Keystone grad Bryan Yeo takes on nation's top amateur golfers this weekend at the U.S. Mid-Am

Bryan Yeo got off to such a good start — 5 under through seven holes — at the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship qualifier he told himself he was in the "driver's seat." Then he made a couple of bogeys. "At that point thought it was kind of slipping," the 2010 Keystone graduate said. "I started to get a little worried. I was like, 'Oh, man, it was there.' That's when I got a little nervous." Then came a putt he'll remember for quite some time. No. 4 at Oberlin Golf Club — Yeo started on the back nine — is a short par 4 with a green that pitches severely from back to front. He was about 35 feet above the hole. "I hit the putt and there are at least two times getting to the hole that I'm like, 'It's going to stop. It's short. There's no way it's getting to the hole.' And it fell in on the last roll," he said. He was "back on track" and birdied Nos. 7 and 8 to finish at 6-under 66 to win the Aug. 6 qualifier. He was one of three from the tournament to advance to the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship that starts Saturday at Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. The Mid-Am is the pinnacle for amateur golfers 25 and older, separating them from the college kids that dominate the U.S. Amateur. A player must have a handicap of 2.4 or less. Yeo, 34, has a plus-2.8. He qualified for the 2014 U.S. Amateur at Atlanta Athletic Club but didn't advance to the match play in a field that included current top professionals Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele. Yeo had tried to qualify for the Mid-Am for the last few years. There were a record 6,124 entries this year. "I've been pretty close the last couple of years, within a shot or two a couple of times, but just never had the putts fall, never had the luck on my side," he said. "It's going to be a pretty cool experience, looking forward to it." The Penfield resident starred at Keystone then at Youngstown State. He considered trying to play professionally but tore his anterior cruciate ligament playing pickup basketball, which hurt his golf game and later required surgery. He and his dad have a machine shop in North Royalton, but Yeo never gave up competitive golf. He plays the Cleveland Amateur every year and other tournaments. "I've always just liked tournament golf. I just always enjoyed it," he said. He keeps his game on point by playing in a weekly league at Shale Creek, a traveling Saturday league and practicing at Grey Hawk and Shale. "I still play a good bit and my game stayed pretty good over the years," Yeo said. "It's definitely way more difficult than it was in college. I mean, in college, all I did was play golf four or five days a week. So now it's a little bit harder to stay sharp, but I still love it. I can still play every day if I had the time." He seems like a nightmare matchup for a midweek afterwork league. "You could say that," Yeo said. "Some of my buddies get tired of it and I'm currently almost a plus-three handicap in the one, so they all heckle me on stuff like that. But most of the leagues that I play in now is handicapped, too, so it makes it fair for everybody." He was scheduled to leave Wednesday for Sand Valley with practice rounds on The Lido and Sand Valley courses today and Friday. The 264 participants have 18 holes of stroke play Saturday and Sunday, with the top 64 making match play, which begins Monday. He'd never been to Sand Valley. "I've heard it's unreal," he said. "Everything I've looked up on it, the history of it, I've heard it's going to be pretty awesome. More links style sand than probably I've ever played, so that'll be different. But I've heard nothing but good things." His first goal is to make the cut to match play. "You could go out there and play really, really good and not get to it, but the ultimate goal is to get to match play and then we go from there," he said. "If we can get there, you never know. I mean, make some putts and anything's possible." He thinks even par over the two stroke play rounds will give him a chance and he'll benefit from the U.S. Amateur experience 12 years ago. "I got to the U.S. Am in '14 and I was way overwhelmed. I had no idea what to expect," he said. "By the time I teed off, it was stressful. "But after going through that, I'm just looking forward to getting there. I'm not really as stressed out. I'm sure the first tee box I'll be nervous. I'm sure there'll be all kinds of things going through my mind, but as of right now, I'm way more prepared than I was." Contact Scott Petrak at (440) 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @scottpetrak on X.