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WEST BEND – Clear blue skies welcomed the 82 players who made the cut at the 125th Wisconsin Amateur Championship at West Bend Country Club on July 22, but the stillness was the most delightful of companions for the field after a blustery first two rounds only yielded two rounds under par.
Nine players were under par when the leaders were making the turn during the third round, but one of them was not Spencer Turtz, who fired a steady, even-par 71 to take a two-shot advantage over four players heading into the final round on July 23.
“It would be fun to have the competition [play] really good,” said Turtz, who is from North Carolina. “That’s why we play. This is a great tournament and it would be really cool to have to battle it out.”
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Turtz, a University of Wisconsin alumnus, made two birdies against two bogeys and put himself in position to win an individual tournament for the first time as an amateur in Wisconsin.
Turtz teamed up with James Boustead to win the men’s four-ball championship in 2025.
“Obviously down the stretch we played against two of my [Badgers] teammates and birdies were winning holes and pars were losing holes,” Turtz said, “so it was fun to have that experience and I’m definitely going to build off that for this one.”
Kuiper posted the round of the day with a 3-under 68 to shoot up the leaderboard and into a tie for second place at 3-over for the tournament. Kuiper had gotten to 4-under through his first 10 holes before bogeys on Nos. 11-12 cooled his momentum. He was one of six players to finish the round under par.
“A few holes were a little more get-able,” Kuiper said. “The first two days the wind was just blowing so hard that making bogeys was just inevitable. It was just gonna happen. So just tried to hang in there the first couple days. I hit it really well. The first couple days I was really happy with the way I played and then today just kind of put some things together and the wind died down thankfully.”
Kuiper, a Butler University alumnus, is coming off his third Racine Amateur title earlier in the month, where he bested the field by 11 shots.
Kuiper is in a four-way tie for second with Sheboygan’s Mason Schmidtke, Sturgeon Bay’s Griffin Pohl and Marquette University alumnus Brandon Cloete. Cloete began the round tied with Turtz for the tournament lead but shot a 3-over 74 to fall off the pace.
Defending champion Vince Sigl had raced up the leaderboard late in the second round but finished that round with two bogeys. Those struggles continued through the start of his third round, as he played the front nine at 3-over. He rallied to finish the day at that number and is in seventh at 5-over for the tournament.
The last player to win consecutive amateur titles was Ryan Quinn in 2001-02.
Badgers player Charlie Erlandson, the 2025 runner-up, nearly eclipsed Kuiper for the best round of the tournament as he was 4-under through 10 holes after an eagle on the par 4 10th hole. Erlandson finished his last eight holes at 2-over, however.
He is 6-over for the tournament and tied for eighth with two other players.
Burlington native and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo shot a 9-over 80, but he made the day of a young spectator after his round with a lengthy quarterbacking tutorial before heading to the practice area.
Covering the Wisconsin State Am - but football is always top of mind. Burlington native Tony Romo giving a youngster some QB pointers after his round.
— Jim Owczarski (@jimowczarski.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T19:57:17.818Z
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Badgers alumnus Spencer Turtz's steady play puts him atop Wisconsin State Am
