Then-fire Matt Parziale (pictured) won the US Mid-morning and punched his ticket to the 2018 Masters.
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On a mid-September day at the world’s greatest golf course, Andrew Price finished off his opponent on the 17th green – and virtually no one was there to see him.
With his 2-and-1 victory, Price became the champion of the 99th Crump Cup, an event that represents, in some ways, the pinnacle of country club golf, held at the lauded and exclusive Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon. , NJ Because it’s the club’s best players competing at the best club, Crump is often considered the crown jewel of golf’s oldest competitive tournament: the mysterious and prestigious Noon Circuit.
What does one do in the middle of the morning? In 1981, the USGA established the US Mid-Am—restricted to handicappers at least 25 years old—as one of its national championships. Their rationale was very simple: Competitive junior or college players whose days revolved around full-time golf practice were beginning to dominate the competitions reserved for amateurs. The creation of the Mid-Am effectively codified the importance of a prestigious competition for a special subset of golfers: someone whose school-age days are behind them but is not pursuing a professional career. When you take away the top college kids and all the pros, who’s left? The best golfers who aren’t doing it full time.
In many ways, the existence of the Mid-Am refers to the most famous amateur golfer and the golf ethic he represented. Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam of golf but never turned pro, preferring the stability of his job as a lawyer in Atlanta, which allowed him a predictable schedule and plenty of time with his family. And, as the son of a wealthy family, Jones was also exempt from the financial challenges of others more committed to the sport. Unlike those who traveled to compete in exhibitions for money, Jones was a gentleman golfer.
You’ve probably heard about the money in professional golf in the century since: It’s grown. More. The stigma surrounding professional gamers as anything less than gentlemen is long gone. But competitive amateurs remain; there are more than ever. You know them. You play with them. You can be one of them. In a nod to their importance, the winner of the US Mid-Am receives an invitation each year to the biggest club tournament in the world, the one Jones helped found: the Masters at Augusta National.
If the Crump Cup is the midday equivalent of the Masters — the prestigious course, the exclusive host, the secrecy — then the US Mid-Am is the US Open. Conducted by the USGA, it is the national championship for those 25 and older; unlike the invitation-only Crump Cup, it is open to anyone with a handicap of 2.4 or better.
But these two tournaments are only the tip of the iceberg. Or maybe ice CUBIC; this tour group has earned its name as the “cocktail circuit” for a reason.
A high-profile afternoon can begin his year at the Coleman, the shorthand version of the George L. Coleman Invitational, held within the well-guarded gates of Florida’s exclusive Seminole Golf Club. In 2024, Evan Beck, who would later win the US Mid-Am, finished three shots ahead of Northern Ireland’s Matthew McClean, who is ranked best in the world at mid-morning. Scott Harvey, a past champion not only at Coleman, but also at Mid-Am, finished third. Bobby Wyatt, an Alabama graduate who played several years on the PGA Tour, finished fourth. You get the idea: there’s a lot of talent in this stuff.
A talented middle may actually play an entirely tournament-based schedule at prestigious clubs in tournaments that include a man’s middle initial: not just George L. Coleman, but the George C. Thomas Invitational at LA Country Club, Walter J .Travis Invitational at Garden City Golf Club just outside New York City, the John T. Lupton Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn., the John G. Anderson Memorial at Winged Foot.
In fact, the midday circuit likely visits more highly rated courses than the PGA Tour itself; these clubs appreciate the understated nature of the midday scene rather than the full take that comes with hosting a professional event – ​​including the logistics that come with (gasp) large groups of fans. Even Crump, who used to allow fans once a year for his final round, has suspended that policy in recent years. Profit maximization has never been the focus here.
There are other all-ages amateur events also featuring at noon: the US Am, which visits a rotating group of prestigious venues, the North and South Am, held at Pinehurst, the USGA Four-Ball, which visits the Philly Cricket Club , Kiawah Island and Chambers Bay in recent years, the Azalea Invitational at the Country Club of Charleston and more. The Walker Cup is in a particularly absurd direction of elite golf, ringing from Royal Liverpool at Seminole at the Old Course to next year’s Cypress Point. That fixture includes at least one afternoon on each side, making it another event that combines the best matches of all ages.
But the existence of special mid-morning events only separates those 25 and over from competitive young players in the same way that your club might bar college players from its club championships, limiting competition and celebration. cocktail for men of a certain age.
So who are these guys? Depending on the quality, some have names you may recognize. Remember Trip Kuehne? In 1994, the first of three years he was an All-American at Oklahoma State, Kuehne blew a six-shot lead over Tiger Woods in the finals of the US Amateur. Forests staged a frantic comeback and dispatched it, adding to his small legend, but Kuehne’s runner-up status still earned him a spot in the Masters, and he qualified for the 1996 US Open through qualifying as well. But Kuehne chose not to turn professional, entering the world of finance. It’s hard to argue with his success in that field, as he eventually founded a hedge fund, Double Eagle Capital, in 2005. But he didn’t leave golf behind: In 2007 he won the Mid-Am at Bandon Dunes, taking established as one of the best non-professionals in the world – and earns a return trip to the Masters.
“I like to start at Coleman in April and finish with the Mid-Amateur (USA) in October,” he said of the decade-old. interview around noon. Kuehne is eligible for the senior competition now – he played in the US Senior Open this summer – but the feeling remains: It’s not a bad way to spend the summer.
The highest profile midmorning of this generation is likely Stewart Hagestad; The 33-year-old California native played college golf at USC and first made waves when he won the 2016 Mid-Am and made the cut at the 2017 Masters, where he finished as the Low Am, but made it clear he has no intention of turning pro. He won the Mid-Am again in 2021 and again in 2023, putting him on a short list of all-time champions. Hagestad has also represented the United States in four straight Walker Cup teams, all winners. When is he not on the golf course? He works for a bank.
Playing a mid-morning circuit requires some financial stability and professional flexibility – mid-week tours, extended stays in expensive venues – but not every successful mid-morning comes from the same background. Areas include weak stories of double-duty heroes such as Partial Mattthe then firefighter who won the Mid-Am 2017. His victory showed the beauty of these mid-day races: a chance for glory for the working man.
And there are new faces and new perspectives entering the midday mix. Hagestad might not even be the most famous golfer of the day — depending on how you define it, that title might belong to YouTuber Grant Horvat, who’s part of a wave of talented golfers who avoid contention of full-time stroke competition for a relatively balanced lifestyle of content, fun and competition. You can also tell Tony Romoretired NFL quarterback as avatar for Hungry Noon. Some former pros have reclaimed their status as well—a constant point of tension in Noon circles—but one thing remains true: Every golfer, of every age, of every background, regardless of their success in other arenas, is obsessed with better. US Mid-Am entries have demonstrated the golf boom of the Covid era: A new record of 5,708 in 2022 was surpassed by a new record of 6,060 in 2023, a number that was effectively matched in 2024. Mid-Am Golf? It’s cooler than ever.
Somewhere in the middle of this old-school-meets-new-school collision is Cup of Bridgesa three-year competition run by 8AM Golf, the parent company of GOLF, which is seeking to become the world’s premier mid-morning match competition. The Bridges Cup features a Ryder-Cup-style matchup between Team USA and Team International, each comprised of elite teams hand-picked by the tournament committee.
As is the case with these elite fields, competitors have played in majors and won prestigious amateur events; their reward is a trip to an international destination for an immersive team experience. After last year’s event took place in the sprawling golf oasis of Les Bordes in France, this year it returns to Haesley Nine Bridges in South Korea. The event comes at the end of the American Mid-Am and Crump. It comes a few months before Azalea and Coleman begin the 2025 golf year.
A pretty good way to end your golf season. If you can shake it.
