RUMFORD, Rhode Island – Plenty of big names have played at the Northeast Amateur Invitational at Wannamoisett Country Club.
Winners have included Ben Crenshaw, John Cook, Hal Sutton, David Duval, Luke Donald, Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa. Scottie Scheffler played in it four times and Tiger Woods and Justin Rose teed off in the event once each, but they didn’t finish on top.
On the other hand, Garrett May won the Northeast Amateur in 2019 and then turned pro out of Baylor University that year. In his career, he’s made only five of 16 cuts on the PGA Tour and pocketed just $14,261.
Ben Tuthill, who has been the tournament chair for 11 years, said Scheffler’s success on the PGA Tour surprised him.
“Not taking anything away from him,” Tuthill said. “He was a great amateur player, but never would you look at him and say, ‘Boy, he is going to be that dominant on Tour one day.’”
On the other hand, Tuthill believes Stewart Jolly, who won as a rising LSU senior in 2014, is selling insurance now.
“We’ve kind of covered it all,” Tuthill said. “You have the best players in the world and then you have guys that have to find a real job a few years later.”
But they can still say they played in the Northeast Amateur or even won it.
The 62nd Northeast Amateur will be held June 19-22 at Wannamoisett, a 1914 Donald Ross design. It is the second of seven events in the Elite Amateur Series. Points leaders can earn exemptions into PGA Tour and USGA events. Nick Dunlap, last year’s Northeast champ, finished second in the series in 2023.
Dunlap won’t be back at Wannamoisett because he’s turned pro. Dunlap won the U.S. Amateur last August and then he captured the American Express, a PGA Tour event, in January on a sponsor exemption. He became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open in 1991. The following week, Dunlap turned pro during his sophomore year at the University of Alabama.
Jackson Koivun and Gordon Sargent head this year’s field of 92 players. Koivun led Auburn to its first NCAA championship and became the only player to win the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top Division 1 player, the Ben Hogan Award as amateur of the year and the Phil Mickelson Award as the top freshman in the same year.
Gordon Sargent, a three-time All-American at Vanderbilt, is also scheduled to play. He became the first player to earn a full PGA Tour card at the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, but he chose to return to college for his senior year.
Todd White, of Spartansburg, S.C., winner of the 1990 Northeast Amateur and the 2023 U.S. Senior Amateur at age 55, is also in the field.
Three Rhode Islanders, Tyler Cooke of Providence, Bobby Leopold of Coventry and Jarry Dessel of Barrington, are scheduled to play. So are five golfers from Massachusetts, Ryan Downes of Longmeadow, James Imai of Brookline, Joseph Lenane of Dedham, Matt Parziale of Brockton and Ricky Stimets of Osterville.
The field features players from 10 countries and five golfers who were named first-team All-America.
Wannamoisett, host of the 1931 PGA Championship, plays to a par of 69. The lightning fast greens and the many bunkers keep the college players from scoring too low on the course which plays 6,901 yards from the tips.
“The challenge with this course, to have a championship like we have, is making it difficult enough because we can’t make it any longer,” Tuthill said. “All these players hit the ball a mile. It’s a pitch and putt. The defense of the course is firm and fast greens and we need wind and rough.”
The 62nd Northeast Amateur Invitational field is loaded with 8 of the top 10 players in world rankings from the 102 contestants. Spectators are welcomed and admission is free.
(PHOTOS: The Back of the Range)
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