GolfNewsRI

The field for the 2026 Northeast Amateur was unveiled on Tuesday morning at Wannamoisett Country Club. 

The tournament is set to take place from June 24-27. 

Among those highlighting this year’s field is reigning U.S. Amateur champ Mason Howell and reigning U.S. Junior Am champ Hamilton Coleman. 

“We don’t often get the U.S. Amateur champion, and that’s because the U.S. Amateur champion will generally get other opportunities. For instance, the Travelers used to create challenges for us or Rocket Mortgage the last few years, I’m ot 100% sure what allowed Mason Howell to decide to come to the Northeast versus those other opportunities, but glad he signed up and hope he makes it,” Northeast Am Co-chair Ben Tuthill told GolfNewsRI. 

Whateveer the reason is, having both Howell and Coleman in the field is a big, and relatively rare, get for the Northeast Amateur. 

“It’s good to have them both. Mason lost in the first round of the U.S. Juniors and then went on to win the U.S. Am. He is still a junior. I think the talent is so great, to have the U.S. Junior champ is special and obviously the U.S. Am champ, who we are not going to get every year and we know why,” added Tuthill. 

He went on to joke about potentially pairing the two together for the first couple of rounds. 

A Loaded Field

Behind the two champions, the 2026 Northeast Amateur field is once again loaded. 

Auburn and UCLA played in the NCAA Golf National Championship, and of the ten players who competed in the championship match, seven of them will be at Wannamoisett. 

Those players include Auburn’s Logan Reilly, Jake Albert, Cayden Pope, and Josiah Gilbert. 

Repping UCLA will be Josh Kim, Baylor Larrabee and Tyler Loree. 

Other notables include NHL referee Garrett Rank, who is currently reffing the Stanley Cup Final, Ian Poulter’s son Luke, who is the ninth ranked amateur in the world, and top Mid-Am Stewart Hagestad. 

Hagestad took home the Jospeh Sprague Sr. Award as the top Mid-Am in last year’s tournament. 

Latin Americans Amateur champ Mateo Pulcini is in the field and Terra Cotta Invitational champ Connor Doyle, will also tee it up. 

Elite Amateur Cup champion Tyler Watts will return to Wannamoisetts after finishing in a tie for 6th last year. 

Watts is a top junior player and headed to Tennessee. 

U.S. Open Challenges

One of the challenges of putting together and maintaining the Northeast Amateur field is that the tournaent takes place the week after the U.S. Open. 

This year, seven players currently  in the Northeast Amateur field qualified for the U.S. Open and could withdraw from the Northeast Am. 

“Every year it varies, so it’s hard to really predict what is going to happen. A few years ago the U.S. Open was at Brookline, and every player in the field at Brookline, withdrew from our tournament even though it’s like an hour away. The year Nick Dunlap won it (the Northeast Am) he flew in from LA Country Club. Scottie (Scheffler) made it into a few Opens and he came here after every one, so it’s really more player dependent,” said Tuthill. 

He added, “Regardless of when your tournament is, there is going to be conflicts. I think we are actually fortunate with the dates that we have for our tournament every year.” 

Among the players that qualified for the U.S. Open is 17-year-old phenom Miles Russell, who’s is the top junior player in the world. 

“Miles’ dad indicated or had indicated that if he qualified for the U.S. Open, he wasn’t sure if he would come and play. Which I understand and appreciate. The U.S. Open is a huge week for everybody, but for amateurs in particular I think it’s a physical and emotional task,” said Tuthill. 

Russell finished runner-up at last year’s tournament. 

It’s also worth noting that defending champion Preston Stout will not be returning to defend his title this year. 

As GolfNewsRI wrote, Stout won the NCAA Individual Championship and earned a bid into the U.S. Open and The Masters. 

RIers in Field 

There are only two Rhode Islanders in the Northeast Amateur field at this point. 

Five-time Rhode Island Amateur champion Bobby Leopold will be teeing it up once again, as well as reigning Rhode Island Amateur champ Mike Calef. 

Other notables are MA’s Matt Parziale and Ryan Downes, Connecticut Am champ Adam Friedman and New England Am champ Eli Spaulding. 

New Hampshire phenom Josiah Hakala rounds out the New England crew. 

Depending on withdrawals, more locals could be added to the field in a last minute type situation.