The USGA's championship summer closes the way it so often does — with the game's best senior amateurs chasing a national title in match play. From August 29 to September 3, the 68th U.S. Senior Amateur comes to Baltimore Country Club's East Course in Lutherville, Md., a 1898-vintage A.W. Tillinghast layout that has quietly hosted more championship golf than almost any club in America.
A field of 156 players, all 55 or older and carrying a Handicap Index of 5.4 or lower, will play 36 holes of stroke play before the low 64 advance to a single-elimination match-play bracket. Waiting at the end: the Frederick L. Dold Trophy, a gold medal, and a stack of exemptions that shapes the next decade of a senior amateur's career. This is our home base for all of it — the field, the format, how to watch, the course, the history, and links to every story we publish from Baltimore.
The essentials at a glance
Event: 68th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship
Dates: Saturday, Aug. 29 – Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026
Venue: Baltimore Country Club (East Course), Lutherville, Md. — opened 1898, A.W. Tillinghast design (2015 renovations by Keith Foster)
Setup: 6,564 yards, par 70 (subject to change) · Course/Slope 72.9/137
Format: 36 holes of stroke play, then match play for the low 64
Field: 156 players · a record 2,779 entries were accepted (all-time record is 2,865, set in 2022)
Eligibility: age 55 or older as of Aug. 29 with a Handicap Index of 5.4 or lower
Defending champion: Mike McCoy, who beat Greg Sanders 3 and 2 at Oak Hills CC in 2025
Admission: free — spectators are encouraged to attend
How to watch and follow
The U.S. Senior Amateur is a walk-and-follow championship rather than a wall-to-wall TV event. Admission to Baltimore Country Club is free of charge, and the USGA encourages fans to come out and watch in person across the week. For everyone else, the USGA typically carries live scoring and updates through its championship pages, and we'll keep this hub current with links, tee times and results as they land.
Check back here through the week — we'll drop in live-scoring links, match-play brackets and on-site coverage as the championship unfolds. Bookmark the USGA Senior Amateur page too.
The defending champion: Mike McCoy
Mike McCoy arrives in Baltimore having authored one of the most remarkable seasons in senior amateur golf. At 62, the Des Moines, Iowa, veteran became the first player in USGA history to win both the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Senior Amateur, closing out Greg Sanders 3 and 2 at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio. It was McCoy's turn in his 63rd USGA championship — a number that tells you everything about how deep his roots run in this game.
McCoy won that Mid-Amateur back in 2013, two years before he represented the USA in the 2015 Walker Cup at Royal Lytham & St Annes. He later captained the victorious American side at St Andrews in 2024. "I'm so honored to win a USGA championship. I love the USGA," McCoy said after his 2025 victory. "A lot of my golfing history has sort of been built upon their championships and trying to get to them and advance and someday win one, and I finally did, and, of course, I never dreamed I'd win another one... so it's been a dream come true."
Note that Oak Hills stepped in to host the 2025 championship because Biltmore Forest, in Asheville, N.C., was still recovering from Hurricane Helene — Biltmore Forest now hosts in 2028.
The field: who's exempt, who to watch
Thirty-seven players are fully exempt into the 156-man field, a group that reads like a roll call of recent senior amateur golf. The list is headlined by a run of past champions: McCoy (2025), Louis Brown (2024), Todd White (2023), Rusty Strawn (2022), Gene Elliott (2021), Bob Royak (2019), Jeff Wilson (2018), Sean Knapp (2017) and Dave Ryan (2016).
Runner-up Greg Sanders is back after his 2025 final, joined by fellow recent finalists Daniel Sullivan (2024 runner-up) and Jody Fanagan (2023 runner-up). A deep group of 2025 semifinalists and quarterfinalists is exempt as well — among them Robert Niger, Mike Sposa, Matt Sughrue, Robert Nelson, Michael Anderson, Joe Sawaia and Jacob Cestino.
The exemption categories also pull in some notable names from beyond the championship itself: 2000 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Greg Puga, 2025 Canadian Men's Senior Amateur champion Don Martone, and 2026 R&A Senior Amateur winner Bryan Hoops, plus a slate of players who earned in through the World Amateur Golf Ranking, including Doug Hanzel — himself the 2013 Senior Amateur champion. The balance of the field earned their places through 18-hole qualifying conducted at 50 sites between June 24 and July 30.
The course: Baltimore Country Club (East)
Baltimore Country Club is among the first 100 clubs founded in the United States, and its East Course — a Tillinghast original opened in 1898 and sympathetically renovated by Keith Foster in 2015 — is one of the great championship venues on the East Coast. At 6,564 yards and par 70, it won't overpower this field with length; the test is in the angles, the greens and Tillinghast's signature demand for precise, thoughtful golf.
The championship pedigree here is extraordinary. Baltimore has hosted the 1899 U.S. Open (Willie Smith), the 1928 PGA Championship (Leo Diegel), the 1932 U.S. Amateur (C. Ross Somerville), the 1965 Walker Cup (USA), the 1988 U.S. Women's Open (Liselotte Neumann), and three straight Senior Players Championships from 2007-09 (Loren Roberts, D.A. Weibring and Jay Haas).
Hole by hole (par 70 · subject to change)
Front nine (OUT, 3,234 yds · par 35): 1 – 415 (4), 2 – 422 (4), 3 – 371 (4), 4 – 140 (3), 5 – 395 (4), 6 – 580 (5), 7 – 377 (4), 8 – 359 (4), 9 – 175 (3)
Back nine (IN, 3,330 yds · par 35): 10 – 385 (4), 11 – 410 (4), 12 – 396 (4), 13 – 159 (3), 14 – 570 (5), 15 – 420 (4), 16 – 440 (4), 17 – 168 (3), 18 – 382 (4)
Format and schedule
The championship opens with two days of stroke play, after which the low 64 scorers advance to match play (a playoff settles the final spots if needed). From there it's single-elimination bracket golf, culminating in an 18-hole championship match.
Sat, Aug. 29: Stroke Play, Round 1 (18 holes)
Sun, Aug. 30: Stroke Play, Round 2 (18 holes)
Mon, Aug. 31: Round of 64 (match play)
Tue, Sept. 1: Round of 32 and Round of 16
Wed, Sept. 2: Quarterfinals and Semifinals
Thu, Sept. 3: Championship Match (18 holes)
What the champion wins
Beyond the gold medal and a year's custody of the Frederick L. Dold Trophy, the 2026 champion collects a run of exemptions that reshapes his schedule:
Exemption from local qualifying for the 2027 U.S. Open
Exemption from qualifying for the 2027 U.S. Senior Open at Oak Tree National (must remain an amateur)
Exemption from qualifying for the 2027 and 2028 U.S. Amateur Championships
Exemption from qualifying for the 2026 and 2027 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships
Exemption from qualifying for the next 10 U.S. Senior Amateur Championships
Name engraved on the 2026 USGA Champions' plaque in the USGA Museum's Hall of Champions
A little history
The U.S. Senior Amateur has been won by some of the most decorated names in the amateur game. Multiple champions include Lewis W. Oehmig (1972, 1976, 1985), Dale Morey (1974, 1977), William C. Campbell (1979-80), Bill Shean Jr. (1998, 2000), Kemp Richardson (2001, 2003) and Paul Simson (2010, 2012). More recent winners read straight into this year's field — Sean Knapp (2017), Jeff Wilson (2018), Gene Elliott (2021), Todd White (2023) and Mike McCoy (2025) are all exempt in Baltimore.
George "Buddy" Marucci (2008) and Marvin "Vinny" Giles (2009) are among the modern champions, and the runner-up list is nearly as distinguished, featuring Oehmig, Morey, Ed Updegraff, George Zahringer, Pat Tallent and Doug Hanzel across the decades.
Future sites
The Senior Amateur's future rota keeps it on classic ground:
2027: Seattle (Wash.) Golf Club — Aug. 28-Sept. 2
2028: Biltmore Forest CC, Asheville, N.C. — Aug. 26-31
2029: The Omni Homestead Resort (Cascades Course), Hot Springs, Va. — Aug. 25-30
2030: The Country Club of North Carolina, Pinehurst, N.C. — Aug. 24-29
2032: Country Club of Buffalo, Williamsville, N.Y. — Aug. 28-Sept. 2
2033: Canterbury Golf Club, Cleveland, Ohio — Aug. 27-Sept. 1
2035: Columbia CC, Chevy Chase, Md. — Aug. 25-30
2036: Belle Meade CC, Nashville, Tenn. — Aug. 23-28
2038: Quaker Ridge GC, Scarsdale, N.Y. — dates TBD
Full coverage hub
Everything we've published on the road to Baltimore, in one place:
We'll keep this hub updated all the way through the championship — tee times, live scoring, the match-play bracket and on-site coverage from Baltimore Country Club. The 68th U.S. Senior Amateur begins August 29.
