Bailey Wins U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship

The competitor in the bucket hat completed a bucket-list task on Thursday on The Lido at the Sand Valley Resort.

Andrew Bailey, 34, of Cleveland, Ohio, a national sales manager for a prominent golf apparel company, became the first from his state to claim the U.S. Mid-Amateur title, defeating 43-year-old Nate Smith, a home builder from Tetonia, Idaho, 5 and 4, in the 36-hole final.

With it comes a plethora of perks, including an exemption into the 127th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links, spots in the next two U.S. Amateur Championships, a 10-year U.S. Mid-Amateur exemption and a likely berth into the Masters Tournament next April at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club.

Wearing his Holderness & Bourne attire, the company he has represented since 2018, Bailey and his omnipresent white bucket hat played flawless golf over the final 18 holes – seven birdies and 10 pars – to turn away Smith, who was bidding to become just the third Idahoan to claim a USGA title (Jean Smith, 1995 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur and Jodie Niemann, 1999 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links).

Going into the final, Ohio natives had been 0-4 in finals, dating to the inaugural event in 1981 when Pepper Pike’s Bob Lewis Jr. lost to Jim Holtgrieve at Bellerive Country Club, in St. Louis. Lewis also lost again in 1994. Bill Williamson (Cincinnati) and Jeg Coughlin III (Dublin) came up short in 2013 and 2025, respectively.

“I have no words,” said Bailey, who reached the mountaintop in his 12th USGA championship start “It’s cliché to say it hasn’t sunk in yet, but it hasn’t sunk in yet. I still think I’m trying to prepare for the next shot and there is going to be a match tomorrow that I don’t know about.

“But it’s truly an honor. I mean, to have my name on the Bobby Jones Trophy – he’s my favorite golfer of all-time – I have no words.”

Added Smith: “I feel happy. I’m disappointed I didn’t win, but at the same time, I didn’t do anything to lose. He just played an exceptional round of golf this afternoon. My hat is off to him. I’m super stoked for him. It’s amazing to be able to play that well and win this championship. That’s so difficult. I’m just fortunate to be here, and I had a great time.”

A three-time Horizon League Player of the Year at Cleveland State from 2012-14 – he was the school’s athlete of the year in ’14 and inducted into its hall of fame in 2022 – Bailey briefly tried professional golf, making what he deemed was $8,000 on mini-tours before severely breaking his wrist in 2015, leading to a career change. He spent 2½ years at Cardinal Health before being hired by Holderness & Bourne. He regained his amateur status in 2017 and qualified for the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, where he missed the cut.

Three years later, he advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sankaty Head on Nantucket Island (Mass.), where good friend Mark Costanza was the runner-up to Stewart Hagestad.

It was Costanza who sent him a text prior to the final that said he’d lose if he played tight. John Ebert, another friend from Canterbury Golf Club, his home club in northeast Ohio, told him the same thing at the lunch break on Thursday.

“Your game looks really good,” Ebert told Bailey, who had a trio of three-putts in the morning 18. “He’s like, ‘Just let the putts fall.’ And so I just focused on feeling the putter head more, not trying to force it as much, and glad it worked out.”

Bailey closed the morning 18 of the championship match with a lot of momentum, converting a 6-foot birdie on the par-5 17th and holing a 4-foot par attempt on the closing hole to go into the lunch break tied. For much of the opening 18, he trailed Smith by as many as 2 down, battling some nerves and the light drizzle that greeted the players when the match began at 7:30 a.m. CDT.

Bailey and Smith traded punches on the front nine and were tied until the latter drained an 8-foot birdie on the 10th hole. Another birdie on No. 12 built his advantage to 2 up. The two traded birdies on 13 and 14, and Smith held that 2-up lead until the final two holes.

Bailey played the first 18 holes in the equivalent of 1-under 70, while Smith, who had not seen the 18th hole in any of his previous five matches, shot even-par 71.

“It was huge,” said Bailey of his late turnaround. “I felt like I should have been 3 down at the turn and it was my goal to get it to even [by the lunch break]. It’s like, okay, let’s just control that, delete [the first] 18 from our minds, and go play a new one, which is what I tried to do.”

Everything changed over the next 14 holes. Bailey jumped right out of the gate by making a 5-foot birdie after Smith converted his 10-footer for par. Then on the 20th hole, Bailey made a remarkable 25-footer for par before Smith registered his lone birdie of the afternoon round from 15 feet.

Bailey claimed three consecutive holes from No. 23, all with birdies, one of them conceded on the par-4 24th when Smith sculled a greenside bunker shot and then nearly whiffed his fourth before giving Bailey his 20-footer.

Smith three-putted the par-5 25th for par and missed a 6-foot birdie that would have won the 27th.

Birdies on Nos. 28 and 30, the latter from 8 feet, put the match virtually out of reach.

Smith had two good chances to cut into the margin on 31 and 32, but his putter would not cooperate.

That had not been the case in his first five matches, including a 5-and-4 victory over three-time champion Hagestad in the Round of 32. Smith is relatively new to high-level mid-amateur golf after taking an eight-year hiatus from the game following a professional career that took him to the highest levels of the game. He regained his amateur status in 2022 and has now qualified for three U.S. Mid-Amateurs.

Bailey just never opened any cracks for his opponent on this overcast day in central Wisconsin. With just 4 feet between him and victory on the par-3 32nd green, Bailey calmly stroked the ball into the hole and gave his biggest fist pump of the week. Hugs with his Sand Valley caddie Pete Olig and members of his family ensued before he finally received the trophy and gold medal.

Now he’ll have to figure out his work schedule around all of his upcoming events next spring and summer.

“I’ve got to talk to the bosses about PTO,” said Bailey. “But I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”

He was scheduled to be at Pebble Beach to support Holderness & Bourne just like this past June at Shinnecock Hills.

But now he’s playing the famed seaside course with the world’s best players.

And you can bet that bucket hat is coming along for the ride.

Photo above: Andrew Bailey holds the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy after winning the championship at the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sand Valley Resort (The Lido) in Nekoosa, Wis. (Logan Whitton/USGA)