Even before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled last year’s championship, anticipation was high for the 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur. The 40th edition has brought a record number of entries – 5,339, which tops the previous mark of 5,271 in 1997. Whether that’s partly due to the unique setting of this year’s venue, Sankaty Head Golf Club on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts; the lack of a championship in 2020, or an effect of the general heightened interest in the game, a robust field of 25-and-older golfers has assembled some 30 miles off Cape Cod for this milestone championship.
The 264 competitors will play 18 holes at Sankaty Head and 18 holes at stroke play co-host Miacomet Golf Course, about 8 miles away, on Saturday and Sunday, with the top 64 players advancing to the match-play bracket. Five rounds of matches over the succeeding three days will lead to the 36-hole final on Thursday.
Here are 3 Things to Know heading into the competition:
Mid Major
The competitive calendar for mid-amateurs and seniors is dotted with prestigious events at some of the game’s hallowed venues, but none of them can offer what the U.S. Mid-Amateur does: a berth in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., a little over 100 miles north of here. The champion is also likely to receive an invitation to the 2022 Masters Tournament, along with a 10-year exemption to this championship, spots in the next two U.S. Amateurs and other benefits.
“I think that this year was a special draw, given the unique site,” said Bill McCarthy, U.S. Mid-Am championship director since 2010. “Also, it was a wonderful addition on our part a few years ago to offer the U.S. Open exemption to the Junior Am and Mid-Am champions – both men and women. It really kickstarted interest in the championship and provided a lot of incentive.”
Matt Parziale, of Brockton, Mass., the 2017 champion, became the first Mid-Amateur champion to compete in the U.S. Open through that exemption, and he shared low-amateur honors with Luis Gagne, of Costa Rica, at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in 2018.
Staying Power
This championship for golfers 25 and older has a field of 264, and 81 of those players (31 percent) are 40 or older. Plenty of 40- and 50-somethings have made strong runs for the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy. Among them, the one who has shone brightest is Randal Lewis, the oldest winner of the championship, who prevailed in 2011 at age 54 – 15 years after he lost in the final match to John “Spider” Miller at Hartford Golf Club.
Lewis, 64, of Alma, Mich., is back this year and is the second-oldest player in the field, a few months younger than 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Doug Hanzel, of Savannah, Ga. Mike McCoy, of Des Moines, Iowa, the 2013 U.S. Mid-Am champion, is the second-oldest winner in history, having won at age 50 at the Country Club of Birmingham. McCoy and his 31-year-old son, Nate, are both competing this week.
Don’t be surprised if someone 40 and older wins at least three matches to reach the quarterfinal round: at least one player 40 or older has advanced to the final eight every year since the 2007 championship at Bandon Dunes. Half of the eight quarterfinalists were 40 or older in 2014 at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., and three of the eight were over 40 in 2016 at Stonewall, in Elverson, Pa.
Ground Game
Sankaty Head plays over a windswept, mostly treeless landscape in the Nantucket village of Siasconset, on the eastern edge of the island, and that brings an unfamiliar element into the game for some players.
“The nature of Sankaty Head specifically is to play the ball on the ground a lot more than these guys are typically used to doing,” said McCarthy. “For example, I was watching players on Nos. 7 and 8 [during Friday’s practice round]. The [407-yard, par-4] seventh hole was downwind, and they were hitting drives of 370 or 380 yards. Then they would turn around and play against the wind on No. 8 [a 597-yard par 5] and hit it 240 or 250 yards. It drastically changes your philosophy: a lot of these greens have openings in front so players will likely bounce it on, and that brings the greenside obstacles more into play, which is what we want.”
McCarthy is looking forward to how the championship plays out, especially with the wind expected to increase as the week goes on.
“It’s anybody’s ballgame,” he said. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen big, powerful golfers win the championship, and rightfully so with the courses we’ve been playing. But this year I think we might see a surprise champion, just because of the nature of the game and the course being only 6,650 yards all the way back. I would not be surprised to see a very experienced player make a good run.”
Ron Driscoll is the senior manager of content for the USGA. Email him at rdriscoll@usga.org.
