Massa shoots 29 on front nine en route to Mid-Am final

September 25, 2024 | by United States Golf Association

(USGA/Logan Whitton)

That remarkable first nine was all the 36-year-old Dallas, Texas, resident needed to eliminate the equally hot Drew Kittleson

What Happened

Rain returned to Kinloch Golf Club on Wednesday for the quarterfinal and semifinal matches of the 43rd U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. But not even Hurricane Helene that is barreling its way into Florida and drenching the South could have cooled down Bobby Massa.

How about a scorching 6-under-par-29, first-nine performance in the semifinals that included five birdies, an eagle-2 and a bogey?

Talk about a Massa-Cre. It was a total assault on the Lester George/Vinny Giles design.

That remarkable first nine was all the 36-year-old Dallas, Texas, resident needed to eliminate the equally hot Drew Kittleson, 4 and 3, and book his spot in Thursday’s 36-hole championship match. Massa, a personal trainer who advanced to the quarterfinals of last month’s U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn., will square off against co-medalist and No. 2 seed Evan Beck, 34, of Virginia Beach, Va. Beck, the runner-up in last year’s championship at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, in Scarborough, N.Y., eliminated former Clemson University All-American Stephen Behr Jr., 31, of Atlanta, Ga., 5 and 3.

Beck, a Wake Forest University graduate who is No. 32 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®, becomes the fourth player in U.S. Mid-Amateur history to play in consecutive finals, joining Jim Stuart (1990-91), George Zahringer (2001-02) and Nathan Smith (2009-10). Zahringer is the only competitor from that group to have lost and then returned to win on the back end of the double. Smith owns a record four titles. Additionally, Beck is vying to be the first medalist/co-medalist to claim the title since Scott Harvey in 2014.

Thursday’s champion earns an exemption into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club and a likely invitation to next April’s Masters.

“Definitely heard about him, saw him on TV at the U.S. Amateur,” said Beck of his opponent. “Very impressive. I'll see that up close tomorrow.”

Massa, a former mini-tour professional who regained his status five years ago and has twice Monday qualified for the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic in the Dallas Metroplex 10 years apart (2013 and 2023), put on quite a display of power and shot-making in defeating Kittleson, 35, of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Possessed with PGA Tour-quality clubhead (130 mph) and ball speed (188-190) from the weight and flexibility training he preaches to clients at SandersFit Performance Center, Massa dominated Kinloch’s opening nine, starting with four consecutive birdies from the opening hole.

But Kittleson, the runner-up in the 2008 U.S. Amateur during his halcyon days at Florida State University, was only 2 down thank to a pair of birdies on Nos. 1 and 4.

At the par-4 first, Massa topped Kittleson’s 20-footer with one of nearly equal length. Two short birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 gave him a lead he would not relinquish. Outside of a three-putt bogey on the par-3 sixth from 25 feet, Massa was nearly flawless on the opening nine holes, where he drove the 328-yard sixth hole to set up a 15-foot, hard-breaking eagle putt that found the hole. He added another birdie on No. 7 for a 3-up lead.

Kittleson, who played 3-under-par golf over the 15 holes with the usual match-play concessions, did birdie No. 9 to trim the deficit to 2 down, but Massa won the 10th with a par and birdied the 601-yard 12th for a 4-up advantage. Three consecutive tying pars later, the match was over.

“You don't even think about it, to be honest,” said Massa, who played collegiately at the University of Texas-Arlington and is competing in his third U.S. Mid-Amateur. “You just play. You just pick your target and go. Just happened to be in a rhythm and the shots were coming out. So, it was good to see.”

Added Kittleson, the runner-up in the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with partner and Sirius/XM Radio PGA Tour Network personality Drew Stoltz: “He played amazing. There's no scenario where somebody would have beat him.

“I gave him everything I had. It was just tough. Then the rain and everything, he drove it so straight, and he drove it long. He played flawlessly, flawlessly. There's nothing he didn't do well.”

For the first time since the opening round on Monday, Beck did not have to go the distance in a match. Well, given the way he played the par-5 closing hole at Kinloch in the three rounds preceding the semis – two birdies and a clutch par – perhaps the members will someday build a plaque for the two-time Virginia State Open champion.

But against Behr, a quarterfinalist last year, Beck didn’t lose a hole and ended the festivities on the 15th green.

Playing in front of a nice gallery of family and friends – his parents grew up in nearby Richmond – Beck bolted out of the gate with winning pars on Nos. 3 and 5, then made birdie putts of 15 and 20 feet at seven and eight for a 4-up lead. Six consecutive tied holes left him 4 up with four to play, and he closed out the match in style by converting an 8-foot birdie on the 451-yard, par-4 15th.

Now he gets a chance to avenge the disappointing loss from a year ago when Stewart Hagestad got off to a 7-up lead before holding on for a 3-and-2 win.

“You've got to come out pretty hot, to be honest,” said Beck when asked what he learned from that experience. “It's good to get off to a good start. Stewart did that last year, and I'll try to do that tomorrow.”

In his morning 1-up quarterfinal win over 25-year-old Connor Doyal, a Charleston, S.C., resident who caddies at Kiawah Island Resort’s famed Ocean Course, Beck managed a clutch two-putt par from 45 feet to advance. Doyal had a chance to force extra holes, but he didn’t quite execute his pitch from 20 yards short of the green, leaving him a 15-foot uphill birdie putt.

“You see all these people hanging around. You get a little nervous,” said Doyal, an Auburn University graduate competing in his first USGA championship. “You hit those shots all the time. I had a little of a downslope lie, hitting to a green that's above me. Plus, there's so much moisture out here, so it kind of skips. I didn't quite get it perfect, but I still kind of gave myself a chance at it. Just couldn't convert.”

Doyal had rallied from a 2-down deficit to tie the match with a par on No. 15, only to see Beck drain a 15-foot birdie on the challenging par-3 16th to regain the lead.

Will Davenport, of Palm City, Fla., a semifinalist in May at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with partner Mike Smith, saw his run ended by Behr, 4 and 3. Behr, who built as much as a 5-up lead thru 11 holes, played the equivalent of 3-under golf, with match-play concessions.

Harvey, 46, of Greensboro, N.C., fought off a lot of mud balls from the overnight and early-morning rain in his 1-down loss to Kittleson in the second of the morning quarterfinal matches. Neither player enjoyed more than a 1-up lead throughout with Kittleson taking the advantage for good with a birdie on No. 13. They tied the last five holes with pars.

“I wasn't as sharp, [and] I don't think he was as sharp either,” said Harvey, who also won the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with partner Todd Mitchell. “We played clean golf, I think. I don't know what the numbers were, but I feel like he made [one] bogey, and I made [one] bogey…Hard to make birdies out there. You could tell it was going to be tight all the way.”

The first quarterfinal saw Massa take out 2022 semifinalist Josh Persons, of Fargo, N.D., 2 and 1. Holding a 1-up lead after a winning par on the seventh hole, the two tied the next nine holes – they both birdied the 439-yard, 10th – before Massa closed it out with a 12-foot birdie on No. 17.

What’s Next

Thursday’s 36-hole championship match is scheduled for 7:10 a.m. EDT, with the resumption after the lunch break at noon. Admission is free, and spectators, who can now park on property, are encouraged to attend.

Notable

Both semifinal losers Drew Kittleson and Stephen Behr Jr. received bronze medals and exemptions into the next two U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships. The 2025 event will be at Troon Country Club, in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the 2026 championship is scheduled for the Sand Valley Resort (Lido Course), in Nekoosa, Wis.

Both finalists are now exempt into the 125th U.S. Amateur Championship at The Olympic Club, in San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 11-17. Bobby Massa already earned a spot from his quarterfinal run in this year’s U.S. Amateur.

Five of the eight quarterfinalists were reinstated amateurs. Only Will Davenport, Connor Doyal and Stephen Behr Jr. did not turn professional after college.

The week began with 75 Kinloch caddies being employed by competitors. Twelve advanced to the Round of 32 and four were in the quarterfinals: Matt Jenkins (for Scott Harvey), Fred Conrath (for Josh Persons), Ted Rasnick (for Stephen Behr Jr.), and Pete Gasperini (for Bobby Massa). Gasperini, who played collegiately at Virginia Commonwealth and Radford, has caddied on the Korn Ferry Tour this year for Connor Burgess.

Dan Zaleski, the caddie for Drew Kittleson, is a friend from Arizona who is a parking attendant at Whisper Rock Golf Club, where Kittleson is a member.

For those who like numbers, this will be the third time in the last decade that two single-digit seeds will square off in the final. In 2014, Scott Harvey (1 seed) defeated fellow co-medalist Brad Nurski (2 seed) at Saucon Valley, and in 2022, Matthew McClean (7 seed) beat Hugh Foley (5 seed) at Erin Hills. Beck is the 2 seed and Massa was seeded No. 8 after stroke play.

The hallway leading from the pro shop to the grill room inside the Kinloch Golf Club clubhouse is an homage to co-founder and decorated amateur champion Marvin “Vinny” Giles with a number of photos from his exploits on the golf course. Giles won the 1972 U.S. Amateur and the 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur while also competing on four USA Walker Cup Teams and captaining another (1993). Giles, who also captured the 1975 British Amateur, helped design Kinloch with architect Lester George. Now 81, Giles spent time this week greeting competitors. And he can still play. He recently shot a 68 at Kinloch while playing with head pro Andrew Black, 1970 U.S. Amateur champion/1977 PGA Championship winner Lanny Wadkins, and his brother Bobby Wadkins, also a past PGA Tour winner. Like Giles, the Wadkins brothers grew up in Virginia. The inaugural Giles Invitational will be staged next spring.

Quotable
“It's nice to have another shot. I started playing really nice last eight, ten holes, like I found something, and hopefully will carry that on to tomorrow.” – Evan Beck

“It's been great. It's nice to be sort of a local guy, and I have a lot of friends and family come out. Both my parents are from Richmond, so my mom's sister is here hanging out. It's been really, really nice.” – Beck on the support he has received

“I mean, you just try to play. There will be thoughts for sure. Anybody that doesn't say there will not be [those thoughts] is not human. Just try to keep one foot in front of the other and one hole at a time.” – Bobby Massa when asked about the perks that go to the champion

“I've felt like I've played a million 36-hole days these last three days. I don't think that ought to be that much different, but no, I have not played any other 36-hole matches.” – Massa on playing in his first 36-hole final

“It was very nice for my wife (Kelsey) and my son (Stone) to come. I played the Crump [Cup] last week [at Pine Valley]. So, two weeks away from my family was a lot. I'm very appreciative that they came out. I know I have the game [to compete in the U.S. Mid-Amateur]. I just have other things going on in my life. So, I don't get maybe the opportunities that others get. I played a member-guest, and then I played the Crump. So if you give me two weeks to like kind of tighten up, then I'll show up and I'll play good. But that's not how my life works, and that's okay. I'm very content with it.” – Drew Kittleson, who helps run the family kitchen and remodeling business, on the challenges of balancing competitive golf with work

“My father, when I was probably 12 years old we moved to…Troon Country Club. Never a member there or anything but lived there. Very unique golf course. I think people are going to be very interested to see it.” – Kittleson, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, on next year’s Mid-Am venue

“It was a long week. Lots of days waking up at 5:30 [a.m.], lots of stress of just hoping to even be able to even make it to match play. Then once I got in match play [out of the 14-for-12 playoff], I was kind of like I'm just playing with house money right now, so let's make a run. Let's make some noise. The game felt good all week. It was really fun playing against Evan today.” – Connor Doyal

“I love it. I love this place. I love being here. Honestly, I feel like this Mid-Am was a notch above the rest of them. Just the little things: the hospitality, the food, the parking spaces, everything. This place is special. And knowing [two-time USGA champion] Vinny [Giles] adds a lot personally to me. I don't know if other people feel that way, but it adds a little something for me.” – Scott Harvey summing up his week at Kinloch

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.

Results: U.S. Mid-Amateur

Place	Player	Location	Pts
Win	Evan Beck	Virginia Beach, VA	1000
Runner-up	Bobby Massa	Grand Prarie, TX	700
Semifinals	Stephen Behr	Atlanta, GA	500
Semifinals	Drew Kittleson	Scottsdale, AZ	500
Quarterfinals	Josh Persons	Fargo, ND	400

View full results for U.S. Mid-Amateur

About the U.S. Mid-Amateur

Massa shoots 29 on front nine en route to Mid-Am final

The U.S. Mid-Amateur originated in 1981 for the amateur golfer of at least 25 years of age, the purpose of which to provide a formal national championship for the post-college player. 264 players begin the championship with two rounds of sroke play q...