Life is sweet when we discover that we have common ground with our idols. That’s exactly what happened after last year’s U.S. Mid-Am championship at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, VA.
Evan Beck earned his name on the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy alongside the likes of golf legend and former U.S. Amateur and British Amateur champion Vinny Giles. Evan explained, “Being from Virginia, Vinny's like my golfing hero.”
Watch the full interview with Evan and Vinny here.
How to get from Virginia to Augusta
Born in Virginia Beach in 1990, Evan attended Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, VA, lettering from 2005-2009 and winning both the 2008 Junior Players Championship and the 2008 AJGA Golf Pride. Evan traveled to Japan in 2009 to represent Team USA at the Junior World Cup, going on to attend Wake Forest University from 2009-2013. While he was at Wake Forest, he won the State Open of Virginia and finished second at the Eastern Amateur in 2010 and earned All-ACC honors for the second time in the 2012-2013 season.
The Masters was created with amateurs in mind
After four years as a pro golfer, Evan was hitting balls on the range when he felt his back pop. The devastating back injury forced him to take time away from the game, so he went to work for an investment consultant group in 2018. A year-and-a-half-long series of unproductive meetings with doctors from Virginia to South Carolina to Texas finally paid off when Evan found what he was looking for in St. Louis, MO. Gradually returning to the game, Evan also returned to form. In 2021, he won his second State Open of Virginia. He also came out on top in the VSGA Mid-Amateur Championship, and the Eastern Amateur Championship that year and again in 2022. Evan also went on to win the George C Thomas Invitational Mid-Amateur in Los Angeles.
Legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones, co-designer of Augusta National and co-founder of the Masters, believed that amateur golf was essential to the future of the game. With this in mind, he made sure that the Masters would always include top amateur players, and it always has, going back to the very first Masters tournament in 1934.
While an amateur has never won the Masters, several have achieved strong finishes, including runner-up and top-ten results. Will this prove to be the year that an amateur finally breaks through? We’ll be keeping our eye on Evan Beck at Augusta.
