Michael Kelley has endured a spectacular amateur golf career. The native of Westerville, OH has won numerous tournaments at the regional, state, and national levels. Kelley is a two-time Columbus Open winner and seven-time Central Ohio Amateur champion. He was also honored with the Columbus District Golf Association Senior Player of the Year award in both 2020 and 2021.

At the statewide level, Kelley is a two-time champion of the Ohio Mid-Amateur Championship (2002 and 2008), an event in which he has amassed 10 top-10 finishes. In 2017, Kelley won the Ohio Memorial Senior and Ohio Public Links Mid-Amateur Championship. A year later, Kelley won the 2018 Ohio Senior Hall of Fame Championship and Ohio 2-man Best Ball. Most recently, he won the 2021 Senior Amateur at Miami Valley Golf Club.

Kelley has qualified for 22 USGA Championships in over a 30-year period. In 1982, he qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur. Most notably, Kelley played in 14 editions of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, reaching match play four times. Kelley also reached match play twice in the U.S. Amateur Championship, while qualifying for the event itself five times, (1991, 1992, 1993, 2002, and 2013).