This 63-year-old went viral at U.S. Amateur. Then went back to work

Sixty-three-old Mike McCoy was never going to win this 126th U.S. Amateur, not when he was giving up 50 yards off the tee to many players in the field, as he did in his two stroke-play rounds alongside 21-year-old U.S. Amateur champion Noah Maclauchlan and 39-year-old U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Brandon Holtz. 

The first of those rounds, on Monday, came at Philadelphia Country Club, in Gladwyne, home to a beefy William Flynn design. McCoy made five bogeys and a double and signed for a five-over 75. On Tuesday, he and his partners headed about 6 miles due south for their second round, at storied Merion Golf Club, the star of this week’s show. McCoy had fewer blemishes on his card — three bogeys and a double — en route to a four-over 74. Nine over for 36 holes for the U.S. Senior Amateur champion was a commendable showing but still seven shots more than McCoy needed to join a playoff for a spot in the 64-player match-play field. By Wednesday afternoon, McCoy, who runs an insurance business, was back at his desk in West Des Moines, Iowa. 

McCoy’s scorecards might suggest that he didn’t leave much of a mark on this championship, but that decidedly was not the case, because what McCoy lacked in birdie conversions, he more than made up for in social-media impressions. Maybe you’ve seen the photos and videos of him floating around Instagram and X: cigar in mouth, steely gaze, Pine Valley visor paired with a matching polo. Grab your Merriam-Webster and look up “Debonair Golfer Who Could Probably Wax You 7 and 6 With a Half-Set” and you might just find a picture of McCoy. Likely also fanning the viral flames was McCoy’s straight-out-of-a-Western surname. The whole package.

On Monday evening, the USGA’s social-media team shared a photo of a stogie-chomping McCoy staring straight into the lens of a camera — and deep into the souls of phone-swiping golf fans. That snapshot, in which McCoy’s vibes are way less Horton Smith than “Hannibal” Smith, has now been viewed more than 2.7 million times. The following morning, the social handles for the site you’re reading got in on the fun, posting a short montage of McCoy that now has more than 1.7 million views on X; an Instagram version of the same video has been viewed 300,000 times and shared nearly 10,000 times.         

“I guess it’s an anomaly to see an old insurance guy out there playing with these kids,” McCoy, who is far more soft-spoken than his perception suggests, said in a phone interview before a client meeting Friday morning.           

Maybe, but gosh — could that alone explain his virality? There seemingly was more to it; to a swath of golf fans, the McCoy imagery appeared to be aspirational.   

“Badass,” one commenter wrote. 

“I hope this is me in 25 years,” another typed.

A third observer proclaimed, “Mike McCoy has become everyone’s favorite golfer overnight, and it’s 100% valid.”

McCoy is well known in high-level amateur-golf circles — he’s a former Mid-Amateur winner and in 2023 captained the winning U.S. Walker Cup team — but for fans who don’t closely follow that side of the game, this week seemed to be a coming-out party for McCoy. What, after decades of showing up to tournaments with little or no fanfare, did he make of his star turn?

“It’s all fun,” he said. “I do try to have fun out there, and I prepare and I compete hard. I’m highly competitive. I also know that — look, I was enjoying the walk. I never thought I’d play another Amateur. But here I am at 63, playing in the U.S. Amateur at Merion.”

McCoy said he first got clued into his digital fame when he came off the course on Tuesday and looked at his phone. “I got literally hundreds of texts, and a lot of people wanted to connect on LinkedIn or Facebook,” he said. “They came out of the woodwork.”

Along for the ride at PCC and Merion was Pat Coyle, McCoy’s go-to caddie at Pine Valley, where McCoy has been a member for two decades (eagle-eyed observers noted that the PV logo on McCoy’s shirt was the version available only to members). Pine Valley annually hosts the Crump Cup, one of the game’s most coveted amateur titles. McCoy has won it four times and in 2021 added a Crump Cup senior-division trophy to his mantle.

Before playing in his first Crump final, McCoy had picked up a crisp new visor in the golf shop. Because that day went well, McCoy decided to invest in a new visor before each of his other final appearances. Coyle knew of McCoy’s superstition, so when he reconnected with his boss-for-the-week at Merion, he had something for him.

“That’s why I was wearing the white visor,” McCoy said of his Amateur stylings.

And his cigar of choice? Fuente, McCoy said. Always.

Next up for McCoy: his Senior Amateur defense, at Baltimore Country Club at the end of the month. Also on the horizon: yet one more U.S. Amateur appearance, in 2027, courtesy of the two-year exemption that McCoy earned for his Senior Am win. That event is slated for Aug. 9-15 at Oak Hill CC in Upstate New York.

Someone alert the internet.