Bellevue’s Siebers to compete in the USGA U.S. Amateur Championships at Pebble Beach

At 16, Bellevue native Ian Siebers has officially qualified for the USGA U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach in California from Aug. 13-19.

Siebers qualified after his recent performance in a U.S. amateur sectional qualifying event at Lake Spanaway Golf Course in Tacoma on July 16 where he placed second, successfully shooting rounds of 71-66.

“It means a lot to me to be able to play next week,” Siebers said. “It shows that I’m able to compete on different levels.”

Siebers has been playing golf for nearly his entire life. He remembers receiving his first set of real clubs when he was 4 years old, which led to him initially getting into golf competitively around the age of 5.

Since then, Siebers has built quite the resume. Every summer from ages 6-12, he qualified and played in U.S. Kids Golf World Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina. There, he accumulated one top 10 finish, four top 20 finishes and one top 25 finish. Within the state, Siebers has won four Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA) state titles for his age division. These titles came in 2012 (8-11 year olds), 2014 (12-13 year olds), 2015 (12-13 year olds) and 2016 (14-15 year olds).

More recently, Siebers represented the state of Washington on two Junior America’s Cup teams — the first time in 2016 and the second time being earlier this year. In 2016, Siebers and the Washington team won the Junior America’s Cup. Additionally, Siebers was the 2018 Pacific Northwest Junior PGA champion, an achievement that helped him qualify for the Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I always loved to go out and play,” he said. “I’ve known for a long time that golf was my main sport.”

Siebers is going into his junior year at Bellevue High School this fall and is a member of the school’s golf team. Aside from qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championship next week, Siebers has had his fair share of accomplishments over the past year.

“Probably most of my best accomplishments have been from this year,” he said.

About a month ago, Siebers won his first American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) event at the Treyburn Country Club in Durham, North Carolina and then only a couple of weeks ago placed top 10 in the Junior PGA Championship.

When Siebers isn’t competing in a tournament, he’s out at the Sahalee Country Club where he trains up to five times a week during the summer and as much as he can during the school year. Since golf is an individual sport, most of the training Siebers does is on his own, but he does have various coaches to help him improve different parts of his game.

Jim Pike and Brian Mogg are two of Siebers’ main swing coaches and have had a significant impact on the early success that Siebers’ has experienced. About once a month, Siebers works with Pike at Sahalee and Mogg over at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place.

With two years left in high school and a lot of room to grow, Siebers has aspirations to compete at the collegiate level and even one day making golf his profession.

“One of my goals is playing at a top college, Division 1 golf program and beyond that even playing on the PGA Tour one day,” Siebers said.

This will be the first time Siebers will be attending the U.S. Amateur Championship, as well as an event that is so highly competitive. With this event standing at the peak of Siebers’ accomplishments, he is more than ready for the opportunity and hopes to go out on the green and give it his best shot.

“I want to go out and be as prepared as possible and see what I can do,” Siebers said.