Andrew Bailey Wins 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sand Valley: Final Results and Bracket

AmateurGolf.com's coverage hub for the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur. This page is the running record of the championship. Key moments and media are posted as live updates at the top, and full results and daily recaps are below.

Final result

No. 3 Andrew Bailey of Cleveland won the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur, beating No. 45 Nate Smith of Tetonia, Idaho, 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final on The Lido. Smith led 2 up through 24 holes. Bailey then won seven of the next eight and finished the match on the 32nd hole, bogey-free over his last 17. None of his six matches this week reached the final hole.

Bailey, 34, is a two-time Ohio Amateur champion who played mini-tours until he broke his wrist in 2015, and is now national green grass sales manager for Holderness & Bourne. He is the first U.S. Mid-Amateur champion from Ohio. He receives the Robert T. Jones Memorial Trophy, a gold medal and an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and is likely to be invited to the 2027 Masters. Smith, 43, a homebuilder and former Korn Ferry Tour winner, knocked out three-time champion Stewart Hagestad on the way to his first USGA final. Both finalists are exempt into the 2027 U.S. Amateur at Oak Hill. Meet the quarterfinalists → Final results →

Bracket and results

Championship match · Thursday, Oct. 1 (36 holes)

Semifinals · Wednesday, Sept. 30

Quarterfinals · Wednesday, Sept. 30

All matches on The Lido. Results are added as matches finish.

Round of 16 · Tuesday, Sept. 29

Round of 32 · Tuesday, Sept. 29

All matches on The Lido, off the 1st and 10th tees. Results are added as matches finish.

Round of 64 · Monday, Sept. 28

Seeds are from stroke play. Margins are from the USGA where reported.

Stroke play · Sept. 26-27

Final stroke-play results, per the USGA. Scores are 36-hole totals; par is 142.

Match-play cut: 3-over 145. Thirteen players played off Monday morning for four spots. Ryan Orr (61), Mariano Malmierca (62), Jose Luis Montano (63) and Brett Viboch (64) advanced. Full stroke-play results →

Schedule

Day by day

Wednesday, Sept. 30 · Quarterfinals and semifinals

Quarterfinals. None of the four morning matches got past the 16th hole. Nate Smith had the biggest margin, 6 and 5 over South Dakota State coach Parker Edens. That was the largest quarterfinal win since 2021, and Smith was the equivalent of 3 under over 13 holes. Edens, in the last eight for the third time in four years, won only one hole, with a birdie at the par-5 7th. Sand Valley caddie Matt Hutchins played with a sleeve on his injured left calf in front of another big gallery of staff, caddies and members, but Mikel Martinson beat him 3 and 2. Andrew Bailey ended Four-Ball champion Grady Brame Jr.'s bid for a second 2026 USGA title, 3 and 2, and Matt Vogt beat three-time USGA runner-up Drew Kittleson 4 and 3.

Semifinals. Smith and Martinson were tight until Smith won three straight holes from No. 9, two with birdies. On 11, Martinson's tee shot found a fairway bunker that he thought he'd cleared. "That bunker is 260," Martinson said. "For my ball not to cover that downwind hitting it pretty decent, I mean, I don't know if something happened to my driver or what." He won 12 and 16 with birdies, but Smith closed it out 2 and 1 and still hasn't played the 18th hole since stroke play on Sunday. "This afternoon was a dogfight," Smith said. "We had an amazing match. This is what the Mid-Am is all about."

Bailey took the lead for good over Vogt by winning 6 and 7, the second with a birdie. He went 2 up at 11, and after Vogt holed a 5-foot birdie at 12, Bailey got the lead back to 2 up with a greenside bunker shot at the drivable 283-yard 13th. He won 15 with an 8-foot par and closed it out at 16, where Vogt made bogey and conceded Bailey's 15-footer for par. "Andrew is a friend," Vogt said. "He had a two putt to close out the match, and I didn't need to stand by. Like he won that match."

Who's on the bag. Smith's father, Ken, is caddying for him, as he did at the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. "He's just in the zone and it's so cool," Smith said. Bailey was the only semifinalist with a local Sand Valley caddie, Pete Olig. Martinson carried his own bag all week. He has caddied on the PGA Tour for Peter Malnati, Brice Garnett and Harold Varner III. Vogt had Nitin Gupte. Martinson and Vogt each got a bronze medal and exemptions into the 2027 and 2028 Mid-Ams, at Jupiter Hills and the Country Club of Charleston.

Meet the finalists. Smith, a Northern California native and a two-time All-American at Duke, played the DP World Tour, won a 2010 Korn Ferry Tour event in West Texas, and had a year on the PGA Tour. He tore his meniscus at the Farmers Insurance Open, took eight years away from competition, met his wife, Amra, while rehabbing in Charleston, S.C., and earned an MBA. The couple moved to Teton Valley, where he and his business partner, Josh Steketee, build custom homes in Idaho and Jackson Hole. "I was watching way too much survivalist television and wanted to go live a self-sufficient lifestyle," he said. He has won the Idaho Amateur twice (2024, 2026) and the 2025 Snedeker Memorial, and he lost to Bobby Massa in the Round of 16 of the 2023 Mid-Am. The 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach would be a homecoming: "That's where I grew up, so that would be killer."

Bailey was a three-time Horizon League Player of the Year at Cleveland State (2012-14) and is in the school's athletics hall of fame. He tried pro golf on the mini-tours, quit after breaking his wrist in 2015, and worked for Cardinal Health before joining Holderness & Bourne. He won the Ohio Amateur in 2023 and 2024 and the inaugural Giles Invitational at Kinloch in 2025, and has reached the Crump Cup quarterfinals at Pine Valley the last two years. He sharpens his putting with evening six-hole matches at Canterbury, a mile from his house, where he'll serve as player liaison for the 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior. On the prizes, he said: "I think it's impossible not to think about it. You [have] got to just live with it and just keep telling yourself you're worthy of winning the event."

History on the line. No Idahoan or Ohioan has won the Mid-Am. The only other Idaho USGA champions are Jean Smith (1995 U.S. Senior Women's Amateur) and Jodie Niemann (1999 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links). Ohio is in the final for the second straight year after Jeg Coughlin III lost to Brandon Holtz in 2025, and Ohio's Bob Lewis Jr. (twice, including the inaugural 1981 final) and Bill Williamson (2013) also finished as runners-up.

Tuesday, Sept. 29 · Round of 32 and Round of 16

The morning's Round of 32 took apart the top of the bracket. No. 45 Nate Smith of Tetonia, Idaho, beat three-time champion Stewart Hagestad 5 and 4, ending Hagestad's bid for a record-tying fourth title. Medalist Bobby Massa lost 4 and 2 to fellow Dallas player No. 33 Jordan Russell, No. 31 Drew Kittleson knocked out No. 2 Zach Foushee, and No. 37 Sean O'Donnell beat No. 5 Phillip Mollica 3 and 2. Christian Cavaliere won by the round's biggest margin, 6 and 5, and Mikel Martinson needed 19 holes to get past David Shambley.

Smith kept going in the afternoon, beating No. 4 Matthew Paradis 3 and 1 for his second win of the day. Parker Edens outlasted O'Donnell in 23 holes, the longest match of the championship so far. Matt Hutchins edged Russell 1 up, and Martinson ended Cavaliere's run 2 up. Kittleson followed his upset of Foushee with a 3-and-1 win over Jonathan Fricke, who had eliminated Holtz on Monday. The three highest seeds left all won comfortably: Andrew Bailey and Grady Brame Jr. by 4 and 3, and Matt Vogt by 3 and 2.

Monday, Sept. 28 · Playoff and Round of 64

The day opened with a 13-for-4 playoff off No. 10 at The Lido. Ryan Orr of Belleair, Fla., Argentina's Mariano Malmierca, Bolivia's Jose Luis Montano and Brett Viboch of Lafayette, Calif., took the last four spots. Michael McCoy and Bryce Newton did not. All four playoff qualifiers lost to the top four seeds that afternoon.

Both 2025 finalists went out. Brandon Holtz of Bloomington, Ill., lost 2 and 1 to No. 50 Jonathan Fricke of Destin, Fla., which ended his title defense in the first round. Jeg Coughlin III fell to No. 17 Ben Greve of Eden Prairie, Minn., in 19 holes. Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif., beat Sam Grindle 2 and 1 and next plays No. 45 Nate Smith of Tetonia, Idaho. That's not four-time champion Nathan Smith.

The top seven seeds all advanced, though Grady Brame Jr. and Matt Vogt needed 19 holes. Below them, 15 of the 32 matches went to the lower seed. Seeds 8, 10 and 11 all lost 1 up: Ryan Schmitz to 2025 semifinalist Christian Cavaliere, Wyatt Brook to Brandon Pluchinsky and Zach Wright to Ethan Hagood. Rhadames Pena, the first Dominican to reach Mid-Am match play, won by the day's biggest margin, 6 and 5 over Will Minton. Sand Valley caddie Matt Hutchins advanced, fellow caddie Adam Miller did not, and NHL referee Garrett Rank survived 1 up.

Sunday, Sept. 27 · Round 2

Bobby Massa of Dallas added a 2-under 69 at the Sand Valley Course to his opening 64. His 133 (-9) made him medalist by three shots, two off Yaroslav Merkulov's championship record of 131 set in 2021. It was his first USGA medal. He hit every fairway, and his only blemish was a double bogey at the par-3 14th. "It's one hole at a time, one [opponent] at a time," he said. "It's trying to survive and advance."

Zach Foushee of Lake Oswego, Ore., finished with a back-nine 31 for a 67 and was second at 136. Matthew Paradis, a Calusa Pines caddie from Naples, Fla., shot the only bogey-free round at Sand Valley and made one bogey in 36 holes. He finished at 137 with Andrew Bailey, who eagled the par-5 7th on The Lido, and Phillip Mollica. Grady Brame Jr. was 5 under through 11, played the next five holes in 5 over and birdied his last two for 138. Parker Edens and Ben Phipps shot the day's low rounds, a pair of 66s on The Lido.

Hagestad (71-69) and Holtz (72-68) both finished at 140. Coughlin birdied his final hole to avoid the playoff. The cut fell at 145. Past champions Lukas Michel, Matthew McClean, Kevin O'Connell and Sammy Schmitz missed match play, as did U.S. Senior Amateur champion Mike Sposa and runner-up Todd White.

Saturday, Sept. 26 · Round 1

Sand Valley was firm and fast for its USGA debut. Scoring averaged 75.42 at The Lido and 76.13 at the Sand Valley Course, and only a dozen players broke 70. Massa shot a 7-under 64 on The Lido, one off Jim Wilson's championship-low 63 from 2000. His round included a holed 130-yard lob wedge for eagle at the 10th and four birdies in five holes before a closing three-putt.

Phillip Mollica of Charleston, S.C., shot 66 at Sand Valley, and Zach Wright of Prosper, Texas, shot 67 on The Lido with his wife, former Symetra Tour winner Lindsay Weaver-Wright, on the bag. Nine players shot 69. One of them was Jack Biwer, a 28-year-old mortgage broker who had taken 10 years off competitive golf. Hagestad opened with an even-par 71. Holtz shot 72, including an eagle 2 on Sand Valley's drivable 9th, and Coughlin shot 73. 2017 champion Matt Parziale withdrew injured on the 17th hole, and Bret Parker was disqualified under Rule 3.3.

The championship at a glance

The 45th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship runs September 26-October 1 at Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. A record 6,124 players entered — eclipsing the previous mark of 6,060 set in 2023 — and 264 made the field, all amateurs 25 and older with a Handicap Index of 2.4 or better. Two rounds of stroke play split across The Lido (7,219 yards, par 71) and the Sand Valley Course (7,122 yards, par 71) cut the field to 64 for match play, with every match contested on The Lido and a 36-hole championship match deciding it Thursday.

It's the first USGA championship ever played at Sand Valley — the first of four awarded to the resort through 2034 — and the first national championship in The Lido's strange, resurrected life.

What's on the line

The winner receives the Robert T. Jones Memorial Trophy, an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Open, exemptions into the next two U.S. Amateurs, a ten-year Mid-Amateur exemption, and — per longstanding tradition — a likely invitation to the 2027 Masters Tournament. One week in the Wisconsin sand barrens, and an April tee time at Augusta National can follow.

Players to watch

Written before stroke play. How each player fared is in the day-by-day record above.

Stewart Hagestad

The name that hangs over every Mid-Amateur. The 35-year-old won this championship in 2016, 2021 and 2023, and a fourth title at Sand Valley would tie Nathan Smith's championship record of four. The venue could hardly suit him better: his 2023 win came on the C.B. Macdonald architecture of Sleepy Hollow, and The Lido is Macdonald's template golf at maximum scale. And he arrives in form: on Sunday at Pine Valley, Hagestad beat 2024 champion Andrew Price 3&2 in the final of the Crump Cup — his second title in the storied invitational — then headed straight to Wisconsin.

Brandon Holtz

The defending champion beat Jeg Coughlin III 3&2 at Troon in 2025 and returns with nothing to qualify for and everything to defend. He arrives sharp, too — Holtz won the Illinois Mid-Amateur by six shots in August.

Evan Beck

The 2024 champion — a 9-and-8 winner at Kinloch — and a 2025 semifinalist, as steady a match-play performer as the mid-am ranks have.

Grady Brame Jr.

The 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champion is exempt and arrives in form.

Christian Cavaliere

A semifinalist a year ago, among the most consistent mid-ams in the country.

The 2025 quarterfinal class

Christian Brand, Parker Edens, Bobby Massa and Justin Hueber — all four 2025 quarterfinalists are back in the field.

Past champions still dangerous

Matt Parziale (2017) and Scott Harvey (2014) remain exempt — and remain threats.

The international class

WAGR exemptions bring a global flavor, including Guatemala's Sebastian Barnoya, Brazil's Matheus Balestrin and Argentina's Andres Schonbaum among the top age-eligible point leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Inside the field

The USGA's field notes sketch the championship's range in one glance: 264 players from 46 states and 15 countries, with an average age of 35.8. California sends the largest delegation (25), followed by Texas (20), Ohio and Illinois (13 each); host-state Wisconsin has three in the field. The age spread runs 38 years — Austin Liu of the class of four 25-year-olds is the youngest, and 63-year-old Michael McCoy is the oldest, making his 26th Mid-Amateur appearance and 72nd USGA championship start, more than double the combined Mid-Am starts of the next two most-tenured players in the field.

The pedigree runs deep: 12 USGA champions are in the field, including eight past U.S. Mid-Amateur winners — Hagestad (2016, '21, '23), defending champion Brandon Holtz, Matthew McClean (2022), Lukas Michel (2019), Kevin O'Connell (2018), Matt Parziale (2017), Sammy Schmitz (2015) and McCoy (2013), who last fall became the first player ever to win both the Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Senior Amateur. Add reigning U.S. Senior Amateur champion Mike Sposa, Four-Ball champions Grady Brame Jr. and Sam Engel, two-time senior/four-ball winner Todd White, and four Walker Cuppers — Hagestad, McCoy, White and GB&I's McClean — and nearly every bracket line has a résumé in it.

Stories worth knowing

• Anthony Brodeur — son of Hockey Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, a former pro goalie and PGA Tour Canada player, now reinstated as an amateur and making his Mid-Am debut after birdieing his way through a 3-for-1 playoff.
• Garrett Rank — the full-time NHL referee (he worked his first Stanley Cup Final this year) is back for his first Mid-Am since 2021, exempt after winning his fourth Canadian Mid-Amateur. He was runner-up to Nathan Smith in his 2012 debut.
• Haymes Snedeker — exempt as low amateur at the 2026 U.S. Senior Open, playing his first Mid-Am in over a decade while his brother, Brandt, captains the U.S. Presidents Cup team at Medinah during stroke play.
• Jeg Coughlin III — last year's runner-up, son of six-time NHRA world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., and a founding member of Jason Day's YouTube group The Lads.
• Stephen Behr Jr. — a 2024 Mid-Am semifinalist and 2022 Crump Cup champion who has a habit of running into eventual champions in match play.
• Graham Boatwright — grandson of legendary USGA executive P.J. Boatwright Jr., in his first Mid-Am after surviving a five-hole, 5-for-1 playoff. His brother Jack is on the bag.
• Nathaniel Spencer — Air Force veteran, competitive rock climber and the first competitor in American Ninja Warrior history to hit a buzzer in the Las Vegas finale, making his USGA debut after 15 years away from competitive golf.
• Park Ulrich — put golf on hold at 18 for a cancer diagnosis, came back to win two Kansas Mid-Ams and a Kansas Amateur, and now makes his first Mid-Am start.
• Keven Slyne — a Connecticut welder making his USGA debut, famously playing without glove, golf shoes or hat, after chipping in for birdie on the second playoff hole to qualify.
• Blake Moore — the former Golf Channel Big Break contestant, now at DoorDash, is in his first USGA championship in 20 years after co-medaling in qualifying with a 6-under 66.

The venue

Match play belongs entirely to The Lido, Tom Doak and Brian Schneider's exacting re-creation of C.B. Macdonald's lost 1917 Long Island masterpiece — a course that existed only in photographs for 80 years before reopening in the Wisconsin sand in 2023. Its greens average over 12,000 square feet, its template holes — Alps, Redan, Channel, punchbowl — were designed as arguments between two players, and its heroic, alternate-route architecture was built for exactly the kind of golf this week will produce. Read our full feature on The Lido for the remarkable story: two million cubic yards of dredged sand, a Navy bulldozer, and a home golf simulator that brought it back from the dead.

Play Sand Valley yourself: AmateurGolf.com Two Man Links and Father & Son, May 2027

Watching the Mid-Am field take on The Lido? Next spring it's your turn. The AmateurGolf.com Two Man Links and Father & Son Championship returns to Sand Valley for its sixth year, May 14-17, 2027 — a 66-hole, four-round best-ball championship across Mammoth Dunes, The Commons, The Lido and the Sand Valley Course.

• The package: three nights at Sand Valley Resort, four tournament rounds, a banquet dinner, and $10,000+ in tee gifts and prizes.
• Divisions: Father & Son (gross and net), Open Team (gross and net), plus a bonus for Senior teams with both players 50+.
• Pricing: from $3,195 per player (double occupancy); a $1,000 deposit per player holds your spot.
• Field: capped at 80 players — 40 teams — and it fills every year.

See the full itinerary and register →

How to follow

Live scoring runs through the USGA — at usga.org and on the USGA App — all week. The USGA's 2026 media plans include coverage of its amateur championships across NBC platforms; we'll add specific broadcast and streaming windows to this section as soon as they're confirmed.

Catch up on our Mid-Am coverage

The Field Is Set: What 6,124 Entries Bought at the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur — Our deep dive on the record-breaking field and the exempt class.
The Lido: The Course That Died in 1942 Will Decide the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur — The full resurrection story of the match-play venue.
2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur Qualifying Roundup — Site-by-site results from the summer-long chase for a spot at Sand Valley.
6,124 Golfers Want In — Why the Mid-Am has become the biggest tournament in the post-college game.
U.S. Mid-Amateur tournament page — Past champions, results and event details.