Michael Clifford-Levy normally plays 18 holes with his dad, Michael Clifford, at the East Hampton Golf Club, but on July 20 he was teeing off at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., on the first day of the 2026 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
It was here, in East Hampton, just three weeks earlier, that Clifford-Levy received a call from the United States Golf Association inviting him to join the field of 264 golfers. The phone call was a great surprise, since back in May he had missed the cut at Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, N.Y., one of 42 sectional qualifiers for the championship.
“I was the first alternate for the entire tournament. And they asked me if I’d like to play. I thought I had missed it,” he said. “I had just gotten off the golf course. I picked up and I told them obviously there was nothing I’d like more than to play in the U.S.G.A. Juniors. I missed it by one stroke two years previously, so I was really excited to be able to make it.”
Clifford-Levy just graduated from Deerfield Academy, where he and Tucker Gongaware were co-captains of the golf team. Gongaware served as his caddie for the Junior Amateurs.
“He’s one of my best friends in the world. I went to preschool with him. I called him and asked him to carry the bag with me. He was acting like a psychologist on the golf course as well. I was so appreciative of him,” Clifford-Levy said. He acknowledged what a bucket-list experience this was. It might be, he said, the best summer he’s ever had.
“It was just incredible to be there. My locker was next to the defending champion — Hamilton Coleman’s locker. He had so much Titleist stuff. If anyone would like to sponsor me, I’d more than welcome it,” he said, laughing. “I was hitting golf balls on the range next to Miles Russell. That was really cool.”
Russell tied for 39th in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in June. He was seeded second in the Junior Amateur, which he eventually lost to the 49th seed, Noah Maclauchlan, in a stunner. While Clifford-Levy is used to playing against some of the most talented golfers in the country, he wasn’t used to the fanfare and the crowds at Saucon Valley.
“I think golf is a sport you don’t play for a crowd. At most you’re playing in front of eight people. It was really cool to see hundreds of people following some of these guys out there,” he said.
“I teed off on the 10th hole, it’s this tight par 5. There’s a stream to the right and trees left. I told myself, ‘For the love of golf just put the ball in play.’ Charlie Woods was coming across my hole, so there were 150 people watching my first tee shot. I hit one. It was good enough.”
While the crowds following the big-name golfers like Tiger Woods’s son, Charlie, were unparalleled, so too was the quality of the course.
“The course was unbelievable. They had two courses that we played. They were slightly different. It was the hardest setup of any I’ve played, including Shinnecock,” Clifford-Levy said. “It was really cool to play on a course set up like the U.S. Open. I think it was 7,300 yards and the rough was thicker than I knew they could grow grass.”
Clifford-Levy golfed in the first two rounds of stroke play but didn’t make the 64-player cut to advance. He still got a great consolation prize, however. Exiting the tournament early enabled him to return the favor and caddie for Gongaware in a tournament that same week.
“I finished Tuesday and he had a qualifier Wednesday. He didn’t cancel it just in case. So I went out and caddied for him, which was fun,” Clifford-Levy said, happy with the way things worked out. “It was an incredible experience. It clearly didn’t go as well as I would’ve hoped. But, you lose a lot more than you win in golf. It was just so cool to be out there. After it all ended, I just tried to appreciate the moment.”
This is far from the end of Clifford-Levy’s golf career. In September, he heads to Brown University in Providence, R.I., where he will play on the golf team, coming back to East Hampton on breaks and in the summer to keep playing with his dad.
