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.