Leopold, Calef Set for U.S. Mid-Amateur
Former Rhode Island Amateur champions Bobby Leopold and Mike Calef are in Wisconsin this weekend for the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
The tournament is being played at The Lido course at Sand Valley Resort, with the alternate course being Sand Valley Course for the stroke play portion of the tournament.
“No this never gets old at all. USGA events are pinnacle of the golf we play. If you want to really see how good your game is, tee it up at a USGA event and you find out pretty quickly. I’ve even lucky to play in a number of these events and every time, it’s a great course and we are treated great,” Calef told GolfNewsRI on Friday, following his final practice round.
Calef figures this is about his tenth USGA event in his career, while Leopold says this is his 22nd.
“It means a lot more now that I’m older and I realize how hard it is to qualify for one. You don’t make one for six years and you’re like I might not play in another one. The older you get you realize how much you have too enjoy it,” Leopold told GolfNewsRI on Thursday night.
Both Calef and Leopold qualified for the U.S. Mid-Am earlier this month at Agawam Hunt with Calef taking medalist honors and Leopold surviving a five-for-one playoff.
“It’s definitely getting harder. It was funny in qualifying this year I played better in other qualifiers and have not gotten through. This time I didn’t play great and got through. Anytime you make a USGA event it’s pretty cool, it’s something you want to do every year,” said Leopold.
Calef and Leopold played both their practice rounds together on Thursday and Friday alongside former URI stars Ben Spitz and Billy Walthouse.
“It’s really cool to share practice rounds together when you know the people that you are playing with,” said Leopold.
Calef adds, “It’s fantastic because in these events it is really easy to get lost. There is a lot of guys here, a lot of really great golfers and if you are by yourself, you are playing by yourself or you play practice rounds with people you don’t know. It’s easy to get lonely.”
The tournament consists of two rounds of stroke play with the top 64 players advancing to Match Play.
Calef gets things started at 8:20 a.m. on Saturday on The Lido, while Leopold is off about an hour later at 9:30 a.m. on Lido.
Course Breakdown
The Lido
Since both Calef and Leopold are starting their tournaments on the main course, that is where we will start the course breakdown.
Both The Lido and Sand Valley are relatively new, with The Lido opening in 2023 under architects Tom Doak and Brian Schneider.
“The golf course is a fun set up. It is similar to links courses back in England,” said Leopold.
According to the USGA, the Lido will play at 7,219 and a par 71 for the tournament.
“Lido played shorter than Sand Valley. I had more wedges in my hands at Lido, while Sand Valley was a lot of 7, 8 and 9 irons,” said Calef.
The Lido consist of three par-5s that play 558, 530 and 615 yards, respectively.
There are also four par-3s that play 165, 250, 148 and 235.
Both Calef and Leopold noted that the Lido is “kind of wide open,” with Calef saying at Lido “you can stand on one tee and see four or five holes.”
While the course is open, players are not going to want to get too far off line.
“Only trouble at Lido is if you hit it off line and into the native area. It’s just sandy dunes where people are walking and the area is not raked (think sandy areas at Pinehurst US Open)” said Calef.
Leopold added, “You don’t want to get too far off line because it gets really really bad,” said Leopold.
A fun note on the course, the Lido replicates the original Lido course on Long Island which was repurposed by the U.S. Navy during World War II and closed in 1942.
Sand Valley
Sand Valley was opened in 2017 under the architecture of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
According to the USGA, Sand Valley will play at 7,122 yards for the tournament and a par 71.
“Sand valley is a beautiful course, it’s hard. I like it a lot. The holes are more well defined than at Lido. There are Two par 5s over 600 yards, two par-3s over 230. At the same time it is not unfair. They are pretty generous with landing areas with the par-5s,” said Calef, who played Sand Valley on Friday morning alongside Leopold.
Sand Valley has a total of four par-5’s that play 615, 578, 580 and 566 respectively.
There are also four par-3s that play 224, 136, 200 and 236.
Interesting note, Sand Valley is owned and run by Mike and Chris Kaiser, the sons of Bandon Dunes founder Mike Kaiser.
The resort features four 18-hole course, and an 18-hole par-3 course called the Sand Box.
New England Connections
Along with Calef and Leopold, there are numerous other New England connections in the tournament.
Those include former URI stars Ben Spitz and Billy Walthouse, and Mass Golf great Matt Parziale.