Liam Clancy clinches Montana State Amateur title

Clancy, a 25-year-old 2018 Billings Central graduate, outdueled Nathan Bailey in a four-hole playoff for the 107th Montana State Amateur Championship title early Sunday morning.

Play had been suspended from Saturday, where an hour-and-a-half lightning delay pushed play back. Both Clancy and Bailey, who were each playing on their home course, were tied at 212 after regulation and remained tied after two playoff holes on Saturday.

So, it was back to the course at 7:30 a.m. for a Sunday finish, where Clancy defeated Bailey, the head golf coach at Rocky Mountain College and three-time champion from 2010-12.

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After both Clancy and Bailey made par on the 18th hole, Bailey found a water hazard and double-bogey on the 10th and Clancy won the event with a bogey.

Clancy, who said he grew up between Laurel and Park City, has been playing the Laurel course for over 20 years. He was asked by The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports if he could have envisioned a better ending for his first State Am title after finishing as the runner-up in 2020, along with a previous third- and fifth-place finish.

“No absolutely not,” he said. “It was 18 years ago my dad (Patrick Clancy) passed away. It’s a whole long story. Usually my dad asked me to do anything, and I’m going to do it with him. He asked me to go biking with him and for some unknown reason I went golfing with my mom and sister and he ended up passing away on the bike ride and I was on my ninth hole at Laurel and got the call he passed away. To win it out there is beyond special. I couldn’t even put it into words how special it is to me. I had this moment circled on my calendar for a while.

“After the tournament was finished, I went out there to nine and had a moment with him alone. He was with me the entire tournament. It is really just an incredible feeling to do that in front of all my friends and all the people at Laurel. I had ‘congratulations” and that the entire day I was out there. There is no words you can put in to how special it was for me and my family to win it out there. I’m still at a loss for words honestly. It hasn’t fully hit yet.”

Clancy put together rounds of 72, 72, and 68 for a four-under 212 through three rounds. Bailey, who tied with Sean Benson last year as the runner-up to Joey Moore, had rounds of 69-70-73 for a 212 through regulation.

For Clancy — the State A champion in 2015 for the Rams as a sophomore and who was third at state as a freshman and second as a junior and senior — claiming first is quite the honor considering all of Bailey’s accomplishments.

“I consider Nate a good friend. He is an incredible player and an incredible champion,” said Clancy. “It’s an honor to beat him and to play with him in the playoff. I have nothing but the best things to say about Nate. He holds his head high and has won it three times. He knows very well what he is doing out there. I know he didn’t finish the way he wanted to.

“Nothing but absolute respect for Nate Bailey. He is one of the best players ever in this entire state. Just to beat him and come out on top was an incredible feeling.”

Benson, of Billings, finished third, a stroke back at 213. Carson Hackmann, of Laurel, was fourth at 214 and Kade McDonough of Missoula was fifth at 215.

For earning the win, Clancy — who golfed for 3.5 years at Wyoming and a semester at Montana State Billings and is an insurance advisor in Billings — has earned entry into the 124th U.S. Amateur Championship Aug. 12-18 at Hazeltine National and Chaska Town Course in Chaska, Minnesota.

“The goal is always to win, but making the cut would be a dream come true, honestly,” Clancy said. “It will be pretty cool to go out there and give it my best.”

Clancy said his father, a chiropractor, died of congenital heart disease. He said some of his father’s patients were out there, many that he didn’t know beforehand.

Overall, there were many well-wishers for Clancy congratulating him on his home-course win.

One of those spectators waiting to congratulate Clancy was McDonough, who could have travelled back to Missoula on Saturday night but instead waited to watch the Sunday finish.

“Congratulations for Liam. He played really well this week, and he deserves it,” said McDonough, 18, a Missoula Sentinel 2024 graduate who will be playing golf on scholarship at Utah. “It was a really clutch playoff and I’m super happy for him.

“I watched the playoff last night and I woke up at 7:20 a.m. this morning to go watch him play two holes to win this morning. It was cool to see him win.”

McDonough netted the Schwartz Memorial Award for the fourth straight time, the only golfer to accomplish that feat according to Montana State Golf Association officials. Established in 1979, the Schwartz Memorial Award goes to the lowest junior golfer participating at the State Amateur.