The 2026 Arizona Mid-Amateur Championship opened Monday morning at Grayhawk Golf Club, setting the standard for a challenging week of golf for the 77 player field.
Cody Massa, 2024 and 2025 Mid-Amateur Champion, led the field day 1 at 4-under-par, with two more past winners also in the top 10, Sam Engel (-2) and Kristoffer Marshall (+1). Engel is searching for another Kachina trophy, hoping to catch an AZ GOLF veteran.
"I know how amazing it is to win this championship. Haven't been able to play since I won. So, this is a defense in a sense for me. It would mean a lot to get another one. I love the Kachinas, and so, as many Kachinas as you can get to try to try to look like Chris Kamin."
While unable to play in the Mid-Amateur this year, Kamin is the owner of the past four AZ GOLF Player of the Year Awards, and countless Kachina trophies.
"The course was great. I putted pretty well most of the day, had a little hiccup on 16, just kind of ended up in a bad spot and made double, but was pretty happy overall," Engel said. "I mean, a good start. Can't win the tournament on the first day, but you can definitely lose it. Definitely feel like I'm playing well, so its hard to be too upset with that."
Massa enters the week looking to three-peat, defending his Mid-Amateur titles at a course not so familiar to him.
"I actually brought a caddy with me today who used to work here, and he was a huge help," Massa said. "It made a lot of difference because he was telling me where the valley was every hole, and he was telling me where to miss it, because I haven't played here enough to know any of that, so he really helped me a lot."
Massa enters the second half of the tournament focused on his game off the tee, and staying in the red.
"The driver's not cooperating at the moment, but I've been putting good for a while, so that's really keeping me, keeping me in it, even when I hit it bad. It's just another tournament, try one shot at a time, and try and play as best as I can."