Looking Back on the 2018 U.S. Mid-Am with Brett Boner

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I moved to Charlotte in 2018 and vividly remember watching the 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur on a bar TV in the Epicentre - a sign of the times! 7 years later, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know that tournament’s main character, who happens to be our guest for this week’s 2DP Q&A.

The U.S. Mid-Amateur starts today, so we’re reliving the 2018 championship with runner-up Brett Boner. We also have updates on the dramatic finish at last weekend’s North Carolina Mid-Am, plus more tournament news and notes. Full agenda and long newsletter this week! Let’s dive in.

TWO DOWN PRESS Q&A

Brett Boner on the 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Charlotte Country Club

Brett Boner is a Financial Advisor and mid-amateur golfer currently living in Charlotte. Originally from Alabama, he was a four-year letterman on the Auburn University golf team before spending 9 years chasing a career in professional golf.

In 2018, Brett made a cinderalla run at age 44 to the finals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship, spurred on by the large hometown crowds that came out to support him at Charlotte Country Club. While he ultimately fell one match short of competing in the Masters, his performance will be long remembered by the Charlotte golf community.

I recently chatted with Brett about his fairytale week to see which memories are the most vibrant on the 7-year anniversary of the event. This conversation has been edited for brevity and readability.

2DP: It's been 7 years since your runner-up finish. What was the state of your competitive golf career leading into the championship?

BB: Well, you have to go back 3 or 4 years before that when it was announced that Charlotte Country Club was going to host the Mid-Am and Carolina [Golf Club] was selected to be the stroke play co-host. There was just so much excitement around it.

I quit playing the mini tours in 2005 and didn't play competitive golf for a few years. When I came back to competitive golf around 2009/2010, I was mainly playing events like the City Am and the Carolinas Am. It's funny - the further removed I got from golf full-time, the more relaxed I was and the better I played.

I won the Charlotte City Am in 2011 and I thought, "OK, this could be something," but I knew nothing about the Mid-Am golf world. I didn't even know it was referenced as the "cocktail tour." I had never heard of the prestigious events like the Crump Cup at Pine Valley or the Thomas at LACC.

As I started playing well again in events like the Carolinas Mid-Am, other players would tell me I should play more, but I had really young kids and time was limited.

2DP: When did trying to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Amateur become a goal for you?

BB: My first attempt was in 2013 or 2014, and I came close - I think I missed by 1 shot 3 out of 4 years. I finally got through in 2016 and played up in Pennsylvania at Stonewall. I was T7 after stroke play and made match play for the first time. I realized how big a deal it was - there was something real on the line with invites to the Masters and U.S. Open for the winner. I lost on the last hole in the first match, but I was hungry as hell. I knew I was going to do everything I could to get my game ready for 2018 when it came to Charlotte.

I had tried qualifying at courses with bermuda greens a couple times and missed by 1. When the 2018 qualifying spots came out, I knew I needed to find a course with bent greens - I grew up around bent grass and always putted it better, so I went up to Philadelphia for a qualifier and got through.

2DP: You had quite a year leading up to the Mid-Am. Can you walk us through 2018?

BB: 2018 was probably my best year when you look back on it. I won the National Senior Junior Four-Ball event in January, then finished second at the Birmingham National Invitational, losing in a playoff. In June, Stephen [Woodard] and I won the Anderson Memorial Four-Ball at Winged Food. Then, after qualifying for the Mid-Am, I came back to win the Charlotte City Am.

I was just playing good golf. My confidence was high and golf seemed easy. It was that "look and shoot" kind of feeling.

2DP: How did you feel entering the event? I’m sure it was a unique experience playing a big tournament at home on courses you knew well.

BB: It was definitely a mixture of feeling comfortable and feeling some pressure to perform with the event being in Charlotte. My parents' 50th anniversary was 2 weeks before the Mid-Am, and they took us all on a trip. I didn't touch a club for 8 days, but looking back, I think it was a huge blessing that I didn't go out and grind every day. I was well-rested.

I felt very comfortable knowing the golf courses - knowing what to hit off every tee and what side of the greens to be on. Most people looked at Carolina and thought, "I'm going to eat this place up," but I knew that when the rough is high and the greens are fast, some people just aren’t going to be able to handle it. It's crazy - the scores ended up being higher on average at Carolina than Charlotte Country Club during stroke play.

Knowing the golf courses allowed me to be extremely patient and not try to press the issue. I think some people come into USGA events thinking they have to play perfect golf the first 2 days, so when they make a bogey or 2, they freak out.

2DP: You shot 71-69 to finish T5 after stroke play and earn the 5 seed for match play. What are some moments that stick out from your matches?

BB: There was a pivotal moment in the first match - we were tied coming to number 11, the par 3. I short-sided myself in the right bunker, but I holed out the bunker shot. I remember how pivotal that was, and I'm pretty sure it shook my opponent. Winning that first match was huge.

My third match was against a guy who had his clubs stolen that week. He left them outside during the practice rounds, came out, and they were gone. To this day, no one knows what happened. It was pretty cool that he had made it that far despite that setback.

As I kept winning, I started believing I was a good match play player. My golf game doesn't look pretty, and I don't think I have the best golf swing, but I believed. I knew I didn’t have to play perfectly in match play - sometimes when you play poorly, the other guy plays down to your level.

2DP: Your semifinal match against Stewart Hagestad was televised and created quite a buzz. What do you remember about that match?

BB: It's interesting - when I played in 2016 at Stonewall, I had never heard of Stewart Hagestad. He beat a friend of mine, Scott Harvey, in the finals that year. Even though Stewart had won 2 years before, I didn't realize how good he was. The crowd definitely helped me. Having my family out there was so cool - my son was really into it.

Stewart and I went back and forth. We got to number 11, and they had moved the tee up to about 120 yards. I was 1 up going into that hole, so I hit first and hit this hard 54-degree wedge - I was full of adrenaline. I hit it just under the hole to about 10 to 12 feet.

As we're walking off the tee, Stewart says to me, "Did you hit that fat?" I was thinking, "What? Are you trying to game me right now?" He really hadn't said anything to me the whole match, so I couldn’t really understand why he had asked me that question.

We both made birdie on 11, but I made bad bogeys on the next 2 holes and was 1 down. Then my putter just caught fire - I made a 25-footer on 14 and a 40-footer on 15 to go 1 up.

I hit 2 really good shots on 16 and hit a good chip on 17 to save par, then on 18 I made another long putt. My second shot ended up being about 25 feet short. He hit it in there to about 3 feet, but I made the putt.

The response from the crowd was incredible - my son ran onto the green. It was really cool, and I can remember it like it was yesterday.

2DP: You received some interesting advice that night before the final. What happened?

BB: That night I got 2 really cool texts. The first was from Scott Harvey, who I didn't know well at the time, and his advice was to put the phone down and just hang with the family. Then another text came through from Brad Faxon saying the same thing - put your phone down and watch a funny movie.

It was cool that those 2 great players who'd had a lot of experience both said the same thing. I tried to do that, but I didn't sleep much that whole week. I think I was on the sofa by about 3 AM every night. The adrenaline carried me through the week, but I crashed after it was over. It was like I had been on a 2-week bender.

2DP: The final against Kevin O'Connell didn't go your way. What happened?

BB: We were all square through 9 holes. I had missed a couple putts, including a 4-footer on the second hole for birdie. Then we get to the 10th hole, and he hit a really bad tee shot while I hit the fairway. I had this downhill, hanging lie on the slope with a back-left pin, and he had already chipped out and hit his third shot into the left bunker. I was in the driver's seat.

It never occurred to me after - after all the good golf that week, managing the courses and being patient - to just hit it short right and play safe. The ball was way below my feet on a 120-yard uphill shot, and I was trying to hit a smooth wedge. I tried to stay on top of the ball so I wouldn't flare it right, but I hit it long left and made double.

Instead of being 1 up, I was 1 down and could not forgive myself for that hole. The snowball effect really kicked in, and I lost the next 4 holes. I couldn't stop the bleeding - I made some really horrible golf shots and wasn't committed. I think I was still thinking about that shot.

I was still only 3 down with about 5 or 6 holes left. The 14th hole, the short par-4, was drivable because they had moved the tee up. I thought, "Here's my chance," but I hit a poor drive. I lost 4&3.

Kevin's a great player and great champion, but it was a really big bummer. I hate saying this because it was such an unbelievable week for me and my family, but I just hate the way I lost. I lost because I let that 1 bad hole take over.

2DP: Did thoughts of the Masters and U.S. Open invitations cross your mind?

BB: Honestly, I didn't think about the Masters or the U.S. Open. I don't really think about them today, but I do think about missing out on being a USGA champion. To me, if you play enough golf and get to a certain level, that would be one of the coolest titles to have by your name.

2DP: What kind of opportunities did that performance create for you in the world of competitive golf?

BB: It opened every opportunity, but be careful what you ask for. I finally got to play in all those prestigious tournaments I wanted to play in, but I started pressing, practicing more, and not having nearly as much fun. It was also tough given where I was in my business career and with my kids’ ages to be travelling and playing all the time.

I started playing poorly again. It was the same thing I went through in my professional golf life. When I would have good results, I wasn't able to relax and just do the things that got me there. I tried to do more and take it too seriously.

I thought those prestigious tournaments would make me a better person, give me notoriety, and validate everything I didn't get to do as a professional. That was the wrong way to look at it, and I learned a lot from it.

It wasn't a healthy thing - how seriously I took it. Thankfully, my accident helped me realize those things and gave me a different perspective.

2DP: Tell me more about your perspective on golf today and how it has changed.

BB: You have to ask yourself - what's the purpose? We have to have a different purpose than just notoriety, because that's definitely empty every time we try to achieve based on that alone.

The achievement itself and the week in Charlotte was incredible - the crowds, my family being there, and my son running onto the green. Those moments and that experience were truly special, but chasing validation through results? That's not sustainable, and it's not fulfilling in the way you think it will be.

TOURNAMENTS

Stewart Seals North Carolina Mid-Amateur with Record Performance

Cyrus Stewart erased a 7-shot deficit to chase down 54-hole leader Zach Edmondson during last weekend’s North Carolina Mid-Amateur championship. Stewart’s final round 63 (-8) at Southern Pines Golf Club, which tied a 1946 course record held by Sam Snead, included an eagle and 7 birdies, including 3 three in a row to close out the round and ultimately force a playoff with Edmondson.

Edmondson, playing in the final group, nearly saw his lead slip away in regulation. Coming to the 18th needing par to secure a playoff with Stewart, he missed his tee shot right and left his approach short of the green. After hitting his pitch shot ~20 feet past, he drained the must-make downhill putt to force extra holes.

On the first playoff hole, it was Stewart who needed a clutch putt to continue the competition, but you don’t shoot -8 without getting on a bit of a putting heater, and the par save inevitably found the bottom of the cup. The competitors duked it out in an extended sudden-death playoff, with Stewart ultimately sealing the deal with a birdie on 7th playoff hole.

Huge shoutout to the CGA for their coverage of the event! They streamed the playoff live on their Instagram account, so go check out the replay if you want more details on the wild finish.

Full scoring: View results here

STORIES TO TRACK

U.S. Mid-Amateur Begins Today in Scottsdale, Arizona: The championship kicks off with 2 rounds of stroke play at Troon Country Club and Troon North Golf Club. The field is headlined by 8 past champions, including defending champion Evan Beck and 3-time winner Stewart Hagestad, who is fresh off another Walker Cup victory at Cypress Point.

• Carolina ties: Past champions Scott Harvey (Greensboro) and Kevin O’Connell (Cary) are joined by former U.S. Four-Ball and multiple CGA winner Davis Womble on the list of exempt players competing. Other names to watch include 2025 Carolinas Mid-Amateur champion Brett McLamb and former Charlotte City Amateur champion Philip Oweida.

• One of these things is not like the others: Here is a list of the last 5 U.S. Mid-Amateur host courses - Kinloch, Sleepy Holly, Erin Hills, Sankaty Head, Colorado Golf Club. We’ll get back on track next year when we head to Sand Valley.

• Follow along: View live scoring

Cooper Hrabak Wins Carolinas PGA Professional Championship: Hrabak secured exemptions into 2 PGA Tour events (Wyndham and Myrtle Beach), holding off Billy Belair for a 3-shot victory. Representing Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club, Hrabak held a 2-shot lead after a second round 63, closing with a final round 72 (+1) to lock up his second win of the year.

• Dynamic duo: This year’s championship was co-hosted by Palmetto Golf Club and The Tree Farm - what a combination! The Aiken-area pair offered players contrasts in both vintage and playing style, with the wide-open Tree Farm layout yielding lower scores despite playing ~400 yards longer. It’s difficult to think of 2 higher quality courses in close proximity anywhere across the Carolinas.

• Full scoring: View results here

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