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The 2026 Rhode Island Amateur Final is set. 

Tyler Cooke will face 2018 Champion Jake Bauer for the Championship on Friday morning at Ledgemont. 

For Cooke, this will be his first appearance in the Championship match. 

“It feels awesome. I had to make so many birdies to beat Harry (Dessel) and Max (Jackson), i’m exhausted. They are two great players. Like I said before, I’ve done a lot of good in the stroke play portion and I’ve just failed out so miserably in the first and second rounds, so it feels good to make a run, finally,” said Cooke after the round. 

Cooke held on to beat Jackson 2&1 in the morning, and Dessel 3&2 in the afternoon to get to the title match.

On the other hand, Bauer is in the Championship match for the second year in a row, looking to avenge last year’s loss to Mike Calef at Rhode Island CC. 

“I think it just shows a lot of perseverance. This morning was a depiction of the whole year, waiting for this tournament. You don’t know how many chances you will have to get to a final. Fortunately for myself, I was able to cross the finish line in a positive way, but I’ve been on the other side like last year. It was a really good learning experience,” said Bauer after the round. 

Bauer was four-down through 12 holes in Thursday morning’s quarterfinal match before storming back to win on 18, and then never lost control of the afternoon match, beating Tim Carroll 5&4 to get to the Championship.

The two players know each other relatively well having played in the same group at Four-Ball Tournaments. 

“I’ve seen Tyler quite a bit over the last couple of years. He and I actually played in the same group at the South Coast Four-Ball down at Allendale. I know his game pretty well, he is a pretty solid player. I”m going to have to have my A-game tomorrow and see where the chips fall,” said Bauer. 

Cooke added, “We played in some four-balls against each other. He has a great game, he’s steady, not going to make many mistakes. I’m just going to have to play my game and see what happens.” 

The 36-hole Championship match tees off at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning. 

Scoring HERE 

Cooke’s Road to the Final

After surviving the brutal rains of Monday and Tuesday, Cooke entered the match play portion of the State Am as the 29-seed in the bracket. 

He cruised through both of his first two matches, 7&6 and 4&3 to get to Thursday morning’s quarterfinal. 

In his quarterfinal match, he was two-down early to Jackson, then two up after the 11th hole. 

Cooke won the 14th hole to go one-up and then closed out by winning the 17th hole. 

In the afternoon, Cooke faced Dessel, a past RI Amateur runner-up and a former star at Moses Brown. 

Leading into the semifinal match, Dessel had made crazy comebacks in both the Round of 16 and quarterfinal match, so when Cooke jumped out to a three-up lead through four, and a four-up lead through 10, he knew it was not over. 

“In the back of your mind, you’re thinking about it for sure. He has come back on everyone. I just had to keep hitting good shots into the greens, like here (16th hole) and the flighted seven iron up the hill. That was a huge shot when he was in trouble, but he’s dangerous. He putts well under pressure, so I knew I had to keep it down,” said Cooke. 

He went on to win 3&2 and punch his ticket to the Championship Match. 

Bauer’s Road to the Final 

Bauer entered the match play portion of the tournament as the 10-seed in the bracket. 

He began his run with a 3&1 win over Roland Gibson, where he was one-down through eight holes before flipping the match. 

In the Round of 16, Bauer faced fellow past RI Am Champion Kevin Silva and beat him 4&2. 

Onto the quarterfinal for Bauer, who quickly found himself four-down to Jason Kalin through eight holes, and then again through 12 holes. 

“Once I got to four-down on the eight hole, I just sort of took a deep breath on nine. I said I’m gonna take it one hole at a time and treat it as individual matches for each hole. I just want to win the hole, and just take it one at a time,” said Bauer. 

He would go onto win five of the next six holes and close the match out in regulation, winning one-up on 18. 

Bauer carried that momentum into the semifinal match against Tim Carroll. 

The 2018 champ jumped out to a four-up lead through four and did not look back. 

“I kept the ball in front of me a little bit, I had one or two short missed putts. I think that was just not going through my routine properly, but I rolled the ball really nice on the greens, made some nice putts, some good par saves and I think that is good momentum,” said Bauer. 

He won the afternoon match 5&4 to clinch a spot in the Championship Match.