3 Things to Know: 44th U.S. Mid-Amateur

The USGA returns to the Arizona desert this week for the 44th playing of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Troon Country Club and stroke-play co-host Troon North Golf Club, both Tom Weiskopf designs located in north Scottsdale.

For Troon C.C., this will be its second U.S. Mid-Amateur and third overall USGA championship, having just hosted the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur won by Sarah Gallagher. In 1990, the club hosted the U.S. Mid-Amateur (Jim Stuart) before the field expanded four years later to include two courses for stroke play.

While the golf should be scintillating and exciting over the course of the six competition days, one man will be quite lonely this week: the on-course weather guy, Logan Smith. The forecast for the entire week? Sunny and hot. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-90s the entire championship, although as they say in this part of the world, it’s a dry heat.

The player who survives two rounds of stroke play and six matches, including the 36-hole final on Thursday, will earn a spot in the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, in Southampton, N.Y., and a likely invitation to next April’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

Stewart Hagestad knows all about that perk, having competed in three Masters Tournaments and five U.S. Opens. He’s also won two of his three Mid-Amateurs in years he competed on the USA Walker Cup Team (2021 and 2023). A week ago, the Newport Beach, Calif., native competed in his fifth Walker Cup, going 2-0 in singles to raise his overall mark to 7-1. This week in Arizona, he’ll look to tie his Walker Cup captain’s record mark of four titles. Nathan Smith won the championship in 2003, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

So, as Hagestad and the other 263 players prepare to tackle the 36-hole stroke-play portion of the competition, here are 3 things to know:

Beck to Back?

Evan Beck is no stranger to making strong runs at USGA championships, having competed in four finals, including last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur victory at Kinloch Golf Club in his home state of Virginia. Beck rolled to a 9-and-8 victory over Texan Bobby Massa and nearly became the first player to lose a final 10 and 8 (2008 U.S. Junior Amateur) and win a final by the same margin. Earlier this year, Beck and partner Dan Walters reached the championship match of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at historic Plainfield Country Club, in New Jersey, before running into a pair of teenage superstars in U.S. National Junior Team members Tyler Mawhinney and Will Hartman.

Now Beck, who is coming off the disappointment of not being named to this year’s USA Walker Cup Team that triumphed last week at Cypress Point Club, has a chance to achieve something that’s only been accomplished twice. Only Jim Stuart (1990-91) and Nathan Smith (2009-10) have successfully defended Mid-Amateur titles.

Smith, who has won a record four Mid-Amateurs, won’t be present for the first time in 20 years. His 10-year exemption ended in 2023, and he received a special exemption a year ago to play at Kinloch. With all of his duties as the 2025 Walker Cup captain, Smith decided not to apply for an exemption or make an attempt to qualify.

Beck, the 2023 Mid-Amateur runner-up, will look to regain the form he had a year ago when he shared medalist honors with Segundo Oliva Pinto and then proceeded to win his next six matches. But missed cuts in both the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur, the latter when he played 7-over-par golf on his final nine holes on The Olympic Club’s Lake Course, left a bitter taste in the former Wake Forest University standout’s mouth. Beck also missed the cut in this year’s Masters and U.S. Open.

So, drawing on those positive feelings from Kinloch – as well as his 2025 victories in the Coleman Invitational and George Thomas Invitational, at Seminole and The Los Angeles Country Club, respectively – could prove to be valuable thoughts for the 35-year-old portfolio manager who is getting married later this year. 

Birthday Boy

Any birthday is special. Of course, there are milestones like turning 21 to become old enough to enjoy an adult beverage, or 18, to become eligible to vote. But A.J. Fitzgerald will always remember turning 25. The Salinas, Calif., native will celebrate that milestone on Saturday, the first day of stroke play of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, a national championship for those 25 and older.

The celebration first began when he qualified for his fourth USGA event – he competed in the 2023 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, and this year’s U.S. Amateur (all missed cuts) – and then continued last week when the Cypress Point Club caddie of six years landed the bag of the USA’s Mason Howell, the 18-year-old wunderkind from Thomasville, Ga., who earned a spot on  the team by winning the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club.

Through a random draw, Fitzgerald, a former player at Division II Cal State University-Monterey Bay, was paired with Howell; the youngest player in the Match proceeded to go 2-0-1 in the 17-9 victory over Great Britain & Ireland. Howell had the shot of the two-day competition by holing out a pitching wedge from 147 yards on the 17th hole to close out his Sunday foursomes match with partner Jacob Modleski.

Fitzgerald, whose mom Aana was the longtime chief financial officer for the Northern California Golf Association, now gets a chance to show his wares and possibly earn a chance to play alongside Howell in a pair of 2026 major championships and become the Mid-Amateur’s youngest champion.

That would be the ultimate birthday present.

Praising Arizona

Nine competitors are representing the Grand Canyon State in this year’s field, and eight will have the opportunity to hit the first tee shots during their respective waves on Thursday. Nick Arman, of Cave Creek, has the honor of hitting first off Hole No. 1 at Troon Country Club at 6:50 a.m. MST, while Cory Bacon, of Scottsdale, Ariz., will do the same at Troon North Golf Club.

Of those nine players, one person to watch closely is Scottsdale resident Drew Kittleson. The long-hitting Kittleson who will tee off No. 10 at 6:50 a.m., has already been runner-up in three USGA championships – the 2008 U.S. Amateur and the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Balls (with partner Drew Stoltz) – and advanced to the semifinals of the Mid-Amateur last year before Bobby Massa played the equivalent of 6-under golf over the first nine holes en route to a 4-and-3 victory.

Chris Kamin (Phoenix), Bryan Hoops (Scottsdale), Sean O'Donnell (Glendale) and Cody Massa (Cave Creek), who is Bobby’s older brother, all have plenty of USGA experience. Mat McDougall (Scottsdale) will also hit a first shot at Troon Country Club at 11:50 a.m. off No. 1.

Although he now lives in Anthem, Greg Sanders, the runner-up in last month’s U.S. Senior Amateur, is representing Anchorage, Alaska, where he won 11 state amateur titles, including this year’s competition that earned him a spot in the U.S. Amateur at age 61. Kale Waaso (Scottsale) is the other Arizonan in the field.

No player from Arizona has won the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

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