Amanda Jacobs and Gretchen Johnson, both of Portland, Oregon, are fixtures at the top of leaderboards or match-play brackets in the Pacific Northwest.
The self-described best friends have alternated winning the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Mid-Amateur Player of the Year award for most of the past decade, with Jacobs taking the honor four times (2015, 2016, 2017, 2021) and Johnson three times (2018, 2019, 2023).
Jacobs, 36, who runs her family’s HVAC company, and Johnson, who will turn 38 on May 15 and is a relationship manager at an investment-management firm, face each other often in pivotal PNGA competitions. For the ninth U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship on May 11-15 at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas, they prefer to play together.
“When you are best friends, inherently, there’s a high level of trust and confidence and self-belief,” Johnson said. “There’s a comfort level that makes it very enjoyable, very fun to compete together. Partner events do not come up often in go…
