63rd Seed Strikes Again: Davis Ousts Co-Medalist Dewey in Arizona

What is it about being a No. 63 seed this year in USGA championships? Not always an advantageous position, considering the opponent has performed well over the first two days of stroke play, but that hasn’t been the case in 2025.

For the fourth time in the last two months, a 63rd seed won a Round-of-64 match. On Monday in the 44th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Troon Country Club, Ian Davis, of Edmond, Okla., became the latest to achieve the feat, eliminating co-medalist and No. 2 seed Patrick Dewey, 3 and 2.

Last month, Mason Howell, an 18-year-old high school senior, became the second 63 seed in U.S. Amateur history to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy. A week earlier, Ella Scaysbrook advanced all the way to the semifinals. Zilin (Grace) Xu only survived one round at the U.S. Girls’ Junior.

“My caddie (Eddie Lakey) was asking me about if seeding mattered really,” said Davis. “As long as you make it into match play, anything can happen. I knew I was playing good. The first two days, I made a couple of really bad swings that cost me. I made four doubles (bogeys). I was playing good, just making some big scores.”

Top-seeded Cody Massa, the other co-medalist who posted 5-under 137 in stroke play, survived his opening-round match against Troy Vannucci, 2 and 1. Vannucci, like Davis, advanced from Monday morning’s 10-for-3 playoff for the final match-play spots. Massa’s younger brother, Cody, the runner-up a year ago, also registered a 3-and-2 win over 2024 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Louis Brown.

Defending champion Evan Beck, of Virginia Beach, Va., and three-time champion Stewart Hagestad, of Newport Beach, fresh off the USA’s 17-9 Walker Cup victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Cypress Point Club, also advanced. Beck, looking to become just the third repeat U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, defeated Dennis Bull, 3 and 1, while Hagestad eliminated 2018 champion Kevin O’Connell, 6 and 5, despite not making a single birdie. A title would match his 2025 Walker Cup captain Nathan Smith’s record of four.

Davis, who played at NCAA golf powerhouse Oklahoma State with USGA champions Wyndham Clark, Kevin Tway and Peter Uihlein as well as Walker Cupper Morgan Hoffmann, tried professional golf for five years, rising as high as the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) before retiring in 2019. He now works for an Oklahoma City-based aviation company that provides titles to owners of private aircrafts.

Since regaining his amateur status in 2022, Davis has managed to qualify for the last three U.S. Mid-Amateurs; he also competed in the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club, in Brookline, Mass., as a collegian.

Against Dewey, a 33-year-old from Jupiter, Fla., competing in his first USGA championship, Davis went 2 down after five holes before registering winning pars on Nos. 6, 8, 9 and 10 to take control of the match. Dewey, who works in outside services at Abacoa Golf Club, a daily-fee course he regularly plays, never matched the performance from the weekend when he registered a hole-in-one and eagle-3 at stroke-play co-host Troon North, which he followed up with by recording an even-par 71 at Troon C.C. on Sunday.

Dewey became the first medalist or co-medalist to lose in the Round of 64 since Yaroslav Merkulov – who advanced to the Round of 32 on Monday with a 6-and-4 victory – in 2021 at Sankaty Head Golf Club.

Davis’ lone birdie in the match was a conceded 3 at the par-4 12th hole.

“I didn’t putt as good today as I have been,” said Davis, “but I hit a lot of shots to 10 or 20 feet. I just couldn’t get them to fall.

“Out here, if you miss the fairway it’s pretty much OB (out of bounds). If you can hit fairways, you can really put some pressure on [your opponent].”

Both Massa brothers were also firmly in control of their matches. Bobby, who is staying at his older brother’s residence in nearby Cave Creek, frequently outdrove his much-older opponent – Brown is 25 years his senior – and when he hit driver (twice), the ball was going as much as 75 to 100 yards past his opponent.

That distance, combined with precision, led to eight birdies.

But Bobby, who brought his family to Arizona (wife Kalloway, 2½-year-old daughter Palmer and 9-month-old son Miller), isn’t relying on what happened a year ago, which also included a quarterfinal run in the U.S. Amateur. He just doesn’t want to face Cody. That can’t happen unless both reach the semifinals, and there’s plenty of golf ahead of both brothers.

“It’s been a really good week so far,” said Bobby. “It is a little bit chaotic [with the entire family here], but at the same, I’m glad they’re here. old and a 2-and-a-half-year-old. I’m chasing them around when I’m not out here [at the course], so I’m tired to say the least.”

Cody Massa, 39, wasted little time getting ahead of Vannucci, hitting a wedge to 15 feet at the first hole to set up what became a stretch of four consecutive birdies. He won Nos. 1 and 2, tying the next two holes. He went 4 up after seven, and although Vannucci claimed Holes 14 and 15 to trim the margin in half, Cody tied the next two, including a birdie at the par-5 17th.

“I was thinking that yesterday,” said Massa on the added anxiety of being a medalist. “I wasn’t sure I wanted that because it feels like added pressure. I was talking to a friend of mine last night and he said, ‘It’s not added pressure, they have to come get you. Think of it that way.’ When I finished yesterday, I didn’t think there was any way that I would be medalist at 5 [under]. I was shocked but it was super cool, I’ve never had anything like that.”

Two other Arizonans also advanced on Monday.

No. 3 seed Drew Kittleson, 36, of Scottsdale, a semifinalist a year ago as well as a three-time USGA runner-up, eliminated playoff survivor Matt Cohn, 5 and 3. The long-hitting Kittleson, a former standout at Florida State, got off to a shaky start with two bogeys, finishing with four overall, but never trailed. Kittleson, who helps operate the family’s successful kitchen and bath remodeling business, closed out the match with a 2 on the 123-yard 15th hole.

Chris Kamin, 51, of Phoenix, birdied the 18th hole to edge Gregor Orlando, 1 up, setting up an all-Arizona match on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. off the 10th tee with Kittleson.

An unusual circumstance ended the extra-hole match between No. 4 seed Ryan O’Rear, of Georgetown, Texas, and Paul Mitzel, of Seattle, Wash. Before the two opponents completed Hole No. 20, Mitzel’s caddie mistakenly accepted a ride in a golf cart en route to the teeing area of the par-4 second, a violation of Model Local Rule G-6, which resulted in a loss-of-hole penalty.

What’s Next

Match play continues on Tuesday morning with the Round of 32, which will be played off split tees due to available daylight, followed in the afternoon by the Round of 16 off No.1. In the morning, matches in the upper half of the bracket will begin on No. 1 at 6:50 a.m. MST and continue in 10-minute intervals. Matches in the lower half of the bracket will start off the 10th tee at 6:50 a.m. and continue in 10-minute intervals. The first Round-of-16 match is scheduled for noon and will also continue in 10-minute intervals. Admission is free, and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• The 10-man playoff for the final three match-play spots lasted two holes and took 55 minutes to complete. Ian Davis, Matt Cohn and Troy Vannucci earned the three spots, with Cohn making a birdie on the second playoff hole, the par-5 11th at Troon C.C., and the other two securing pars.  Kenny Cook, the 2011 runner-up, and Scottsdale, Ariz., resident Cory Bacon were among the seven competitors who were eliminated.
  
  
• The match-play cut of 146 (4 over) tied for the fifth lowest in championship history. The record is 142, established at Sankaty Head Golf Club in 2021 and Kinloch Golf Club a year ago.
  
  
• Of the 39 competitors who were fully exempt for the championship, just 14 advanced to match play.
  
  
• Only four international competitors were among the final 64: Daniel Faccini (Colombia), Harrison Arnold (England), Aidan Gavey (Canada) and Mateo Pulcini (Argentina), who at 25 years, 14 days, is the youngest among the qualifiers. He was the second-youngest player in the championship. Faccini was the lone player to advance, defeating Nicholas Dentino, 2 and 1. Lukas Michel (Australia, 2019) and Matthew McClean (Northern Ireland, 2022) are the only two international champions in U.S. Mid-Amateur history.
  
  
• In a battle of past Crump Cup champions, Stephen Behr Jr., a semifinalist last year at Kinloch G.C., defeated Andrew Price, 4 and 2. The Crump Cup is played annually at Pine Valley.
  
  
• One of the wilder Round-of-64 matches saw 2024 U.S. Open qualifier and Colorado Springs high school science teacher Colin Prater watch a 4-up lead completely evaporate before pulling out a 3-and-1 victory over Jordan Utley. The two tied just four holes in the 17-hole affair.
  
  
• Besides the Ryan O’Rear 20-hole victory, one other match went extra holes with Denver Haddix defeating Harrison Arnold on the 19th hole.
  
  
• Every player in the field has the talent to hit exquisite golf shots. But how many can knock down a 3-pointer with 15,000 screaming fans? Brandon Holtz, a Bloomington, Ill., native, played four seasons (2005-09) at Division I Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference, primarily as a back-up guard on teams that twice were invited to the National Invitation Tournament (2008 and 2009). A 6-foot-2 shooting guard, Holtz averaged around 5 points per game. His specialties were defense and making 3s. He pursued professional golf after graduating in 2009, and after several years of chasing that dream, he put his PGA Tour dreams aside in 2015 and regained his amateur status a year ago. The Mid-Amateur is Holtz’s first USGA championship, and he’s made the most of his inaugural appearance, defeating 2025 U.S. Open qualifier and dentist Matt Vogt, 5 and 4, on Monday.  

Quotable

“It’s great, we’ve got to make it to the semifinals so we can tussle. That’s the goal.” – Cody Massa when asked about his brother Bobby’s victory on Monday

“It’s very different for sure. Been trying to figure out distances, it seems like later in the day the ball just goes forever. So, that’s an adjustment. And then the heat, you just have to pound water. Not sweating [because there’s not much humidity]. It’s very weird, but I think we’re getting adjusted.” – defending champion Evan Beck  

“It was a little sloppy. I think there is a couple things to work on. I think neither one of us had our best stuff, but I grinded out a couple [of] pars and luckily it was good enough.” – Stewart Hagestad

“I don’t love desert golf. I just don’t know really how far [the ball] goes. We’re kind of learning as the week goes [on]. My brother [Cody] definitely likes it. He has a huge advantage of just playing out here all the time and knowing how far the ball goes.” – Bobby Massa  

“My stepmom, I didn’t know she was here. My wife came for the first time this week for like eight holes because she had to go pick up my kid from school. Just a couple pals and random people from Desert Highlands and Whisper Rock, and some staff at Whisper Rock. I feel grateful to be supported. It felt good…Probably like 15 people.” – Drew Kittleson on his gallery

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