Championship Flight, which will play from the blue tee markers for the final 36 holes. The tournament is not handicapped.

When the country club first conceived of the idea of holding a tournament, it appointed a tournament committee headed by Walter H. Thomas. Working with Thomas were Carl Fee, W.W. Cornwall, E. Taggert, J.P. Gable, and W.C. Barton. Through the committee, a match-play tournament sprung. Topping the group of 60 in the inaugural event was Warren Dickinson of Des Moines, a former state champion. Lee Herron of Des Moines, who went on to win the next three tournaments, took the runner-up spot the first year.

The early efforts of committee chair Walter Thomas lead to the surge of the Northwest Am’s popularity. According to his son, Tom Thomas, Walter used his newspaper contacts through the Des Moines Register to give the tournament state-wide prominence. “In those days, we got more publicity than any other tournament in the state,” Tom Thomas said. “Give credit to Dad. He made sure we got more publicity than anyone else.” Walter Thomas continued as tournament chairman until 1939 when Jack Kirk took over. Kirk served for four years, Thomas served another two, and then Emory Snyder took the helm through 1963. Other tournament chairmen were Ozzy Osborn and Bob Woods. In 1997 Bob Rose took over the position and held it for 17 years. The present-day chairman is Bill Zinn. Thomas also donated the first trophy to the tournament. The traveling trophy was appropriately named after Thomas. Thomas was also a three-time champion. “You can’t compare him to today’s golfers,” said Tom Thomas. “He was an irons man. He hit them where they paid off.”

Blaine Asher was another prominent Spencer competitor in the Northwest Am in the early years. He was a finalist five years in a row and won in 1926 and 1927. According to an article in the July 1964 edition of The Iowa Golfer, Asher also holds the distinction of being the first in the tournament to have his caddie lug around a stool for him to sit on while waiting on other players. It’s said that he pulled out a magazine each time he sat down. Medal play was introduced to the tournament in 1931. Walter Thomas and Dick Tang of Fort Dodge battled it out in the finals that year, ending in a 287 tie. They were still tied after 17 holes, but Tang won on the 18th play-off hole after Thomas missed a four-foot putt.

Throughout history, the Northwest Am has earned respect as Iowa’s only 72-hole tournament. It’s also a regular stop for amateurs hoping to earn points towards a state amateur championship.

The record tournament score stood for many years at 270, first being shot in 1958 by Denison’s Bob Leahy and then two years later by John Liechty of Marshalltown. The mark was matched a third time by Ryan Vermeer of Omaha in 1999. Then Curtis Holck of Mason City shot back to back 270’s in 2004 and 2005. In 2011, Kirby Pettitt of Carroll bested it by one stroke with a 269. In 2014, Ben Wollam of Marshalltown played the par 4’s 15 under par and set the current tournament record at 268.

Throughout its over 90 years, the Northwest Amateur Golf Tournament has survived the moving of the country club. It has seen many faces come and go, while others seem to come back year after year. But no matter what period in the tournament’s history you look at, it has always attracted a lot of attention with its mix of superb golfers and casual week night warriors. “I can remember when we moved to town in the ’50s, watching (the tournament) was the thing to do in town when it was happening,” said Bob Rose. “It was great to watch top-notch golfers at that time.”

Course Tour

Spencer Golf & Country Club features a classic tree-lined 18 hole championship layout with five sets of tee boxes to accommodate golfers of all abilities. Full-service dining is offered in the clubhouse with scenic views of the golf course.

Course Tour