The 126th U.S. Amateur Championship culminates Sunday at Merion Golf Club with a 36-hole final featuring Jay Leng Jr., a Stanford junior, and Jack Whaley, an English player who was competing in NAIA golf just 15 months ago. This championship match brings together two competitors who were not widely anticipated to reach this stage, having outlasted a field that included 47 of the top 50 ranked amateur golfers globally.
The U.S. Amateur stands as the oldest and most prestigious tournament in amateur golf. Its winner earns coveted 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 historic Philadelphia-area course where Bobby Jones completed the Grand Slam in 1930. The competition began with two rounds of stroke play, narrowing the field to 64, followed by six rounds of head-to-head match play to determine the champion.
The tournament saw numerous top contenders fall 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 won stroke play in his home state, lost his opening match in 19 holes. By Saturday night, none of the top six seeds remained, setting the stage for Leng Jr. and Whaley’s improbable runs.
Jay Leng Jr. entered the season with a college match-play record of 2-6-2 at Stanford. However, two weeks prior to Merion, he secured victory at the 124th Western Amateur at Beverly Country Club in Chicago. He qualified for the Western Amateur with rounds of 67, 67, 68, and 66, never shooting over par. During match play, he defeated his Stanford teammate Dean Greyserman 1 up, Jaden Dumdumaya 5 and 3, 17-year-old medalist Miles Russell 3 and 1, and Michael Riebe on the 14th green in the final. A year earlier, Leng had finished 103rd at the same event. In January 2025, he was ranked No. 199 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, rising to 33rd before the Western Amateur and 23rd upon arriving at Merion. He has now won nine of his last ten matches, with his only recent loss occurring at the NCAA Championship. As a sophomore, Leng led Stanford with a 70.92 scoring average, placing him in the top 20 for a single season in program history. At Merion, he has been a dominant force, beating 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Evan Beck 5 and 4, Zackary Swanwick 6 and 5, World No. 3 Tyler Watts, Jack Turner 6 and 5, and Logan Reilly 2 and 1 in the semifinal, reaching the final in just 76 holes. Leng previously won the Boys’ 7–9 Drive, Chip & Putt at Augusta National in 2015, and a win on Sunday would make him the third DCP finalist to play in the Masters. He would also become the 10th player to win both the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year, a feat last achieved by Danny Lee in 2008.
Jack Whaley’s journey to the final is equally remarkable. Fifteen months ago, he 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, Whaley has won five consecutive matches, defeating 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 overcame a late lead by Carter Loflin and won the 501-yard 18th hole with a 4-foot bogey putt. His father, Andy, is caddying for him in a major competition for the first time. The last time the U.S. Amateur was held at Merion in 2005, Edoardo Molinari also survived a playoff for match-play spots before winning the Havemeyer Trophy. Last year’s champion, Mason Howell, was the No. 63 seed, and Whaley, as the No. 60 seed, could become the second consecutive champion from the bottom of the draw. He would also be the first Florida State player to win the U.S. Amateur.
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. Leng Jr. would represent the USA if he wins, while Whaley would play for Great Britain and Ireland. The final 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 NBC broadcasting the finish from 4–6 p.m. ET.
