Befitting the time-tested stage and gravity of the stakes, Merion’s 20th USGA event had it all. Tight matches. Incredible sportsmanship. Unconventional techniques. Huge crowds. And mostly high-quality play with the usual raggedness that creeps in when playing so many intense and diabolical holes over seven days.
Jack Whaley survived a back-and-forth finale to the 126th U.S. Amateur by defeating San Diego’s Jay Leng 4&3. The English golfer became the second straight U.S. Amateur champion to survive Wednesday’s stroke play playoff (he nearly aced the 119-yard, par-3 13th for a tap-in birdie to escape the anything-goes 16-for-11 playoff.
The 2025 NAIA champion at Dalton State who transferred to Florida State had a quiet summer after a solid first season as a Seminole (four top 10s and a 71.54 scoring average). In what looked like a longshot bid to make next month’s Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team next month, Whaley missed match play at The Amateur, finished 33rd at the European Amateur, and 21st at the Western Amateur (just missing match play).
With the Havemeyer Trophy in his pocket, the 22-year-old is now all but assured of getting his name called by Captain Dean Robertson.
Leng hoped to pull off one of the greatest feats in golf (pro or amateur!): winning the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year. Only nine before have won the two grueling events. The list includes Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Hal Sutton, Lanny Wadkins, and Justin Leonard. Leng was also looking to become the first Stanford golfer since Tiger Woods to win the U.S. Amateur.
And over his first five matches, the 20-year-old with unorthodox technique appeared destined to join rarified company. After falling down early, Leng finished the morning session 2UP only to lose four straight holes from the second to the fifth. He would never lead again in the match.
The skies also began darkening and unleashed rain that failed to make Merion any easier. Leng started to hit some loose shots after several days of efficiency that saw him play ten fewer holes than Whaley in reaching Sunday’s 36-hole final.
“I didn't play great golf,” Leng said. “[I] didn't make as many putts as I wanted to. But it was raining, windy; very different conditions today. Not too disappointed.”
Leng’s stellar effort still will get him a Masters invitation and a spot in the U.S. Open field next year at Pebble Beach. He was also added to next month’s Walker Cup team headed for Lahinch (more below).
As smooth as Whaley’s swing looked next to Leng’s frenetic but highly functional technique, the 90th-ranked player in the world faced adversity during the afternoon session. First, there was the wasp sting on the 22nd hole.
“I was just walking down the fourth after my second shot, and I felt something on my leg, and then it just stuck in me,” Whaley said. “I was like, ‘What's going on?’ Looked down and there was a wasp on my ankle, and I flicked it off and then I had to pull the stinger out, and it was throbbing for a good two holes and then someone brought something out to me and it's kind of calmed down now.”
The rain also brought an equipment change after hitting one out-of-bounds at the sixth hole and 24th of the match.
“I actually normally don't do that,” Whaley said. “But as soon as it started raining on six and I slipped and I sliced one out of bounds, I was like, I can't use these anymore, can't use a regular glove, so I got the two gloves out and I started swinging it a little bit smoother and tried to time it up a little bit better, and it seemed to work, so I kept going.”
Whaley was born in Doncaster, England, where he took up the game at age four. His dad Andy, who caddied the entire way, enlisted his son at the Pete Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham and eventually saw Jack rise enough to head to Georgia for a stint at Dalton State College. Whaley won five NAIA tournaments there, highlighted by an opening 61 en route to winning the 2025 NAIA Men’s Golf Championship after firing a record 61 to start the tournament.
“I’m not very emotional as a rule, but this is very emotional,” Andy Whaley told NBC’s Steve Burkowski after the match. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think that this was possible. Jack has just achieved the impossible, frankly. That’s what this is about. I just can’t be proud enough of the guy.”
Whaley will not take trips to Lahinch, Augusta National, Pebble Beach, and, if he remains an amateur, St Andrews for The 155th Open. For now, he’s just excited to see his name alongside most of the game’s greats.
“As we were driving back [to the clubhouse], I was looking with my dad at some of the names that are on [the Havemeyer Trophy], and it's incredible,” Whaley said. “I never thought that my name would be amongst such impressive people.”
Whaley joins these previous U.S. Amateur winners at Merion:
2005: Edoardo Molinari defeats Dillon Dougherty 4&3
1989: Chris Patton defeats Danny Green 3&1
1966: Gary Cowan 285-75 defeats Deane Beman, 285-76 in 18-hole playoff
1930: Bobby Jones defeats Eugene Homans, 8&7
1924: Bobby Jones defeats George Von Elm 9&8
1916: Chick Evans defeats Robert Gardner 4&3
Also…
Three of the last four U.S. Amateurs contested at Merion have been claimed by international players: Gary Cowan (Canada, 1966); Edoardo Molinari (Italy, 2005) and Whaley.
As per USGA tradition in 36-hole amateur championship matches, the two finalists get to bypass potentially painful chit chat in the buffet line and order off the menu. Leng ordered a ribeye medium rare with white rice and some vegetables and fruit. Whaley chose chicken and pasta.
Merion and the Philly faithful turned out in grand fashion. Even with the PGA Championship in town earlier this year, robust galleries showed up for the key matches and produced some epic scenes under Saturday’s sunny skies. The USGA estimated around 17,000 showed up for the week and about 100x that in gross merch sales for the Merion golf shop (based on the lines out the door to get in).
The U.S. Amateur’s pair of par-70 courses needed acres of heavy rough to keep things in check, and Merion’s par-4 tees turned into divotfests, so this American institution can only benefit from hosting the 2030 U.S. Open in the first year of new distance-limiting equipment testing.
In the two rounds of stroke play, Merion’s East Course produced a 73.970 scoring average.
Philadelphia Country Club played almost as tough, producing a 73.150 average for the 36-holes of stroke play qualifying.
Match referees: USGA Executive Committee members Andrew Biggadike (morning) and Bryan Lewis (afternoon).
While it was nice to have NBC return the U.S. Amateur to network television, Sunday’s 36-hole final featured only an hour of early coverage on Peacock. Meaning, the morning session was relegated to a highlights package and few production values.
In the “no one seems to care” department, the main booth announcer audio was behind the action and the on-course reporters. All week. This led to cross-talking and multiple instances of delayed main booth reactions to what the ball was doing. Here’s a doozy on Saturday when semi-finalist Logan Reilly’s approach hit the flagstick as announcers Dan Hicks and Smiley Kaufman both react at the same time, a good second after the ball was already on its way off the green.
Two Quad readers enthralled by this week’s play emailed to ask a similar question prompted by match play fireworks at the short par-4 10th: was Riviera’s similarly short and wild hole inspired by Merion? (Even though it’s a dogleg left while Riviera’s bends left-to-right.)
Why of course!
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