Whaley fights to the finish to defeat Leng and capture the U.S. Amateur title at Merion

 

   The victory by Englishman Jack Whaley, a senior at Florida State, over Stanford junior Jay Leng Jr. in the final of a really fun 126^th U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club’s storied East Course, was a testament to the breadth of golf talent that is out there.

   Yes, they were technically amateurs, but the majority of the participants in last week’s U.S. Amateur have their sights set on a professional career.

   I saved the match-play bracket going into Saturday’s semifinals because I did the same thing 10 years ago when the U.S. Women’s Amateur was held at Roling Green Golf Club, the William Flynn gem just a few miles away from Merion.

   Four women from that match-play bracket, Hannah Green, Patty Tavatanakit, Celine Boutier and Yuka Saso, have won major championships in the decade that has ensued and Nasa Hatatoka has come close a couple of times.

   Whaley’s run to a U.S. Amateur title nearly ended before it got started.

   It took 2-over 142 for two rounds of qualifying for match play at Philadelphia Country Club and Merion just to get a chance to compete with 15 other guys for the final 11 spots in the match-play bracket. It started Wednesday morning at 7:15 a.m. Wedges at 120 yards at Merion’s little par-3 13^th hole.

   Whaley took care of that challenge by nearly holing his shot for a kick-in birdie that assured him a spot in the match-play bracket.

   Later that same day – remember, Whaley’s day probably began with a wakeup call in the 4 to 5 a.m. range – Whaley found himself in a tight match with Jackson Ormond, a hot-shot from Rochester, N.Y. who will join the program at Florida in a couple of weeks.

   All the kid did in June was earn himself a spot in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, make the cut and play the weekend.

   It took 22 holes, but Whaley finally prevailed. After a Wednesday spent living on the edge, Whaley could finally take a breath.

   Whaley was really impressive the rest of the way in match play and the Brit, after spotting Leng a 2-up advantage on the first 18 holes of the scheduled 36-hoile final, came roaring back, ultimately dropping an eight-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15^th hole, the 33^rd of the match, in the rain, to pull out a 4 and 3 decision that left him hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy.

   It was pointed out to Whaley that his name will join the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods on that Havemeyer Trophy, that he will join the likes of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino and another Englishman, Justin Rose, as champions at Merion.

   “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Whaley told the USGA in the moments following his emotional hug on the 15^th green with his father and caddy Andy. “But it’s definitely a huge honor to be able to part of the names of all the famous people and unbelievable golfers that have come through this golf course and won. Yeah, I don’t really have words for it right now.”

   Whaley took a flyer, coming to America to play NAIA golf at Dalton State College in Georgia. He caught the eye of somebody at Florida State and now he will represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland next month while showing off the Havemeyer Trophy to his teammates.

   Whaley, No. 90 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) – a ranking that is going up the next time the WAGR is updated – got the jump Sunday morning when he chipped in for birdie at Merion’s short par-4 opener and won the par-3 third with a par to go 2-up.

   Leng, No. 23 in the WAGR and in the midst of a summer-long hot streak that included a victory in the Western Amateur at Beverly Golf Club in Chicago, Ill., cut his deficit in half by winning the long par-5 fourth hole.

   Whaley went back to 2-up by winning the tough par-4 fifth hole with a par, although Leng nearly got an unlikely half when he chipped with his back to hole and watched his ball slow-walk its way down the slope before, somehow, not falling.

   Leng got even by winning the ninth and 10^th holes with pars and Whaley took a 1-up lead again by taking the short par-4 11^th, the Bobby Jones hole, with a par.

   The rest of the morning belonged to Leng.

   You probably have seen the video of Leng’s birdie putt at the par-4 12^th hole as he lagged it out at least three feet left of the hole and circled the ball as it meandered its way right into the cup.

   Leng made a birdie at the little par-3 13^th hole to take a 1-up lead. He couldn’t possibly have imagined that it would be his last birdie of the day.

   A win for Leng at the par-4 16^th hole, the first of the three-hole finishing sequence that criss-crosses what once was a quarry, gave him a 2-up lead heading to the afternoon.

   Rain was promised for the afternoon and it arrived pretty much on schedule not long after the afternoon round began. It seemed to reinvigorate the Englishman, who, I’m certain, has played in rainy conditions in his native Great Britain many more times than Leng, a native of San Diego, Calif., has.

   A birdie by Whaley at the par-5 second hole, the 20^th of the match, began a burst of four straight wins that turned his 2-down deficit into a 2-up lead. Whaley made a birdie at the par-3 third hole, won the par-5 fourth with a par and the tough par-4 fifth with a bogey.

   Leng cut his deficit to 1-down when slippery hands for Whaley sent his tee shot at the par-4 sixth hole out of bounds. Out came the rain gloves.

   A birdie at the par-4 eighth hole, the 26^th of the match, restored Whaley’s 2-up advantage and he dropped a 10-foot birdie putt at the short par-4 10^th to take a commanding 3-up lead.

   It was about this time that the NBC coverage kicked in. There was a brief lull in the rain, but it looked pretty wet out there. After spending six days at Merion, I bagged the final, instead catching a loop at Stonewall that finished just before the rain arrived in earnest.

   Whaley gave a hole back when he dumped his approach at the 11^th hole, the Bobby Jones hole, in the creek fronting the green.

   But he quickly restored his 3-up lead by winning the 12^th hole, the 30^th of the match, with a par.

   When the pair headed for the East Course’s Back Five, the rain was back.

   Whaley maintained his 3-up advantage before finally putting Leng away with a nice approach at the par-4 15^th hole to eight feet below the hold and confidently holing the birdie try.

   Leng got a nice consolation prize later in the day Sunday when he was named to the United States Walker Cup team that will take on Whaley and GB&I at Lahinch.

   Leng joined 19-year-old Kihei Akina, the nation’s top freshman during the wraparound 2025-2026 college season at Brigham Young and No. 11 in the WAGR, 21-year-old Ryder Cowan, a senior at Oklahoma who got a share of low-amateur honors in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock and is No. 8 in the WAGR, 21-year-old Josiah Gilbert, a senior at Auburn who helped the Tigers capture a national title in the spring at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. and is No. 7 in the WAGR, 20-year-old William Jennings, a junior at Alabama who was the runnerup in the NCAA’s individual chase at La Costa and is No. 5 in the WAGR, and 35-year-old Stewart Hagestad, who will be a member of the U.S. team for a sixth straight Walker Cup and is No. 27 in the WAGR, as the final selections for the U.S. team.

   Four other players had already secured spots on the team, including Oklahoma State teammates Preston Stout, the No. 1 player in the WAGR, and Ethan Fang, No. 9 in the WAGR.

   Stout and Fang, both seniors, are veterans of the U.S. team that claimed a 17-9 victory over GB&I a year ago at the iconic Cypress Point Club on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   Normally a biennial event, the Walker Cup Match is being contested for a second year in a row in order to synch it up with its female counterpart, the Curtis Cup Match, and leave odd-numbered years to the World Amateur Team Championship.

   The talented teens, Miles Russell, the runnerup in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club, and Tyler Watts, who will join the program at Tennessee when he returns from Lahinch, round out the U.S. Walker Cup team.

   Watched Watts’ loss to Leng in a terrific round-of-16 match at Merion.

   Of course, the other star of the show last week was Merion and the Hugh Wilson design – with some finishing touches from Flynn – shined as brightly as ever.

   I grew up just blocks from the eighth tee at the East Course and looped there is a younger man, finishing off my stint at Merion by carrying Scioto Country Club assistant pro Jay Cudd’s bag in the 1981 U.S. Open.

   It’s always felt like visiting an old friend when I get a chance to get to Merion, particularly in the last few trips for qualifying for match play in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur in 2016, the 2021 Pennsylvania Amateur and the Curtis Cup in 2022.

   We are so lucky to have one of the cathedrals of the game in our backyard and that the membership at Merion is so generous in opening its doors for events like this.