Just a few hours after Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang became the first American to win the British Amateur in 18 years, fellow Cowboy Preston Stout battled to win the 63rd Northeast Amateur Invitational, the second event in this year’s Elite Amateur Golf Series. Stout joins a list of Northeast Amateur champions that includes Luke Donald and Collin Morikawa.
“Just really proud of myself,” Stout said. “I think [Friday] was a hard day for everybody. I felt like I kind of lost my swing a little bit yesterday and to be able to come back today and finish strong, it was really nice and really good. There’s a lot of great players to come through here and win this event so to put my name up there with them is awesome.”
Stout shot 69-61-72-65 (-9) to beat 89 of the best amateurs in the game at the par-69 Wannamoisett Country Club in East Providence, Rhode Island. The win earned him a point toward PGA Tour University Accelerated, bringing his total to three of the 20 required for a PGA Tour card. It also secured Stout an exemption into this year’s U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club.
“The U.S. Am is obviously the biggest amateur event of the year, so hopefully keep this going and (I’ll) play well there,” Stout said.
After shooting an even-par 69 in the first round, Stout found himself six strokes behind the leader, junior golf phenom Miles Russell. However, Stout’s second round 61 (-8) with an eagle, seven birdies and one bogey gave him a one-shot lead. The 8-under round matched Luke Guthrie (2011) and Karl Vilips (2019) for lowest round in Northeast Amateur history.
“The U.S. Am is obviously the biggest amateur event of the year, so hopefully keep this going and (I’ll) play well there.”
Preston Stout
But 20 mph winds on Friday meant the third round was anything but smooth sailing. The scoring average jumped five strokes from 70.39 on Thursday to 75.40. For the first time in the Northeast Amateur’s 63-year history, not a single player shot par or better. Only Matthew Troutman and William Sides shot 70 (+1).
Stout shot a 3-over 72 with five bogeys and two birdies to drop to 5-under on the tournament. However, the performance was good enough to hold a one-stroke lead over John Daly II going into the final round.
“It was very windy from when we started to when we finished,” Daly II said. “It never let down. It was brutal.”
In the final round, Stout played good golf while his main competitors Russell and Daly II played over par. He made the turn with a five-stroke lead and won the tournament by eight strokes over the second-place Russell, who finished at 1-under.
Elsewhere in the field, Stewart Hagestad finished T-8 at 3-over to win the Joseph J. Sprague Award for being the low mid-amateur. It’s the three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion’s fourth time winning the award, which he did last in 2023.
Tyler Watts, who had become the youngest Sunnehanna Amateur champion in history the previous week, shot 65-70-76-67 (+2) to finish T-6. Watts’ win at the Sunnehanna Amateur and Stout’s win at the Northeast Amateur make them early favorites to win the men’s Elite Amateur Cup at the end of the season, which would earn them several exemptions.
The Elite Amateur Golf Series will continue this week at Pinehurst with the North & South men’s and women’s amateurs.
RESULTS
Everett Munez