Michigan Amateur Champ: McCoy Biagioli

By Tom Lang

One year ago, McCoy Biagioli was playing golf for White Lake-Lakeland and finished a respectable T5 at the high school state finals.

Today he’s the 113th Michigan Amateur champion – after besting Jimmy Dales of Northville, 3 and 1 after a long week playing The Heather at Boyne Highlands.

That’s a major improvement over 12 months, one Biagioli said came from hard work on his short game.

“I’ve really been working on my short game, and having a caddie (former high school teammate Marcus Kainhofer) this week helping read the putts definitely helps,” Biagioli said. “But I struggled all fall during college season (at Ferris State) with chipping, and today I got up and down four times the last match, so that was big.”

Biagioli took a two-up lead on the front nine, but Dales fought back to make the final match all square at the turn. After Dales won the 10th, Biagioli then won the 11th and 13-15 to go 3-up with just three holes to play. Dales birdied 16 to make the match tighter again, but he then clipped a tree right off the 17th tee and struggled with a punch out and the approach shot coming up short of the green.

“Jimmy hits the ball really well, and he was longer than me all day long,” Biagioli added. “Adjusting to that is definitely different.”

This was the first time Biagioli has made it to the 64-man match play field of the Michigan Amateur after two prior attempts. 

“Our motto this week was all gas, no brakes,” Biagioli said. “We just kept the peddle down and kept going. 

“I haven’t thought too much about (this win), but I think it just shows I can compete with the best,” Biagioli said. “Just knowing I can gives me a little more momentum and, you could say, more confidence going into other tournaments.”

That energy and thought process will come in handy, because, this year for the first time, the Michigan Amateur winner gets an automatic exemption into the U.S. Amateur, to be played at Hazeltine in Minnesota in August.