Bobby Massa has won a few tournaments, but he had never bested a field in the stroke-play portion of a USGA competition.
That drought ended on Sunday at the Sand Valley Resort when he backed up his first-round, 7-under 64 on The Lido with a 2-under 69 at Sand Valley, the stroke-play co-host venue, to earn medalist honors in the 45th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship with a 36-hole total of 133.
The athletic trainer, who works out of the SandersFit Performance Center in downtown Dallas, finished three strokes ahead of former University of Oregon standout Zach Foushee, of Lake Oswego, who carded a second-round 67 on The Lido.
Finishing four strokes back were Matthew Paradis, of Naples, Fla., Andrew Bailey, of Cleveland, Ohio, and left-hander Phillip Mollica, of Charleston, S.C. Bailey and Mollica posted 67 and 71, respectively, at The Lido, while Paradis, who caddies at Calusa Pines in Naples, registered the only bogey-free round at Sand Valley with a 3-under 68.
Louisianan Grady Brame Jr., who claimed this year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball in Arizona with former Southeastern Louisiana University teammate Lawrence Allan, finished with a pair of birdies at stroke-play co-host Sand Valley, for a second consecutive 69 and a 36-hole total of 138.
The group at 3-under 139 includes former LSU standout Zach Wright, of Prosper Texas, 2025 U.S. Open qualifier/practicing dentist Matt Vogt, of Indianapolis, Ind., Canadian Wyatt Brook, Texan Mikel Martinson and Colorado native Ryan Schmitz.
The cut for match play came at 3-over 145 with a 13-man playoff scheduled for Monday morning to determine the last four spots in the draw.
But it was Massa, the 2024 runner-up and 2023 quarterfinalist, who stole the show this weekend in central Wisconsin, missing the 36-hole championship record by two strokes. Yaroslav Merkulov shot 131 five years ago at Sankaty Head and co-host Miacomet Golf Course on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.
Thanks to calm conditions and temperatures that rose from the high 40s to the mid-60s, the big-hitting Massa, a reinstated amateur who found little success on the mini-tours, found every fairway and didn’t have more than a pitching wedge in for his approach shots into par-4 holes. He nearly drove the 361-yard first hole – his 10th of the day – but a poorly executed putt from a sand-filled divot led to what he called a “good par.”
He also missed a 3-foot birdie putt on the par-5 seventh hole. The only mistake came when he found a greenside bunker on the par-3 14th and wound up making a double-bogey 5 after blading his second. He reached the par-5 fourth hole with his mini-driver and two-putted for birdie. He also made 3s on 11, 13 and 15.
“I drove it really well today,” said Massa, who also made the quarterfinals of the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn. “Struggled a little bit to read some of the greens. I was hitting it close with my wedges for a while, and then kind of had a mishap on 14. But other than that, it was a good day.”
Foushee, 32, a real estate agent, was plodding along at even par through his first nine holes when the putter suddenly heated up with three consecutive birdies from No. 10 and then he added a fourth at the par-5 17th to close with back-nine 31.
“Caught a little turkey on the back,” said Foushee, a quarterfinalist with partner Robbie Ziegler in last year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Plainfield C.C. “Yeah, I just hit them closer. They just started going in.”
Paradis, arguably, played the most consistent golf of anyone in the field, making just one bogey over his 36 holes. That came on his final hole at The Lido on Saturday morning. The native of New Hampshire was planning on becoming a firefighter when the Southern New Hampshire men’s golf coach coaxed him into joining the program. From 2016-19, Paradis registered 11 wins for the NCAA Division II school and has been inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
While at Southern New Hampshire, he qualified for the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links but missed the cut. Last year, he advanced to match play of the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Troon Country Club, in Scottsdale, Ariz., only to suffer a heartbreaking, 1-down defeat to 2015 runner-up Marc Dull when the Floridian holed out from 120 yards on the 18th hole after Paradis had hit his approach to 4 feet.
He’ll enter match play on Monday with far more experience in his arsenal as well as confidence, especially on the greens.
“I think I'm going to kind of stick with the same game plan,” said Paradis, who also spends five months of the year working at a Naples-based club repair shop. “I think the fat of these greens is really key. And if you can make pars out here, I think you can win a lot of holes. But it'll be nice to be able to see other guys if they're close. You can play it a little more aggressive. So we'll switch it up with what we see.”
In 2025, Bailey advanced to the Round of 32 of both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur. He’s also made back-to-back quarterfinal showings (2025-26) in the prestigious Crump Cup held annually at Pine Valley. Judging by his weekend play here in Wisconsin, Bailey seems poised to make another run at a USGA title.
His Sunday round at The Lido was buoyed by an eagle-3 at the par-5 seventh and then three more birdies over his final nine holes.
“The key is just picking your lines off the tee and trying to play to where it's a bit wider,” said Bailey, “and just having a lot of trust on a lot of the blind tee shots. I didn't putt it all that great, but I had good speed. I wasn't trying to play too aggressive, just let them fall when they can.”
Mollica enjoyed a successful junior and amateur career before trying professional golf for seven years. He even caddied for PGA Tour player Patton Kazzire. But not producing the expected results on various circuits and wanting to settle down, he got into the insurance business for a Baltimore-based company and joined the Country Club of Charleston, a classic Seth Raynor design that hosted the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open and will host this event in two years. Now enjoying the game a lot more when it’s not his vocation, the 2009 U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist at Southern Hills C.C. qualified for his second U.S. Mid-Amateur – he competed in 2024 – and will give himself a chance to hoist the Robert T. Jones Memorial Trophy by advancing to match play.
He posted four birdies against four bogeys on The Lido after carding a 66 on Saturday at Sand Valley.
Brame Jr. had one of the wildest rounds of the day. Starting on the 10 th hole of Sand Valley, he played his first 11 holes in 5 under, then played his next five holes in 5 over par before closing with consecutive birdies sign for a 69. He has the chance to be the first player to win the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Mid-Amateur in the same year.
Wright, like Mollica, had a highly successful junior/amateur career, tried professional golf for six years and decided to hang it up and get into the banking industry in the Dallas area. His golf path comes with a twist as his wife, Lindsey Weaver-Wright, also played professionally. But they found themselves away too much from each other and decided to settle into a family life that includes a 2½-year-old child. She also went to work at another bank in the Dallas area.
His two rounds this weekend couldn’t have been more different. He opened with a bogey at The Lido on Saturday and played 5-under golf from there. On Sunday, he started with an eagle-3 on the par-5 10th of Sand Valley and then played scrappy golf from there with six bogeys and three birdies for a 1-over 72.
“At the end of the day, all I had to do was just get to the finish line,” said Wright, who made 69 Korn Ferry Tour starts without much success. “I'm just having fun out here. I don't really have expectations. Just go ahead and play golf.”
What’s Next
The Round of 64 will take place on Monday at The Lido with the first match scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m. CDT. Monday’s 13-for-4 playoff to determine the final spots in the match-play draw will commence at 7:20 a.m. off No. 10 of The Lido and continue in order until the spots are filled.
Notable
The hole locations and tee markers did not change for Round 2 since two courses are in use for stroke play.
Sand Valley (75.29), the co-host venue, actually played a stroke higher than The Lido (74.38).
Bryce Newton, of Edmond, Okla., had quite the finish at Sand Valley on Saturday, registering a hole-in-one with a pitching wedge on the 133-yard eighth hole and then making a double-bogey 6 on No. 9, which dropped him back to 3 over and into the 13-for-4 playoff. It was the 31st known ace in championship history and Newton’s third overall, but “my most memorable one.”
Both Sand Valley Resort caddies Adam Miller, of Nekoosa, Wis., and former UCLA/Chico State golfer Matt Hutchins, of Naples, Fla., advanced to match play with scores of even-par 142 and 1-under 141, respectively. Miller holed a 20-footer on his final hole, the par-4 ninth at Sand Valley. They each are employing local caddies, Sam Cianciola for Miller and Arshan Mahjoubi for Hutchins.
Miller will leave Wisconsin in the next month to head to Lakeland, Fla., where he caddies at Streamsong Resort, site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, during the winter.Streamsong caddie Marc Dull was the runner-up in the 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur and famously won a U.S. Amateur Four-Ball match in 2025 playing as a solo side.
Defending champion Brandon Holtz posted a 3-under 68 at The Lido to make the cut at 2-under 140. Jeg Coughlin III, who lost to Holtz in the 36-hole final, birdied his final hole to avoid the playoff and get into the draw.
Three-time champion Stewart Hagestad (2-under 140), fresh off winning the Crump Cup at Pine Valley and representing the USA in his sixth Walker Cup Match.
For the second consecutive championship Michael McCoy, at 63 the oldest competitor in the field, will be involved in a playoff. The 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur and 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, failed to advance at last month’s Senior Am playoff at Baltimore Country Club in his title defense.
Rhadames Pena, the winner of nine World Amateur Golf Ranking events over the past two years in his native Dominican Republic, became the first player from his country to qualify for match play in this championship.
Minnesotan Ben Greve, who is the husband of two-time gold medal Olympian and former WNBA star Lindsey Whalen, advanced after shooting 1-under 140. Both are University of Minnesota alums, where Whalen starred and later coached the Lady Gophers.
Notable competitors who failed to qualify were 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Lukas Michel, 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Matthew McClean, 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Kevin O’Connell, 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Sammy Schmitz, 2026 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Mike Sposa, two-time USGA champion and 2026 U.S. Senior Amateur runner-up Todd White, 2026 U.S. Senior Open low amateur Haymes Snedeker, Anthony Brodeur, the son of NHL Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champion Sam Engel, Sam Elkington, the son of major champion Steve Elkington, and Andrew Paysse, the brother-in-law to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Quotable
“It's not much different. It's one hole at a time, one [opponent] at a time. It's trying to survive and advance. It's a marathon for sure. Just try to get some rest tonight, and hopefully it's a long week.” – Bobby Massa on his mindset for match play
“You know what? Not that I saw. This place [The Lido] is one of a kind. Sand Valley kind of reminds me a little bit of [Bandon] Trails. This Lido is one of a kind. I’ve never seen anything like it. It's true.” – Zach Foushee when asked if Sand Valley reminded him a bit of the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in his home state of Oregon
“It was good to be in a somewhat comfortable position coming into the day where I could play it a little more conservative. There were a lot of what I call sucker pins out here that you can't really go at. So, I was playing to the middle of the greens and made a couple of good par saves.” – Matthew Paradis
“I think it all depends on where the hole locations are. The greens are enormous…Some of the pins will be gettable. Some of them are going to be defensive. So, just try to keep playing exactly how I did today and see how it goes.” – Andrew Bailey on his mindset for match play on The Lido
“We've gone back and forth. She used to caddie when I did [PGA Tour] Q-School and different tournaments. It's more just hanging out, relaxing. We haven't taken a vacation this year, so it's more or less like this happens to be your vacation, even though she's the caddie, and so it's not a great vacation, but we're having fun and just kind of hanging out.” – Zach Wright on having wife, Lindsey, a former LPGA Tour player serving as his caddie
“Maybe our caddie master will just cancel work for all the [other resort] courses. He was joking about how, if Matt and I end up in a match play together, that he would just cancel work for all the other courses and say, ‘All right, go see it.’” – Sand Valley caddie Adam Miller after making it to match play
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