Leng, Whaley survive tough semifinal tests to reach final of U.S. Amateur at Merion

 

   HAVERFORD – All of Jay Leng Jr.’s dreams are coming true this summer.

   The 20-year-old Stanford junior from San Diego, Calif. gutted out a 2 and 1 victory over Auburn sophomore Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va. in the semifinals of the 126^th U.S. Amateur before another large crowd of golf-mad Philly fans Saturday at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course to earn a spot in the final opposite Englishman Jack Whaley, a senior at Florida State.

   Whaley won his semifinal match against a gritty Carter Loflin of Duluth, Ga., who recently wrapped up his college career at Georgia in the spring, by holing a four-foot putt for bogey on the tough par-4 18^th hole at the iconic Hugh Wilson design that is the East Course.

   Leng had risen to No. 23 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) on the strength of his victory in the Western Amateur a couple of weeks ago at Beverly Country Club in Chicago, Ill.

   He hasn’t lost in match play since falling to Reilly’s Auburn teammate Josiah Gilbert in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. in the spring.

   By reaching the U.S. Amateur final, Leng and Whaley earned berths in next summer’s U.S. Open at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula and likely invitations to The Masters in April at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.

   Neither Leng nor Reilly had his best stuff Saturday, but Leng made some big shots when he absolutely had to have them and Reilly got one extremely bad break. But that’s golf and that’s certainly match play.

   “I was very confident going into today,” Leng told the USGA website. “Then had a good range session. Better than (Friday). After the first few I holes, (I discovered) the greens were really firm (and) way faster and there were so many people and it kind of just took me by surprise.

   “I was a little bit more nervous than I thought and my game wasn’t very sharp today. But it was a good learning experience for (Sunday).”

   Leng and Reilly, No. 56 in the WAGR, took turns giving holes away early in the match and no hole was halved until the seventh.

   Leng had just finished making a mess of the long par-5 fourth hole, enabling Reilly to even the match, when Reilly yanked his tee shot at the tough par-4 fifth hole left of the creek. Leng found the fairway and hit a brilliant approach that finished 10 feet beyond the hole to a back-left pin that was barely legal.

   Reilly blocked his approach to the par-4 sixth hole, leaving himself short-sided in the right rough and a two-putt par gave Leng a 2-up advantage.

   After halving the seventh hole, Leng dumped his approach in the bunker that fronts the short par-4 eighth and took two shots to get out, all of which Reilly made moot by canning his 20-foot birdie try.

   Leng’s tee shot at the par-3 ninth hole finished 15 feet from the hole and Reilly was inside him at 10 feet. But a Leng make and a Reilly miss enabled Leng to build a 2-up lead again.

   Leng made a mess of the short par-4 11^th hole, the Bobby Jones hole, but Reilly again made it a moot point when his 18-footer for birdie that he didn’t have to make went in anyway.

   The 19-year-old Reilly may never get a worse break than the one the golf gods delivered on the par-4 12^th hole.

   Leng was safely on the green and Reilly’s approach bounded toward the hole. It was going to stop past the pin and spin back. Instead, it clanged hard off the stick and rolled off the front of the green and rolled and rolled to 30 yards short of the green.

   Leng would win the hole with a par to restore his 2-up lead.

   Reilly hit the exact same shot at the short par-3 13^th hole. It bounded past the pin and spun back to two feet. Reilly’s birdie left him 1-down going to Merion’s final five holes.

   Neither player drove it well at the par-4 14^th, Leng ending up in the right rough almost behind the 16^th green and Reilly in a bunker on the left that left him with an awkward stance. Both did well to make bogey.

   The match ultimately turned in Leng’s favor at the par-4 15^th hole. He must’ve taken a fairway finder off the tee because he was at least 30 yards, maybe 40 behind Reilly. But Leng’s approach, much like the shot he hit at the fifth hole, bounced toward the hole and curled around, finishing eight feet away on about the only line you could reasonably expect to make a putt.

   And make it he did, adding a fist pump after the ball disappeared. Leng was 2-up with three to play.

   Reilly missed the green at the tough par-3 17^th hole and he chipped it past the hole.
When Leng nuzzled his 35-foot birdie putt close to the hole, Reilly conceded the hole and the match.

   Leng will be trying to join that Tiger Woods fella and Lawson Little as the only Stanford players to win the U.S. Amateur when he tees off at 9 a.m. for the first round of a scheduled 36-hole final against Whaley. There is rain, possibly heavy rain, in the forecast for the afternoon. We’ll see.

   A win Sunday would make Leng or Whaley an automatic qualifier for their respective teams for the Walker Cup Match, which will be staged at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland next month.

   Pretty sure I spotted a very interested spectator in U.S. team captain Nathan Smith, the Pittsburgh native and a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship winner, hanging out at the first tee before Saturday’s semifinal matches.

   I suspect he would lobby the USGA Team Selection Committee pretty hard for Leng, even if Leng would happen to fall in Sunday’s final.

   And the 22-year-old Whaley, No. 90 in the WAGR, would seem to be a logical addition to the Great Britain & Ireland side, no matter what happens Sunday.

   Whaley has appeared to be pretty loose the whole week, but he watched the 22-year-old Loflin battle back from 3-down deficits twice to finally even the match with a birdie at the 17^th hole.

   Loflin was a clear gallery favorite with Jack Hopkins, a 35-year veteran Merion looper, on the bag. Loflin has been profuse in his praise for what Hopkins has brought to the table this week.

   It has been my experience that a caddy’s voice has to resonate with a player for the team to work. Clearly, the advice Hopkins offered all week made sense to Loflin. You’re not out there telling a guy as talented as Loflin how to play. You’re there to help him process the data in front of him. The smart ones listen.

   As a one-time Merion looper many decades ago, I was certainly rooting for Loflin and Hopkins to make it to the final.

   The gallery erupted when Loflin made a 20-footer to save par at the 16^th hole and then waited and watched at the top of the hill as Loflin finally drew even at the tough par-3 17^th.

   Whaley drove it in the right rough at the iconic par-4 18^th hole and Loflin was in the left rough.

   Neither could reach the green out of the thick rough, but Loflin’s third shot went bounding off the back of the green. Whaley managed to keep his third shot on the green, although it was 40 feet from the hole.

   The rough again proved too thick for Loflin to get the ball any closer to the hole than 15 feet. Whaley’s first putt was four feet from the hole, but, when Loflin couldn’t get his putt for bogey to fall, that four-footer for bogey for Whaley was for the match.

   And the longest four-foot putt of his life tumbled into the cup.

   My week of live-blogging from Merion has come to an end. Hoping to catch a loop at Stonewall before the rain arrives Sunday, but I’ll do a little wrapup of the final. It was a tremendous week in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township and ran into a lot of old friends. I always do a year-in-review post at the end of December. Pretty sure nothing that happens between now and then will top my week at Merion as the lead item in that post.

 

 

 

 

 

Lugiano's run in the U.S. Amateur at Merion is halted by Reilly in quarterfinals

 

   HAVERFORD -- Michael Lugiano, a scholastic standout at Lake Lehman who is a junior at Liberty, had already proven that he can play amateur golf at the highest levels when he claimed the individual title in the NCAA Corvallis Regional in Oregon in May.

   His run to the quarterfinals of the 126^th U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course was no fluke.

   That run came to a crashing halt Friday as Auburn sophomore Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va. cruised into the semifinals with a 6 and 4 victory over Lugiano, but that did absolutely nothing to tarnish the week Lugiano had at Merion.

   It appears Lugiano, who plays out of Huntsville Golf Club, might have been a major contributor to the largest attendance ever measured at a U.S. Amateur.

   Making the U.S. Amateur a ticketed event is a fairly recent development.

   But half of Scranton – OK, a little bit of hyperbole there -- used to bus to Syracuse to see its favorite son, Gerry McNamara, play hoops at the Carrier Dome. McNamara will take over as the head coach at his alma mater in a few months.

   And a little of that dynamic seemed to be at work Friday. But give credit too, to the Philadelphia area golf fans, who prove over and over again that if you’re staging a big-time event at one of the region’s great golf courses, they’ll come out and watch.

   It happened with the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in May and it happened again Friday at Merion.

   Unfortunately for Lugiano, Reilly, who delivered the clinching point for the Tigers in their 4-1 victory over UCLA in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. in the spring, reveled in the huge gallery that was mostly rooting for Lugiano.

   “It was good, it was fun, that’s for sure,” Reilly told the USGA website. “I actually really enjoyed it. I loved how many people there were out there. Just gave me a little extra motivation, honestly.

   “Thank God, I got a couple of my friends that came out, so they were trying to get loud. It was great. Unbelievable atmosphere.”

   Reilly had five birdies on his scorecard, including a conceded birdie on the final hole of the match after Lugiano yanked his tee shot at the par-4 14^th out of bounds. But, as so often is the case, is was a par saver at the short par-4 seventh hole that might have turned the match in his favor.

   Reilly had taken a 2-up advantage when he dropped in an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-4 sixth hole.

   With the tee box at the seventh hole moved forward, Reilly and Lugiano both found the bunker on the left side of the green. Reilly’s bunker shot skittered off the green into another bunker on the other side of the green while Lugiano blasted it to 12 feet from the hole.

   Now short-sided, Reilly could do no better than hit it 20 feet past the pin. But he buried his par putt and Lugiano’s birdie try slid by and Reilly held his 2-up advantage.

   Lugiano drained a 15-footer for birdie at the short par-4 eighth hole to cut his deficit in half, but it was all Reilly after that.

   Lugiano pulled his tee shot at the par-3 ninth hole into the left greenside bunker and Reilly was able to restore his 2-up advantage with a par.

   Both players drove it into the yawning bunker in front of the green at the short par-4 10^th hole. Reilly nearly holed his bunker shot and had a tap-in for birdie while Lugiano’s seven-footer got a piece of the hole, but wouldn’t fall.

   Lugiano made a bit of a mess of the short par-4 11^th hole, driving it into the rough short of the creek and then chunking his approach, leaving him with an awkward stance alongside a bunker. Reilly’s two-putt par gave him the win and suddenly he was 4-up.

   After the two halved the par-4 12^th hole with pars, Reilly stuck his tee shot at the little par-3 13^th hole 12 feet from the wicker basket-topped stick and converted the birdie try. He was 5-up with five holes to play.

   When Lugiano hit his tee shot at the 14^th hole out of bounds, it was over.

   When Lugiano puts the disappointment behind him, he’ll realize what a positive this week was and, oh yeah, the exemptions. Pretty sure the quarterfinalists are exempt into next year’s U.S. Amateur at another American classic, Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., outside of Rochester, with the East Course and the West Course the handiwork of the master himself, Donald Ross.

   Pretty sure Lugiano is also exempt into Final Qualifying for next year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Those local qualifiers can be a bear and Lugiano can skip that step.

   Reilly’s semifinal opponent will be Stanford junior Jay Leng Jr. of San Diego, Calif. and No. 23 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), who pulled away from Florida senior Jack Turner of Orlando, Fla. and No. 19 in the WAGR for a 6 and 5 decision, closing with a devastating burst of four consecutive birdies at the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th holes.

   Got a chance to watch a lot of Leng’s 1-up victory over Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala. and No. 3 in the WAGR in Thursday’s round of 16 and Leng is going to be a tough out. Leng is coming off a victory in the Western Amateur at Beverly Country Club in Chicago, Ill.

   On the other side of the bracket, Carter Loflin of Duluth, Ga., who wrapped up his career at Georgia in the spring, reached the semifinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Colorado senior Brandon Knight of Pleasanton, Calif. It was the furthest any of the four quarterfinals got.

   Loflin was 2-down and staring at a bogey on the hardest hole on the golf course, the par-4 fifth, when he chipped in for an unlikely par and a win that cut his deficit to 1-down.

   He would go on to win the seventh, eighth, 10^th and 13^th holes with birdies and build a 3-up advantage that Knight was unable to cut into.

   Loflin’s semifinal opponent will be Englishman Jack Whaley, a senior at Florida State and No. 90 in the WAGR who rolled to a 5 and 4 victory over Moroccan Adam Bresnu, a senior at Texas Tech.

   Whaley picked up wins at the first and second holes with birdies and never looked back. Bresnu never even won a hole off Whaley.

   Whaley won the fourth hole with a par, the eighth with a birdie and the 11^th with a birdie to build a commanding 5-up advantage.

   Whaley is hoping his strong showing at Merion will earn him some consideration for a spot on the Great Britain & Ireland team that will take on the United States in the Walker Cup Match next month at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.

   The Loflin-Whaley match kicks off Saturday’s two semifinals at 2 p.m. The Reilly-Leng match will follow right behind them, teeing off at 2:15 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leng holds off Watts in a battle of heavyweights to reach the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals at Merion

 

   HAVERFORD -- As the round of 32 in the 126^th U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course was nearing completion Thursday morning, it was easy to hone in on a match to follow in the afternoon’s round of 16.

   Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala. is headed for Tennessee to begin his college career, but he has already established himself as one of the top amateur players in golf as evidenced by his No.-3 spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   Watts’ lofty perch in the WAGR made him an automatic qualifier for the United States team in next month’s Walker Cup Match against Great Britain & Ireland at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.

   Jay Leng Jr. of San Diego, Calif. is a junior at Stanford and No. 23 in the WAGR. He’s coming off a victory in the Western Amateur, defeating Vanderbilt sophomore Michael Riebe, 5 and 4, in the final at Beverly Country Club in Chicago, among other strong showings in Elite Amateur Series events this summer.

   The Western Am might be an even tougher test than the U.S. Amateur with 72 holes of stroke-play qualifying for match play with only the top 16 advancing to the match-play bracket.

   Leng had rolled to a 6 and 5 victory over Florida junior Zack Swanwick of New Zealand and No. 20 in the WAGR in Thursday morning’s round of 16. Watts had knocked off Anson Munzlinger, a 16-year-old from Columbia, Mo., in the round of 16 to do his part to set up the showdown with Leng.

   The Leng-Watts match was golf entertainment at its best with Leng ultimately holding on for a 1-up decision to earn a spot in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals.

   It will be another heavyweight showdown in the quarterfinals, where Leng will take on Florida senior Jack Turner of Orlando, Fla and No. 19 in the WAGR. Turner reached the quarterfinals with a 5 and 3 victory over fellow Gator Joshua Bai, like Swanwick, a Kiwi, in another round-of-16 match Thursday afternoon.

   I arrived on the scene just in time to see Watts hole a five-foot putt for birdie at the par-5 fourth hole to take a 2-up lead. Leng was completely aware what he was getting into when he drew Watts in the round of 16.

   “I knew it was going to be a battle out there from the beginning,” Leng told the USGA website (the sketchy reliability of the shuttle buses back to remote parking at nearby Haverford College makes it a risky proposition to hang around for the interview sessions). “I’ve played with Tyler enough to know how good he is and what he’s capable of.”

   Leng cut his deficit in half with a beautifully executed lag putt from the top of green to the pin near the front left that left him a short par putt. When Watts botched his chip from just off the green, he conceded the par putt to Leng.

   But the match really turned two holes later at the short, par-4 seventh hole. Leng’s layup tee shot found the left bunker near the tee box for the fourth hole. He had 140 yards to negotiate and he lashed a 50-degree wedge that trundled on the front of the green, 45 feet from the hole.

   Watts’ tee shot left him near the out-of-bounds fence on the right side. His punch shot ran through the green.

   Leng, however, dropped his birdie bomb and Watts hit a pretty effective flop shot, but couldn’t find the hole. The match was even.

   At the par-3 ninth hole, Watts couldn’t get a 15-foot birdie try to drop, but Leng’s eight-footer disappeared for a birdie and he was 1-up.

   Leng increased his advantage to 2-up when he drove it just off the green in the rough at the short, par-4 10^th hole and chipped it close for another birdie.

   Watts fought back, his approach at the short, par-4 11^th hole, the Bobby Jones hole, skipping to a stop three feet from the hole. He converted the birdie try to cut his deficit to 1-down.

   Watts holed another birdie putt at the par-4 12^th hole, draining his 12-footer.  Problem was, Leng was on the same line and had no trouble dropping his eight-foot birdie try right on top of Watts’ birdie after seeing the line.

   Leng stuck it to four feet at the little, par-3 13^th hole and easily converted the birdie putt after Watts had been unable to get his 12-footer to fall. Leng had made birdies at the seventh, ninth, 10^th, 12^th and 13^th holes. He was 2-up.

   It looks like kind of a homemade swing that Leng has, but it’s repeatable. He finally opened the door a little with a block off the tee at the par-4 15^th hole. Watts hit in the fairway and knocked it to 10 feet, ultimately getting a conceded birdie that cut Leng’s lead to 1-up with three holes to play.

   Watt’s last best chance to even the match came at the tough, par-3 17^th hole. It has proven to be such a pivotal hole in the matches that have lasted that long.

   Watts was just off the front edge, but 50 feet away and needing to negotiate the 17^th’s mini valley of sin to an impossible pin on the right-front porch. Watts didn’t quite hit it hard enough and left himself eight feet for par.

   Leng was just on the green, pretty much on the same line that Watts had been on. Leng’s first putt didn’t make it up the hill at all and rolled back to him. His second try was better, leaving him three feet for bogey.

   When Watts was unable to make his par putt and Leng holed his bogey putt, Leng took a 1-up advantage to the last.

   Both players left themselves not far from the back left pin (the John Peters hole-out for eagle to win the 2021 Pennsylvania Amateur pin).

   Watts got it up and down from the rough above the left bunker for a par. Leng, putting from the back fringe, lagged it up to three feet. Leng only needed a par and he got it.

   Just a great match between two great players.

   Most of the rest of the significant gallery at Merion Thursday afternoon watched Michael Lugiano, a scholastic standout at Lake Lehman and Liberty teammate of qualifying medalist Josh Ryan, claim his second 1-up victory of the day, this one coming against Drake Harvey, an incoming freshman at Brigham Young from Henderson, Nev.

   Lugiano, who is staying at the Norristown home of his former Liberty teammate Ryan this week, made a huge splash in the spring when he captured the individual title in the NCAA Corvallis Regional and represented the Flames as an individual in the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. to cap his sophomore season.

   Lugiano began his day with a 1-up victory over Nevill Ruiter of the Netherlands, who wrapped up his college career at the College of Charleston in the spring.

   Harvey, who had opened the week with a 6-under 64 that matched the competitive course record at the East Course in qualifying for match play, had knocked out three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and five-time U.S. Walker Cupper Stewart Hagestad, 2 and 1, in his second-round match. Hagestad is No. 27 in the WAGR.

   Lugiano and Harvey traded wins in the early stages of the round with Harvey taking a 1-up lead with a birdie at the par-4 11^th hole.

   But Lugiano had the answers down the stretch. He drew even by taking the 12^th hole with a birdie and put a nose in front by winning the 14^th with a par.

   Harvey drew even again with a win at the par-4 16^th hole with a par. But Lugiano made a par at the tough, par-3 17^th hole, a really good score on that hole with the pin perched precariously on the right-front corner, to take a 1-up lead to the 18^th tee.

   A par at the 18^th hole was good enough for Lugiano to book himself a spot in the quarterfinals.

   Lugiano will face Auburn sophomore Logan Reilly of Lovettesville, Va., who delivered the clinching point for the Tigers in their 4-1 victory over UCLA in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at La Costa, after Reilly went 20 holes to knock off Oklahoma senior Ryder Cowan, a home boy from Edmond, Okla. and No. 8 in the WAGR, with the sun setting on the East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.

   There were a couple of tight matches at the top of the bracket in the round of 16.

   Colorado senior Brandon Wright of Pleasanton, Calif. pulled out a 1-up decision over Gaven Lane of Argyle, Texas, a senior on the powerful Oklahoma State team.

   Lane’s quarterfinal opponent will be Carter Loflin of Duluth, Ga., who wrapped up his career at Georgia in the spring.

   Loflin had to go to the 19^th hole, making a birdie on Merion’s short par-4 opener, to pull out a victory over Alabama junior William Jennings of Greenville, S.C., who is No. 5 in the WAGR.

   Jennings was the runnerup in the NCAA Championship’s individual chase at La Costa in the spring. He rallied with wins in the last two holes of regulation to send his match with Loflin to the 19^th hole before falling.

   The final quarterfinal will pit Moroccan Adam Bresnu, a senior at Texas Tech and No. 30 in the WAGR, against England’s Jack Whaley, a senior at Florida State and No. 90 in the WAGR.

   Bresnu cruised to a 5 and 4 decision over Illinois senior Max Herendeen of Champaign, Ill. and No. 26 in the WAGR in his round-of-16 match.

   Whaley, making a pretty good case for his inclusion on the GB&I side for next month’s Waker Cup Match at Lahinch, rolled to a 4 and 3 victory over accomplished mid-am Christian Cavaliere of Katonah, N.Y.

   The 312 players who began the week in hopes of hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy are down to just eight.

   The Knight-Loflin quarterfinal will kick things off at 1:15 p.m. Friday with the Lugiano-Reilly showdown, the last of the four matches, going off at 2 p.m.