The most interesting men’s golf course? Not on the PGA Tour or LIV

Remember when novice golfers were a novice golfers?

It won’t, because with the confirmation of NIL in 2021, it’s a minute. NIL, an acronym for “name, image and likeness,” allows college golfers (and all other college athletes, for that matter) to do what many observers feel is long overdue: monetize their talents through endorsement deals. The same goes for high school golfers, at least in some parts of the country. Take Mia Hammond, a standout high school golfer from Ohio who signed with a management company earlier this year. Because Ohio is not among the 33 states (plus Washington, DC) that allow high school athletes to collect NIL dollars, Hammond was forced to forfeit his high school eligibility.

The upper echelon of the college game is also filled with rookies who are still technically novices. When Nick Dunlap, then a University of Alabama sophomore, won the US Amateur last year, he was covered in Adidas, TaylorMade and True Temper logos. When Rose Zhang won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, she repeated “Callaway” on her hat and “Adidas” on her skirt. Go to any of the other tournaments for novice players of the game – North and South, Sunnehanna, Azalea, et al. – and you’ll meet plenty of college players who have one foot planted in the am game and the other extended toward the riches of the professional ranks.

That’s why I’m a fan of one of this week’s main events: the US Mid-Amateur, the premier tournament for amateurs 25 and older, as the USGA puts it, “the sport is truly an avocation.” Call me old school, but in this age of college stars and auctions and youngsters fearlessly climbing the PGA Tour leaderboards, there’s something refreshing, ironic even, about the Mid-Am, where a teacher might meet a financial advisor, or a retired cop running Silicon Valley. sharpie.

This is not to say that all Mid-Am participants are today’s Bobby Jones, who diligently balance their time between the office and the range. But not enough participants there is that before the event – this year’s program is in Richmond, Va., local courses, Independence and Kinloch – I always look forward to scanning the USGA field classification. The 2024 analysis arrived in my inbox on Wednesday via USGA comms team member Brian DePasquale, and it did not disappoint.

Scroll through the long haul and you’ll learn that the average age in the Mid-Am field is 35.53; the oldest player, Michael McCoy, 61, is preparing to play in his record 25th Mid-Am; and players come to Richmond from far and wide: 41 states and 22 countries are represented. But the most interesting nuggets are at the bottom, in the Player Notes section, which reveals that while Mid-Am doesn’t have a golf course, it can be very interesting.

Take Mark Gardiner, 61, a retired Air Force chief from Washington, Utah. Gardiner, who will be playing in his second Mid-Am, has been a member of both the Air Force and US Armed Forces golf teams. He once played golf with a Ugandan general in Scotland (“He might have shot 120,” Gardiner once said, “but he was a pleasure to play with”), and if all that isn’t good enough, Gardiner is also quite talented. bowler to qualify for a Professional Bowlers Association event.

Speaking of two-sport athletes, Jack Barber will fill you with envy. You’ve probably already figured out that Barber plays golf — he shot a 65 in the Mid-Am’s Indiana qualifier — but the 27-year-old Californian’s tennis game is much better, or at least it was in a previous life. Barber played on Stanford University’s tennis team when it was ranked second in the nation before he was sidelined by wrist surgery and switched to chasing a different type of football.

Perhaps Bobby Massa, playing in his third Mid-Am, could offer advice on how to fix Barber’s condition. Massa, 36, is a Dallas-based trainer who works at a gym owned by former professional basketball player Melvin Sanders. Massa’s specialty: helping golfers improve speed. Another Mid-Am competitor’s livelihood also depends on speed – and not just the type of golf. Jeronimo Esteve, 43, from Puerto Rico and a veteran of 11 USGA championships, is the team’s president and a race car driving instructor.

Let’s see… who else do we have on the tea sheet? The mayor of South Greensburg, Pa. (Kevin Fajt); founder of Tremont Sporting Company, which manufactures custom golf accessories (Christian Cavaliere); South Dakota State University men’s golf coach (Parker Edens); owner of a kitchen and bathroom remodeling company (Drew Kittleson); an optician from Northern Ireland (Matthew McClean); and an oil and gas investment manager who played with Rickie Fowler at Oklahoma State (Trent Leon).

Shall we continue? We will do it!

Also mixed in are a golf course builder (Lukas Michel); certified public accountant with Ph.D (Brett Patterson); a high school history teacher (Todd White) and a high school teacher who might remember the golf sickos at this year’s US Open (Colin Prater); a real estate agent drafted by the San Diego Padres (Charles “Boomer” White); and a registered nurse anesthetist (Trent Peterson).

Alas, no Bobby Jones in the field, but there is something Ben Hogan, as in 43-year-old Ben Hogan of Wellington, Ohio, is a retired police officer with a name that touches golfers’ ears. Hogan, who is retired from the military but still volunteers at the local department, is playing in his second consecutive US Mid-Am; a year ago at Sleepy Hollow, in New York’s Hudson Valley, he shot 77-83 and failed to advance in the playoffs.

“People just think I must be a golfer because of my name,” Hogan said in an interview last year. “I always have to prove my golf.”

Two straight Mid-Am appearances? Consider Hogan’s proven match.

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As editor-in-chief of GOLF.com, Bastable is responsible for the editorial direction and voice of one of the game’s most respected and heavily trafficked news and services outlets. He wears many hats – planning, writing, imagining, developing, dreaming up one day he breaks 80 – and feels privileged to work with an insanely smart and hard-working team of writers, editors and producers. Before taking over GOLF.com, he was the features editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.