Mike McCoy won the 1996 Iowa Amateur at Finkbine Golf Course, six years after his son, Nate (above), was born. Mike rallied with a final-round 67 that included an eagle on the par-5 15th hole.
The 2023 Walker Cup captain rekindled those memories on Tuesday, this time as a caddy. Because it was his son, Nate, who accepted the 122nd Iowa Amateur trophy for the second time in his career after a closing 66 at Finkbine. A round that included an eagle on the 15th hole.
“This is the whole reason you compete,” said Nate, who also eagled the par-4 12th earlier in the final round. “You want to test yourself against the best.”
McCoy’s 54-hole score of 204, 12 under par, was three shots better than 2012 champion Jon Olson, Cale Leonard (right) and Maxwell Tjoa. Leonard started the day seven shots back, and his 66 matched McCoy for the lowest round of the day.
“I just wanted to go make birdies,” he said. “The course was still kind of soft from yesterday, and I knew it was going to be gettable. There was no pressure on me to try and hold the lead or anything. I was just trying to catch up.”
The victory also saved Nate a long drive north. He was scheduled to play in a U.S. Amateur qualifier Wednesday morning at Dacotah Ridge Golf Club in Morton, Minn., west of the Twin Cities. But this is the first year the sponsoring United States Golf Association has granted a U.S. Amateur exemption to all state amateur champions.
So Nate will be teeing it up at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., starting August 12.
“I was dreading that drive,” he said of the trip he gladly skipped. “Such a relief. Now I get to go home to my family with the trophy.”
Tuesday’s victory also made McCoy the front runner for a fourth consecutive Iowa Golf Association Iowa Amateur of the Year Award. Nate and his dad are the only players to win it three straight times.
The McCoys also became the first father-son tandem to both win multiple Iowa Amateur titles. Nate also won at Crow Valley in Bettendorf in 2022. Mike won six times (1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2010, 2015).
Nate had to play catch-up after a 71 on Sunday, five shots behind first-round leader J.D. Anderson. McCoy’s second-round 67 moved him into a tie for fourth, four shots behind leader Jake Weissenburger , two back of Dusty Drenth and one back of Anderson.
“I figured I’d need a 7-under round to have a chance,” McCoy said, who ran off four straight birdies starting at No. 5, only to have a bogey at No. 9 slow his charge.
Drenth (left), playing in the day’s final pairing, made a serious move to the top of the leaderboard. He also shot a front-nine 33 and added a birdie at the 11th to jump to 12 under par. McCoy, a pairing in front of Drenth, went to the par-4 12th hole, a 392-yard dogleg left, at 9 under par.
Everything changed with one swing of McCoy’s pitching wedge. He holed it from 113 yards out for eagle. It was an uphill shot, so no one immediately knew it went it. But Mike had an inkling.
“He thought it was in right away,” Nate said. “I was thinking, “Well, I hope it’s not over. We walked up there and I saw my pitch mark, but not the ball. My heart jumped a little bit. I thought it was probably over.”
But Olson, one of his playing partners, looked in the hole and smiled.
“He came over and gave me a fist pump,” Nate said. “That was pretty cool.”
Soon after McCoy hit the green at the par-3 13th hole, and Drenth hit his approach to the 12th green some 40 feet below the hole, sirens sounded and play was suspended because of an approaching storm.
When the championship resumed, 1 hour and 57 minutes later, Drenth lost his momentum.
He 3-putted the 12th for bogey. Uncertain about the speed of the greens after the rain, he left his birdie attempt short and power-lipped his par attempt.
Then at the 13th, his tee shot hit a cart path and found the water, and he made double bogey.
He hit a good shot into the 14th but settled for par. Then he stood and watched from a distance as McCoy eagled the 486-yard par-5 15th.
“And now I’m four down,” said Drenth, who tied for fifth with Chad McCarty after a closing 72. “It wasn’t my time. That’s what I’m going to tell myself. I played great all tournament.”
In 1996, Mike McCoy eagled the 15th when he made a downhill 20-foot eagle putt to get the lead for the first time.
Nate’s drive on that hole found the right rough, but he hit a 6-iron that reached the green, seemed to stop for a moment and then caught the slope that dissects the putting surface and stopped 5 feet above the hole. He made the dicey eagle putt and was on his way to victory.
After a scrambling par from a fairway bunker on the 16th and a bogey at the par-3 17th, Nate hit a perfect drive on the closing dogleg left par-4 hole. When he hit an 8-iron the 8 feet left of the cup, Olson was the first to congratulate him with another fist pump and a pat on the back.
And Mike thought back to 1996.
“This time, I didn’t have to hit a shot,” Mike said. “Nate was playing so well, I didn’t feel too much pressure. It’s pretty neat for him to win here.”
