The 126th U.S. Amateur concludes Sunday at Merion Golf Club with a 36-hole final match between Jay Leng Jr., a Stanford junior, and Jack Whaley, an English player who was competing in NAIA golf 15 months ago. This championship match features two competitors who were not widely anticipated to reach this stage, having outlasted a field that included 47 of the top 50 ranked amateur players globally.
The U.S. Amateur stands as the oldest and most prestigious tournament in amateur golf. Its winner earns invitations to the following year’s Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship. This year, 312 players, selected from 5,111 entries, converged on Merion, the Philadelphia-area course renowned for Bobby Jones completing the Grand Slam in 1930 and Ben Hogan’s iconic 1-iron shot in 1950. The tournament structure involved two rounds of stroke play to narrow the field to 64, followed by six rounds of head-to-head match play to determine the champion.
The competition saw many top contenders eliminated early. World No. 1 Preston Stout, defending British Amateur champion Ethan Fang, and reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion Noah Maclauchlan all missed the cut. Defending champion Mason Howell also failed to advance past the cut line, and World No. 5 Luke Poulter was eliminated in a playoff for the final match-play spots. Hometown medalist Josh Ryan, who secured stroke play victory in his home state with a round of 65, lost his opening match in 19 holes. By Saturday night, none of the top six seeds remained, setting the stage for two improbable runs to the final.
Jay Leng Jr.’s journey to the final follows a significant improvement in his performance. His college match-play record at Stanford was 2-6-2 entering the current season’s late stages. However, two weeks before Merion, he won the 124th Western Amateur at Beverly Country Club in Chicago. In that event, he qualified with rounds of 67, 67, 68, and 66, never shooting over par. He defeated his Stanford teammate Dean Greyserman 1 up, Jaden Dumdumaya 5 and 3, 17-year-old medalist Miles Russell 3 and 1, and concluded the final against Michael Riebe on the 14th green. A year prior, Leng finished 103rd at the same event. In January 2025, he was ranked No. 199 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, arriving at Beverly ranked 33rd, and at Merion at No. 23. He has now won nine of his last ten matches, with five wins at the Western Amateur and five this week, his only loss coming to Auburn’s Josiah Gilbert at the NCAA Championship. His consistent play is reflected in his sophomore year scoring average of 70.92, placing him in the top 20 for a single season in Stanford’s program history.
At Merion, Leng has demonstrated dominant form, reaching the final in just 76 holes, a significantly lower number than any other player. He defeated 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Evan Beck 5 and 4, routed Zackary Swanwick 6 and 5, eliminated World No. 3 Tyler Watts, took apart Florida’s Jack Turner 6 and 5, and beat Logan Reilly 2 and 1 in the semifinal. Leng previously won the Boys’ 7–9 Drive, Chip & Putt at Augusta National in 2015. Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, he is set to become only the third Drive, Chip & Putt finalist to play in the Masters. A victory would also make him the tenth player to win both the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year, a feat last achieved by Danny Lee in 2008. Only Tiger Woods and Lawson Little have won this championship representing Stanford.
Jack Whaley’s path to the final is equally remarkable. Fifteen months ago, Whaley was playing NAIA golf at Dalton State College in Georgia, where he won a national title and the Jack Nicklaus Award as the division’s player of the year before transferring to Florida State. He arrived at Merion ranked No. 90 in the world, made the cut, and survived a 16-for-11 playoff on Wednesday morning that eliminated Luke Poulter, securing his spot in the bracket. Since then, he has remained undefeated, securing five consecutive wins against the No. 5, No. 37, No. 53, No. 29, and No. 8 seeds. His victories include a 22-hole marathon against Jackson Ormond and a quarterfinal match where he never trailed Morocco’s Adam Bresnu. In Saturday’s semifinal, he held a three-shot lead over Carter Loflin, saw it diminish over Merion’s closing holes, and then won the challenging 501-yard 18th hole, which had yielded only one birdie against fifteen bogeys or worse all week in match play, with a 4-foot bogey putt. His father, Andy, is caddying for him for the first time in a major competition.
There is a historical parallel for Whaley’s story at Merion. In 2005, Edoardo Molinari survived a 19-man playoff for the final match-play spots at the U.S. Amateur and went on to win the Havemeyer Trophy. More recently, Mason Howell won last year as the No. 63 seed. Whaley, as the No. 60 seed, could become the second consecutive champion from the bottom of the draw and the first Florida State player to win the U.S. Amateur. Drew Kittleson was the Seminoles’ last finalist in 2008.
Both finalists have already secured exemptions into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and are likely to receive invitations to the 2027 Masters. The winner will also receive the Havemeyer Trophy, a spot in the 2027 Open Championship at St. Andrews, a 10-year U.S. Amateur exemption, and a place in next month’s Walker Cup Match. If Leng wins, he will represent the USA, and if Whaley wins, he will represent Great Britain and Ireland. This is the last 36-hole final in American championship golf, with the morning 18 holes played before galleries and the closing 18 televised. Over 3,500 spectators attended Saturday’s semifinals, and Sunday is expected to draw an even larger crowd. The championship match begins at 9 a.m. ET Sunday, August 16, with Peacock streaming from 3–4 p.m. ET and NBC broadcasting the finish from 4–6 p.m.
