On Wednesday morning, Jack Whaley stood among 16 players competing for the final 11 places in the U.S. Amateur match-play bracket.
Four days later, he stood on Merion Golf Club’s 15th green as the champion.
Whaley overturned a 2-down deficit after the opening 18 holes and defeated Jay Leng Jr., 4 and 3, Sunday in the 36-hole championship match. The 22-year-old Florida State senior became the first Seminole to win the U.S. Amateur and the first English champion since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.
He also became the inaugural recipient of the Tiger Woods Medal, introduced by the USGA this year to honor the three-time U.S. Amateur champion.
The result completed a run that came close to ending before the bracket was even settled. Whaley shot 71-71 in stroke play, survived a 16-for-11 playoff and entered match play as the No. 60 seed.
He left Merion with the Havemeyer Trophy.
From the Bubble to the Trophy
Jack Whaley’s Road Through Merion
The No. 60 seed survived a playoff, six matches and a 2-down lunch deficit.
Stroke Play
71-71
Survived a 16-for-11 playoff
Round of 64
22 holes
Defeated Jackson Ormond
Round of 32
2 and 1
Defeated Bowen Mauss
Round of 16
4 and 3
Defeated Christian Cavaliere
Quarterfinal
5 and 4
Defeated Adam Bresnu
Semifinal
1 up
Defeated Carter Loflin
Championship Match
Won 4 and 3
Erased a 2-down lunch deficit against Jay Leng Jr.
A Final Whaley Had to Win Twice
Whaley’s opening was nearly perfect.
He chipped in for birdie at the par-4 first and built a 2-up advantage through five holes. Leng, the reigning Western Amateur champion and one of the hottest players in amateur golf, did not allow the match to get away.
Leng matched Whaley’s long birdie at the eighth, then benefited from consecutive Whaley bogeys at Nos. 9 and 10 to pull even. Whaley moved back ahead with a winning par at the 11th, but Leng responded with birdies from outside 20 feet on the next two holes.
A Whaley three-putt at the 16th allowed Leng to reach the lunch break 2 up.
At that point, the championship appeared to be following the form that brought Leng to Merion. He had won the Western Amateur, finished second at the Northeast Amateur and tied for fifth at the Southern Amateur before dispatching five opponents in the U.S. Amateur bracket.
Whaley changed the match after lunch.
Over the next 15 holes, he turned a 2-down deficit into a 4-up victory. The six-hole swing was emphatic enough that Merion’s demanding final three holes never entered the decision.
Whaley closed the match on the 419-yard, par-4 15th. Leng’s pursuit of the rare Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur double was over, and Whaley’s rise from the edge of elimination was complete.
Merion Repeats Its Favorite Underdog Story
The historical symmetry is difficult to ignore.
When the U.S. Amateur was last played at Merion in 2005, Italy’s Edoardo Molinari survived a 19-for-17 playoff to enter match play. He went on to defeat Dillon Dougherty in the championship match, 4 and 3.
Twenty-one years later, another European arrived at Merion without the résumé of the championship’s most celebrated favorites. Whaley survived a 16-for-11 playoff, nearly making a hole-in-one on Merion’s 119-yard 13th in the process.
He then won the final by the same margin as Molinari.
Whaley’s road through the bracket required every type of match-play victory. He needed 22 holes to eliminate Jackson Ormond in the Round of 64. He defeated Bowen Mauss, 2 and 1, before handling Christian Cavaliere, 4 and 3.
His 5-and-4 quarterfinal victory over Adam Bresnu was his most comfortable result. His semifinal against Carter Loflin was anything but comfortable.
Whaley lost a 3-up advantage before winning Merion’s punishing 18th with a bogey to advance, 1 up. His entire body was shaking as he stood over the decisive 4-footer.
Earlier in the week, Whaley considered the parallel with Molinari.
“That’s a pretty cool one,” Whaley said. “If I can go to the end, that would be a pretty cool story.”
He reached the end. Merion supplied the same final score.
Twenty-One Years Apart
Merion Crowns Another European Playoff Survivor
2005
Edoardo Molinari
Country: Italy
Playoff: Survived 19-for-17
Seed: No. 63
Final: Won 4 and 3
2026
Jack Whaley
Country: England
Playoff: Survived 16-for-11
Seed: No. 60
Final: Won 4 and 3
Different players. The same historic course. The same championship-match margin.
One Victory Changes Whaley’s Calendar
Whaley entered the championship ranked No. 90 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and still attempting to convince Great Britain and Ireland’s Walker Cup selectors that he belonged at Lahinch.
Winning removed the debate.
Whaley secured a place on the Great Britain and Ireland team for next month’s Walker Cup. Provided he remains an amateur, he also receives an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and the 2027 Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews. He is also expected to receive an invitation to the 2027 Masters.
Fifteen months ago, Whaley was competing at Dalton State, an NAIA program in Georgia. He won five times in two seasons, including the 2025 NAIA individual championship, and became the first player to sweep the division’s Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Mickelson awards.
He transferred to Florida State and finished tied for 14th at the 2026 NCAA Championship. Even then, few outside college golf would have placed him among the favorites at Merion.
Now he returns to Florida State as a U.S. Amateur champion with three major-championship dates potentially waiting in 2027.
Leng did not leave Merion empty-handed. His place in the final earned him a spot in the 2027 U.S. Open and a likely Masters invitation, provided he remains an amateur. His summer still represents a major arrival among the game’s elite young players.
Sunday simply belonged to the opponent who refused to allow a difficult morning to determine the rest of his day.
The Championship Changes Everything
What Jack Whaley Earned at Merion
🏆
Havemeyer Trophy
Custody of the U.S. Amateur’s historic trophy.
🐅
Tiger Woods Medal
The first champion to receive the newly named medal.
🇺🇸
2027 U.S. Open
Exemption into the championship at Pebble Beach.
⛳
2027 Open Championship
A place at the Old Course at St. Andrews, provided he remains an amateur.
🌺
Expected Masters Invitation
A likely invitation for 2027, provided he remains an amateur.
🏴
Walker Cup Place
A spot with Great Britain and Ireland at Lahinch.
The Father Who Kept Him Playing Carried the Bag
Andy Whaley caddied for his son throughout the championship, the first time he had carried Jack’s bag in a major competition.
Their walk around Merion carried weight well beyond yardages and club selections.
Years earlier, after another disappointing junior tournament near Leeds, Jack told his father he wanted to quit golf. Andy began the drive home but pulled into a nine-hole municipal course a few miles later.
“Fancy playing your dad?” Andy asked.
They played nine holes. Jack decided he wanted to continue.
“He’s been behind me my entire life,” Whaley said before the final. “He’s my hero. I want him to see me play well and watch me succeed.”
That history can be made to sound inevitable after a championship. It was anything but inevitable for Whaley.
He spent years missing cuts. His family stretched its finances to support him. He climbed from used junior clubs and NAIA golf to Florida State, the English national program and eventually Merion.
“The rewards are amazing, but for me, it’s more pride,” Andy Whaley said. “The tears were of pride of what Jack has become and how he’s got there.”
On Wednesday, Whaley needed one of 11 openings merely to keep playing. On Sunday, he finished before Merion’s final three holes could ask another question.
The player who once wanted to stop had become a U.S. Amateur champion, with the father who convinced him to continue still carrying the bag.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on R.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
