Jake Bauer Rallies to Win 2026 Rhode Island Amateur
New England Country Club’s Jake Bauer rallied from six-down to win the 2026 Rhode Island Amateur on Friday afternoon at Ledgemont.
In the 36-hole match, Bauer was six-down through 11 holes and three-down through 25 holes before storming back to beat Tyler Cooke 2&1.
“I think the last two days probably took 70 years off of my life. I’m just speechless. To be honest, all week, I did not have my best stuff and every day something sort of shined. I had some short missed putts today, but I just had the same mindset as yesterday, taking it one hole at a time,” said Bauer.
This is Bauer’s second Rhode Island Amateur championship after winning his first in 2018.
The 2018 Championship was also played at Ledgemont.
“I’m speechless. It’s just a different victory than last time. Last time, I got on a lead like what Tyler had and for me that was really hard coming down the stretch because you can play mind games with yourself, saying ‘oh I just need a par or I just need to get it on the green’ and really I just need to take a deep breath and trust my process,” said Bauer.
Bauer now gets an invite to the 2026 U.S. Amateur, the 2027 Terra Cotta and the 2027 Northeast Amateur.
Bauer Rallies in 2nd 18
After being six-down early, Bauer was two down after the first 18 holes of the day.
Cooke came out in the second 18 and quickly pushed his lead back up to three through the seventh hole.
Bauer won the eighth and ninth hole to cut the deficit to one, but Cooke took the tenth hole after Bauer missed a short putt.
“I know I had a brain fart on ten. I think that was just me not going through my routine. That was an opportunity to get to square and I think I got a little excited,” said Bauer.
Despited the charge from Bauer, Cooke maintained a two up lead with six holes to play.
Then Bauer made a second charge.
He won the 13th hole and then drained a lengthy putt on the 14th hole to tie the match.
On the 15th Bauer rolled in a long left to right bender for birdie to take a one-up lead.
“I had that putt three times this week and each time I got it closer and closer. There was that one spot, almost a burnt spot on that side hill. I said if I hit it on that spot, that fall line is pretty straight down the ridge. Right when I saw it creep down that ridge, I knew it was going to be either a hard lip out or dead in the middle,” said Bauer.
It was his first lead of the day, and the only one he would need.
Bauer would win the 16th hole to take a two-up lead and then close the match out by halving the 17th hole with a five.
He closed the championship by winning five of the last seven holes of the match.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what happened on the last six or seven holes. You sort of just black out when it happens,” Bauer joked.
The First 18
The early morning hours of the Championship match belonged to Cooke.
He opened up by winning four of the first five-holes to take a quick four-up lead.
After halves on six and seven, Cooke won holes eight and nine to take a six-up lead into the back nine.
However, Bauer flipped the script on the back nine.
The 2018 champ won the tenth hole, lost the 11th hole to go back six-down, but then won four of the next seven holes to cut the deficit to two-down at the break.