‘I don’t want to play him’: At U.S. Mid-Amateur, potential for riveting match-up

UPDATE: Bobby Massa won his second-round match Tuesday morning but his brother, Cody, did not. The brothers will not meet in the semis.

Bobby Massa can move his ball. Like, really move it. Swing speeds creeping up on 130 mph; ball speeds threatening 200 mph. All of which explains the nickname for the 37-year-old Dallas-based sports performance coach who moonlights as one of the game’s elite amateurs: “Bobby Speed.”   

On Monday, Bobby Speed was doing his thing in the first round of match play at the 44th U.S. Mid-Amateur at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. His opponent: 62-year-old reigning U.S. Senior Amateur champion Louis Brown. We’ll save you the math. That’s a 25-year gap. As for the difference in their driving distances?

“Probably 75 to 100 [yards],” Massa said after the match. “But this golf course, it doesn’t matter how far you hit it. You have to keep it out of the grass and go from there.”

Golf’s good like that, especially in match play. Massa jumped out to a 3-up lead through three holes, but Brown didn’t become a national champion by rolling over. “He was just hanging around,” Massa said. “He made some really long putts and kind of got bounced back into the match when I was pretty much in control. He made it interesting.”

Still, Massa wouldn’t be denied, closing out Louis on the 16th hole, 3 and 2

If Massa, who was a finalist in the 2024 Mid-Am, keeps winning, his week could become even more interesting. That’s because his brother, Cody, is on the same side of Bobby’s match-play bracket. Should Cody and Bobby each win three more matches, they would square off in the semifinals.  

After his first-round win Monday, Bobby was asked about the possibility of facing his brother. Clearly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead, because a reporter needed to inform Bobby of the potential for a Massa mashup on Wednesday.

“Not ideal,” Bobby said. “I don’t want to play him, by any means, because one of us would have to go home.”

Cody, who is 38, would have home-field advantage, because he lives in Scottsdale, meaning the brothers don’t often get the opportunity to play with or against one another. Cody said of the possibility of a bro-vs-bro clash: “We’ve got to make it to the semifinals so we can tussle. That’s the goal.”

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Cody started the week hot. Over 36 holes of the stroke-play portion of the event, he shot a combined five under at Troon CC and co-host site Troon North, good enough for a share of medalist honors. In his first round match Monday, he picked off Troy Vannucci of Marlton, N.J., if not as effortlessly as Cody would have liked. After securing a 4-up lead through 11, Cody let Vannucci back into the match with a double-bogey on the par-4 14th and bogey on the par-3 15th

Cody said a 30-minute wait on the 14th tee upset his rhythm, and it showed. On that same hole he topped an iron shot into a canal “out of nowhere,” he said. “It was a little stressful after that.”

When the players tied 16 and 17 with pars, Cody had prevailed 2 and 1. Afterward, Cody said he regretted not playing more aggressively down the stretch. “I should have been doing the whole day instead of playing it safe toward the end,” he said. “I’ve got to figure out what the best option is moving forward because I’ve played a lot of match play the last couple years and I get to that spot a lot and seem to always let them back in toward the end.”

As of this writing, both Cody and Bobby’s Round of 32 matches are underway. Through 13 holes, Cody is 1 down to Michael Buttacavoli of Miami Beach, Fla. Bobby, meanwhile, is 3 up through 11 holes in his match against Matt Liston of Louisville, Ky.

The Round of 16 matches will be played Tuesday afternoon local time. You can follow all the scoring here.