Tyler Watts puts on a record-setting performance at the Northeast Amateur.
Eakin Howard, USGA
Before he became the youngest Sunnehanna Amateur champion last year at just 17 years old, Tyler Watts was ranked 150th in the WAGR and largely unknown outside of AJGA competition. That’s long since changed as the now 18-year-old won the 2025 Elite Amateur Cup (based on points accumulation across the seven events in the Elite Amateur Series) and currently sits inside the top 10 of the WAGR.
And last week, Watts won another Elite Amateur Series event: the 64th Northeast Amateur Invitational at Wannamoisett Country Club. Once again, he was the youngest to do it.
“It feels unbelievable,” Watts said. “It was a really long and stressful week and I showed a lot of resilience in myself today and I’m very proud of that.”
Watts shot 66-60-69-65 (-16), five shots clear of the runner-up Jay Leng Jr. His second round of 9-under 60 broke the competitive course and tournament records for low round. His overall 260 is the second-lowest score in Northeast Amateur history behind only Dylan Menante’s 257 in 2022.
The Huntsville, Alabama, native triumphed over a strong field that included Miles Russell (fifth in the WAGR), Josiah Gilbert (sixth), Kihei Akina (11th) and Jacob Modleski (12th). Watts’ game is in a great spot as he seeks to make this year’s Walker Cup team at Lahinch and prepares to join the University of Tennessee for the 2026-27 season.
“I’ve already proved to myself that I can compete at the highest level of amateur golf,” Watts said. “I think to be able to go into college golf with that confidence is really big. I want to play well for my team.”
Watts wasn’t the only one to put his name in the record books last week. In the first round, Carson Bertagnole shot an 8-under 61, which tied the then-tournament record with Luke Guthrie (2011), Karl Vilips (2019) and Preston Stout (2025).
But Watts, five strokes back after the first round, made sure Stout remained the only one on the list to win. On Thursday, Watts carded one bogey, eight birdies and an eagle where his long putt on No. 17 stopped on the edge of the hole for a few seconds before it finally dropped in. He took a four-stroke lead at 12-under.
“It means a lot (to break the record),” Watts said. “It was pretty gettable out there but I don’t want to take anything away from myself. I definitely was in control all day.”
Watts’ third round was steady. After a birdie on the first hole he made 16 consecutive pars before a bogey on 18 made him even-par on the day and 12-under for the tournament, four strokes clear of final-round playing partner Leng Jr.
And he didn’t take his foot off the gas on Saturday. Watts started birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie to expand his lead to six shots and never looked back. He played his remaining 14 holes in 2-under to don the Northeast Amateur blazer, get his name engraved on the trophy and enshrine his photograph on Wannamoisett Country Club’s Wall of Champions along with past champs such as Collin Morikawa and Luke Donald.
“The Northeast Am is one of the biggest events we have in amateur golf,” Watts said. “To be able to add your name to the list of champions, that’s really a big honor.”
Thirteen mid-amateurs played in the Northeast Amateur and the Joseph J. Sprague Award for low mid-am went to Hayes Brown, who finished T-14 at 4-under.
RESULTS
Everett Munez
The leaderboard says Illinois mid-amateur Andrew Price won the George C. Thomas Invitational over the weekend, but the field will tell you that another winner was the North Course at Los Angeles CC.
Price authored just one of three under-par rounds in Saturday’s final round, signing for 1-under 69 and a 54-hole total of 3-over 214. That score was good enough to clip Christian Cavaliere by a single shot.
In challenging fast and firm conditions, Price began the final round as a co-leader with Jack Barber at 4-over par. His birdie on the first hole was one of four he would record in the first seven holes. A double bogey on nine slowed his progress, and two back nine bogeys were offset by two birdies.
Cavaliere began the day one shot back of the leaders, and two quick birdies on one and three kept him in the mix. However, he made a pair of back-nine bogeys that ended up costing him. He birdied 18 to pull one behind Price, but the veteran mid-amateur slammed home a 6-foot par putt to claim the title.
Barber eagled the first hole but fell off the pace with four front-nine bogies. He shot a final-round 75 to finish T5.
Bryan Hoops shot 9-over 220 to capture the senior flight by a shot over Mike McCoy, Mike Rowley, and Jerry Gunthorpe.
Of particular note in the senior flight was the return to competitive golf by veteran Gene Elliott. It didn’t matter that he shot 19-over 230; the fact that he was playing at all was close to a miracle. Elliott was 14 weeks removed from open heart surgery, which included five days in intensive care. Elliott proudly walked all 54 holes for the tournament and now heads to the Senior Amateur Championship at Frilford Heath in England next month.
Jim Nugent
