CHASKA, Minn. – Bobby Massa is a 36-year-old performance coach from Dallas, husband, father of a 14-month-old with another on the way.
Oh, and he mashes golf balls.
“The guy absolutely sends it out there,” said fellow mid-amateur Andrew von Lossow, who played a practice round with Massa last weekend ahead of the 124th U.S. Amateur.
You could say Massa practices what he preaches. Back home at Sanders Fit, a performance center owned by former NBA player Melvin Sanders, Massa teaches his clients how to hit the ball far. Everyone from the weekend golfer to the professional athlete, Massa helps them unlock their fast-twitch fibers, so they can attempt to swing it like Massa, who currently cruises at a swift 127 mph swing speed and up to 190 mph ball speed.
On Wednesday at Hazeltine National, Duke’s Luke Sample got VIP access to the launch – and Massa’s length ultimately wore on the world’s 73rd-ranked amateur. Massa, ranked No. 2,969 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, avenged last year’s U.S. Amateur debut, where he missed the cut by a shot at Cherry Hills, by not only qualifying for match play but dispatching Sample, 2 and 1, in the Round of 64.
“I just love match play,” said Massa, who trailed 1 down through four holes before winning five straight holes. “And with me being able to hit it as far as these kids, if I play well, I should be able to compete.”
Massa, long from a young age as he matured late and was always trying to get the most out of his frame, played college golf for Texas-Arlington before graduating and turning pro in 2010. But just five years later he was giving up the game, developing the swing yips, too embarrassed to even play casually with his friends.
“I couldn’t break 90 to save my life,” Massa said. “It was a disaster, to say the least. There were many attempts where I didn’t get to finish because I ran out of golf balls. I’ve hit some large foul balls in my day. 150 yards offline was a cupcake at that time.”
Shortly before he quit playing, Massa started teaching. He dove into that full-time, and business quickly flourished.
“With the way the game is going, with everyone wanting to hit it farther, everything fell into place with my job,” Massa said.
Instruction eventually re-ignited Massa’s passion for the sport. He began studying the golf swing and started spending more time practicing on his own game. He got his amateur status back in 2019, broke through with his swing a year later, and a year after that he played his first tournament in about a half-decade.
“I love the competition,” Massa said, “and I wanted to hopefully get back to where I could play again and just enjoy the process of it. … My confidence started to grow and my misses shrunk.”
In 2022, Massa finished second at the Texas State Amateur, losing in a playoff. He qualified for his first U.S. Mid-Amateur later that year, and last year he reached the quarterfinals of that championship while also Monday-qualifying for the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
He’s one of five mid-amateurs to advance to match play at Hazeltine. That group included 39-year-old Jimmy Ellis, the first mid-amateur medalist at the U.S. Amateur in 11 years.
Massa’s Round-of-32 opponent is incoming Stanford freshman TK Chantananuwat, who won an Asian Tour event in 2022 to become the youngest player to ever win an OWGR-ranked tournament at 15 years, 37 days old.
“These kids are so good,” Massa said. “I’m just trying to stay in my own lane.”
Even at 36, Massa’s lane is the fast lane.