MANAKIN-SABOT, VIRGINIA | Evan Beck has been on the wrong end twice of one-sided 36-hole finals in USGA championships. This time he was on the delivering end of a 9-and-8 romp to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in his home state.
Beck, a 34-year-old portfolio manager from Virginia Beach, waltzed to the win on Thursday at Kinloch Golf Club. He made quick work – not a phrase often associated with Beck’s pace – finishing off Bobby Massa, 36, a big-hitting personal trainer from Dallas, Texas.
“It’s pretty sweet. I always dreamt of winning one of these,” Beck said while holding the Robert T. Jones Jr. Trophy. “It’s incredible that it happened so close to home.”
Massa, who’d played some of the best golf at Kinloch all week until the final day, could only tip his cap to the winner.
“He was very solid today. Great player,” Massa said of Beck. “I definitely didn’t put a lot of pressure on him. That maybe made it a little easier for him. I wish I would have given him a better run at it. But it is what it is.”
“I didn’t sleep at all the last couple nights and couldn’t eat breakfast. Just knowing that you have to come out with everything and you can’t just make pars and hope the other guy makes mistakes.”
Evan Beck
It was a new experience for Beck, who lost 10 and 8 to Cameron Peck in the final of the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur at Shoal Creek after getting into the field as an alternate. A year ago, Beck fell 7 down through 21 holes to Stewart Hagestad in the U.S. Mid-Amateur final before clawing his way back to a 3-and-2 loss.
Those past experiences weighed on Beck even as he flipped the script this time.
“Just like the agony of getting smoked by Stewart, and just so nervous,” Beck said of what he called “a pretty brutal” defeat that still resonated. “I mean, I didn’t sleep at all the last couple nights and couldn’t eat breakfast. Just knowing that you have to come out with everything and you can’t just make pars and hope the other guy makes mistakes.”
Said Mike Moyers, Beck’s close friend and caddie: “That’s kind of why he never let up intensity the whole time he was out there. On 9 back there [his 27th hole], he said, ‘Man, I wanted to make that birdie to stop the bleeding.’ I’m like, ‘You’re 9-up.’ That’s where his mind was. He felt like he was tied the whole time.”
Reminded of his beating 16 years ago in the U.S. Junior, Beck still bristled.
“That’s a tough memory there,” he said. “I got beat pretty bad that week – 2008, Cameron Peck. He did the same thing. He came out hot, and it took me however many years you just said to learn how to do it the right way. Slow learner, but I got it.”
While both finalists flashed dominance during the week, Beck and Massa each survived extra holes in the Round of 16 on Tuesday just to advance.
Beck – the co-medalist with Argentina’s Segundo Oliva Pinto – needed birdie from a greenside bunker on the par-5 18th just to force extra holes against Michael Buttacavoli, eventually winning on the 21st hole with another par-5 birdie to advance to the quarterfinals. Beck also produced clutch 1-up wins in the Round of 32 (over Jackson Spires) and quarterfinals (against Connor Doyal).
Before the final, Massa trailed only briefly all week, when local Richmond qualifier Jordan Utley birdied the first hole in the Round of 32. Massa was pushed as far as the 18th hole only once, in the Round of 16, when his 3-footer to win the match against Brian Blanchard horseshoed out. Massa recovered to birdie the 20th hole to win.
After blazing out in 29 strokes to seize control of his 4-and-3 semifinal victory over Drew Kittleson, Massa could not conjure up similar results in Thursday’s final against Beck. Massa failed to make a birdie until the 11th hole, and by that point he had already fallen five holes behind. Missed opportunities to win 12 and 13 blunted his chance to turn around the match’s momentum.
“Just couldn’t get it to go. It was just not my day, to say the least,” Massa said. “Yeah, golf is hard.”
Beck then won the 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th holes to build a daunting 9-up lead that Massa could never trim closer than 8 holes after playing the first 18 holes in 5-over 76. He finally succumbed on the 28th hole, as Beck rolled in a 6-footer for par to clinch a 9-and-8 victory.
Beck is the fourth player in U.S. Mid-Amateur history to reach consecutive finals, joining Jim Stuart (1990-91), George Zahringer (2001-02) and Nathan Smith (2009-10). Zahringer is the only other in that foursome to have lost and then returned to win the next year as Beck did. Smith, who won a record four titles, and Stuart each won both of their consecutive finals.
Beck is the first medalist/co-medalist to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur since Scott Harvey in 2014. After playing at Wake Forest, Beck gave the professional ranks a shot before back issues derailed that dream. He had his amateur status reinstated in 2018.
“I’m playing probably the best golf of my life, so maybe if I stuck with it, I could have made some money,” he said of his short professional journey. “Happy with today, with this week, and it’s really special to do it so close to home. Looking forward to what’s next.”
What’s next down the road in 2025 are invitations to play in the Masters and U.S. Open, opportunities that were in Beck’s head after coming so close last year.
“I’ve been thinking about it every day. Try not to get emotional, try to stay in the moment, and hit one shot at a time,” he said. “My caddie, Mikey Moyers, did a really good job of keeping me in it … to try to stay thinking about what we’re doing and not thinking about what comes with this.”
Was this redemption for his previous final failures?
“To get all the way there and come up short is gut-wrenching. To be able to push through and prove that you can do it to yourself, more than anything, it’s pretty awesome,” he said.
RESULTS
Scott Michaux