3 Things to Know: 43rd U.S. Mid-Amateur

The last of the USGA championship venues rescheduled from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic takes place this week when Kinloch Golf Club and stroke-play co-host Independence Golf Club – both located in suburban Richmond, Va. – host the 43rd U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Earlier this year, Philadelphia Cricket Club (U.S. Amateur Four-Ball) and Newport Country Club (U.S. Senior Open) hosted championships originally postponed by the pandemic.

The brainchild of two-time USGA champion Marvin “Vinny” Giles – he won the 1972 U.S. Amateur and 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur as well as competed on four USA Walker Cup Teams – Kinloch, named the Best Private New Course in 2001 by Golf Digest, will host its second USGA championship, following the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur.

First conceived as a “country-club-for-a-day” facility, Giles and fellow founding partners C.B. Robertson III and Charles K. Staples eventually decided on a private-club model, hiring architect Lester George to design the layout with plenty of input from Giles.

“Kinloch is routed to take advantage of the most natural and dramatic features of the site,” said George on the club’s website. “The design characteristics give the course the look and feel rivaling the best courses in the world.”

Adds Giles, one of two players in USGA history to be low amateur in the U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open (Jeff Wilson): “Kinloch is very traditional in design on a piece of land that is phenomenal. Open corridors allow adequate tee shot areas with rolling topography creating a variety of shots. It is truly a world class golf experience.”

The assembled field of 264 competitors will look to navigate Kinloch and nearby Independence Golf Club, a public facility that has hosted 10 Virginia State Opens, over the first two days of stroke play to earn one of the coveted 64 spots for match play. Both courses are different from an agronomic standpoint. Kinloch features bentgrass greens, while Independence is entirely bermudagrass.

Defending champion Stewart Hagestad, of Newport Beach, Calif., one of three players to hoist the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy three times, hopes to join four-time winner Nathan Smith and Jim Stuart as competitors to win consecutive titles. Hagestad also won in 2016 and 2021. Jay Sigel won titles in 1983, 1985 and 1987. Smith, the 2025 USA Walker Cup captain who is in the field on a special exemption from the USGA, claimed the championship in 2003, ’09, ’10 and ’12.

Kinloch will play slightly differently than it did for the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur as the nines have been reversed to create better flow and logistics.

Here are 3 Things to Know as the championship sets to commence:

Welcome Back

Five feet was all that stood between Michael Weaver and the Havemeyer Trophy. That was the length of his par putt on the 36th hole of the 2012 U.S. Amateur final against No. 63 seed Steven Fox. Weaver, the 60th seed after he and Fox survived a large playoff to determine the final match-play spots, incredulously watched as the ball lipped out, sending the 36-hole championship to extra holes, where Fox, then a University of Tennessee-Chattanooga rising senior, drained an 18-foot downhill birdie putt on No. 37 to complete a remarkable comeback. He was 2 down with two to play, and birdied two of his last three holes, including Cherry Hills Country Club’s iconic par-5 17th hole with its island green.

Weaver, of Fresno, Calif., would turn professional the following year after helping the University California-Berkeley to an 11-win season – the Golden Bears lost in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course – and then playing on the victorious USA Walker Cup Team at National Golf Links of America.

His professional career, however, didn’t pan out and after regaining his amateur status in June of 2023, Weaver finally returns to a USGA championship for the first time in 11 years after qualifying for his first U.S. Mid-Amateur.

Now 33 and a financial planner for Cyclus Wealth Management, Weaver has rediscovered the joy of competitive golf after bouncing around the Web.com (now Korn Ferry Tour) and PGA Tour Latinoamerica (now PGA Tour Americas) for five seasons. He’s one of a handful of golfers to play in a U.S. Open, Masters, Walker Cup and Palmer Cup (2013) all in the same year. He finished 64th in the Open at Merion Golf Club, where Cal and Walker Cup teammate Michael Kim earned low-amateur honors. At that year’s Walker Cup, Weaver defeated U.S. Amateur champion and future U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick in Saturday singles, 3 and 1 (he lost to him on Sunday).

His stated goal now in his new golf career: win a USGA title and hopefully make another run at a Walker Cup spot.

Kinloch Connections

James Pleat was competing for the Dartmouth College men’s golf team when his decorated father, Philip, made a run to the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur final at Kinloch before losing, 1 down. Now the younger Pleat, 34, of Somerville, Mass., is hoping for similar success in his third U.S. Mid-Amateur start.

James and Philip Pleat are part of a highly successful New Hampshire golf family. James’ maternal great-grandfather, maternal grandfather and his father all have won the New Hampshire Amateur. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Leonard Jr., won that New Hampshire Am eight times and qualified for several USGA championships, including four U.S. Amateurs. The New Hampshire Player of the Year trophy is named for him, and James had the honor of capturing the title in 2020.

Meanwhile, Philip Pleat has captured a record 22 New Hampshire state titles and is returning to Kinloch to caddie for James. The two Pleats competed together in the 2012 U.S. Amateur and qualified for the 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Pinehurst as one of a handful of father-son duos to have competed in that nascent competition.

Since graduating from Dartmouth, James, a wealth management planner, has claimed three New Hampshire Mid-Amateur titles, and is a fourth-generation New Hampshire Amateur champion, winning in 2020 and ’21.

New Hampshire has had two USGA champions: Austin Eaton III (2004 U.S. Mid-Amateur) and Laura Shanahan (2001 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur). It almost had a third in 2011 at Kinloch. Could it happen this time around?

Family Affair

It’s been quite a September for Ohioans Allison and Nate Gonring. Allison, who turns 33 on Sept. 24, competed in her sixth U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Brae Burn Country Club, in West Newton, Mass., but first as a new mom. She and her husband welcomed their first child, Riley, a year ago. Nate, 32, was in Massachusetts serving as Allison’s caddie, where she lost in the Round of 64 to Krystal Quihuis. Gonring (nee Schultz) has made match play in all six of her U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur starts.

The roles will be reversed at Kinloch and Independence, as Nate, like his wife a former University of Toledo golfer, is set to play in his first USGA championship. Competing mostly on the local/regional level, Allison convinced Nate to try the U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier at the Camargo Club, in Cincinnati, and he posted a 68 to garner one of the four available spots.

Of course, playing elite amateur golf with a 1-year-old child has its logistical challenges. But Allison and Nate, with support from their respective families, has made it work.

Now Nate, and his caddie, are hoping that Riley’s grandparents will have babysitting duties that will last a week.  

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