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What Happened

Over the 35 holes, Michel shot the equivalent of 4 under par, with the usual match-play concessions, and Deraney was 3 under. Since the 12th hole of the morning round, the two competitors only tied six holes.

Had it not been for a change in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ exemption – from anyone in the top 400 to the first 30 age-eligible players in the WAGR – Michel likely would not have made the 20-plus-hour trans-Pacific flight from Melbourne to Denver. Traveling that far for an 18-hole qualifier with limited spots didn’t make much sense, especially since Michel, currently No. 287 in the WAGR, had already been to the U.S. earlier this summer to play in the Sunnehanna Amateur, Northeast Amateur and North & South Amateur. After failing to qualify for the U.S. Amateur in July, he flew home, about a month before qualifying began for the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

“American golf is the best golf in the world, there’s no question about it,” said Michel. “So coming over and playing great golf and beating a really strong field of mostly America’s best mid-amateurs. I mean, that’s everything. And the world’s best mid-amateurs now because of that new exemption criteria.

“Obviously, it makes the field stronger and harder to win and all that, but I’m obviously happy that exemption category was added. I think it makes the event stronger and I think that’s got to be a positive thing.”

In both the morning and afternoon rounds, Deraney built 3-up leads, only to see Michel make comebacks. The turning point in the morning came when Michel claimed three consecutive holes from No. 13 to tie the match, including birdies on the 341-yard, par-4 14th (6 ½-footer after a nice bunker shot) and 592-yard, par-5 15th (conceded after lagging 40-foot eagle putt to 2 feet).

Deraney, who is 217 in the WAGR, then won the par-5 16th with a nice up-and-down birdie (6 feet) from the hill right of the green. Michel followed by making a 25-foot, left-to-right breaking birdie putt on the 211-yard 17th hole. Deraney went into the lunch break by hitting a perfect 56-degree wedge approach to 4 feet, setting up a winning birdie for a 1-up advantage.

Following lunch, Deraney birdied the Nos. 19 and 21 to regain his 3-up lead, and began a stretch of six consecutive untied holes, leaving Deraney 2 up headed to the final nine.

“I tried to explain this yesterday and I kind of struggled,” said Michel. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Just all week I’ve been feeling really relaxed. It’s just felt easy, especially on the greens. My putting has been great. So I guess when I got closer to the hole the more confident I got. It just kind of happened. But I guess it probably has something to do with the [host] family I’m staying with, looking after me really well. Just having a good night’s sleep and relaxing and enjoying it with my caddie, Will Davenport, who [did] a great job.”

Michel can rest now. A long flight back to Australia awaits, along with plenty of congratulatory text messages and voicemails. But the title is his, along with some major history.

What the Champion Receives

Lukas Michel earned the following for winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur:

• A gold medal
• Custody of the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy for one year
• An exemption into the 2020 U.S. Open Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club
• Exemptions into the next two U.S. Amateur Championships: 2020 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and 2021 at Oakmont Country Club
• A 10-year exemption into the U.S. Mid-Amateur: the next three sites are Kinloch Golf Club (2020), Sankaty Head Golf Club (2021) and Erin Hills (2022)
• A likely invitation into the 2020 Masters Tournament

Notable

• Runner-up Joseph Deraney receives an exemption into the 2020 U.S. Amateur, a three-year exemption into the U.S. Mid-Amateur and an exemption from local qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Open. He also is exempt for the 2020 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with partner Garrett Rank, a full-time NHL referee who lost in the Round of 64 on Monday. Both players are exempt by virtue of being among the top 400 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
  
  
• Four international players had previously advanced to the championship match without winning the title: Scott Mayne (Bermuda, 1988); Warren Sye (Canada, 1995); Wayne Raath (South Africa, 2000) and Garrett Rank (Canada, 2012).
  
  
• Longtime Florida State Golf Association official and U.S. Mid-Amateur Committee member Jack Pultorak, of Tampa, Fla., served as the referee for the morning 18 of the championship match. Denver-area residents Jim Bunch and Bob Austin were the forward observers. Bunch is a former member of the USGA’s Executive Committee, and Austin’s wife, Christie, was also an Executive Committee member who served as a Rules official this week.  John Van der Borght from the USGA Rules staff, served as the afternoon 18 referee, with Ed Evans, of Oklahoma City, Okla., and Jim Srite, of Knoxville, Tenn., as the forward observers.
  
  
• Deraney’s caddie, Sadie LeCheminant, has now carried a bag in two USGA championship finals. She won with Rinko Mitsunaga when she teamed with Mika Liu to capture the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball title at Bandon Dunes, where she was a caddie. LeCheminant currently caddies at Colorado Golf Club and Paradise Valley (Ariz.) Country Club during the winter months.
  
  
• Lukas Michel first met his caddie, William Davenport, of Plant City, Fla., at a tournament in Australia and the two became friends. Once Davenport was eliminated, he agreed to jump on Michel’s bag.

Quotable

“Well, I wore a Winged Foot sweater for the first nine holes today. I played there last year. Just a casual round with a member, someone I knew. So, I guess I got an early look at the course there. I mean, that’s unbelievable. I mean, many, many golfers, the best in the world, don’t get the opportunity to play a major, let alone the U.S. Open. Yeah, can’t wait.” – Lukas Michel on earning the exemption into the 2020 U.S. Open

“I just had a really good process. You probably watched it. It looked exactly the same time every I stepped up to a putt. The putts had been going in earlier in the week, and just kind of a positive feedback loop when something is going your way. If you keep confident, things keep going your way.” – Michel on his torrid putting

“I still work. Like I self-fund all my stuff. My parents aren’t helping me come to all these events. I work at a little golf driving range. I caddie occasionally at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club and I work on my golf. I’m loving it at the moment. I guess this week sort of paid off. In terms of future plans, I guess I’m taking a slower sort of approach. I actually entered the Australian Tour [Qualifying] School last year, got to the final stage, didn't get a tour card. I knew I was turning 25 at the beginning of the year. I sort of thought about turning pro without any status. Then kind of knew about this event, to be honest. Figured I would give it a run.” – Michel when asked what he has done since graduating with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Melbourne in 2017

“Will is great. We are very similar sort of guys. We think about the game similarly, quite rational, logical. We work through the numbers really well. In a way, when you’re so focused on numbers, any other distraction, whether it’s what's going on in the background, whether he just hit it to 10 feet or whatever, when you’ve just got one single mind on the yardage and all that, he was really good.” – Michel on having caddie William Davenport on his bag the last three days of match play

“Unfortunately, one of my toes, the skin is now gone on it. I was walking gingerly because there is a pretty nasty blister on it.” – Joseph Deraney on why he appeared to be limping during the latter stages of the match

“It’s tough. Really most of my [mid-amateur] tournaments are 54 holes. The Canadian [Mid-Amateur] is 72 and I was beat after it. I don’t even know how many holes we played. Eleven rounds in seven days is a different kind of deal, along with the grind. So, yeah, I’m exhausted. 4:45 [a.m.] wake-up calls every morning because of 7 a.m. tee times. Yeah, I feel fine right now. Give it 30 minutes and I’ll be snoozing.” – Deraney on the long week that included two practice rounds, two stroke-play rounds and six matches, including the 36-hole final

“In perspective, like I said yesterday, this doesn’t change my life either way. I’m still going to go home to my wife and [three young] kids. I wanted to come out and play well and I did, but I got beat.” – Deraney putting perspective on his week

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.

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