At Merion Golf Club, the 18th hole kept demanding one more answer Thursday.
Michael Lugiano supplied one for the third consecutive match. The Pennsylvania native survived another trip down Merion’s demanding finishing hole, defeating Drake Harvey 2 up to reach the quarterfinals of the 126th U.S. Amateur.
Logan Reilly needed two more holes.
Reilly carried a 2-up lead to the 17th tee against Ryder Cowan, lost both closing holes and then steadied himself long enough to win with a par on the 20th hole.
Carter Loflin followed a remarkably similar route. He also surrendered a 2-up advantage over the final two holes before defeating William Jennings with a birdie on the first extra hole.
That was Thursday at Merion in three matches. Leads disappeared. Favorites went home. Players who appeared beaten found a way to keep moving.
By evening, the U.S. Amateur had its final eight. Not one of them entered the week ranked inside the top 10 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Friday at Merion
U.S. Amateur Quarterfinals
Eight players remain in pursuit of the Havemeyer Trophy. All times are EDT.
1:15 P.M.
Brandon Knight vs. Carter Loflin
1:30 P.M.
Adam Bresnu vs. Jack Whaley
1:45 P.M.
Jay Leng Jr. vs. Jack Turner
2 P.M.
Michael Lugiano vs. Logan Reilly
Watch: Peacock and NBCSN, 3-6 p.m. EDT
Merion Turns the Bracket Upside Down
The match-play bracket had already lost many of its recognizable names before Thursday began.
World No. 1 Preston Stout and defending champion Mason Howell failed to advance from stroke play. Miles Russell, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur runner-up and one of the world’s highest-ranked amateurs, was eliminated by Cowan in Wednesday’s Round of 64.
Thursday removed the rest of the championship’s highest-ranked survivors.
Tyler Watts, the No. 2 seed, took an early 2-up advantage against Jay Leng Jr. before Leng won four of the next six holes. Watts made a late push, but Leng held on for a 1-up victory.
Cowan, ranked eighth in the world, could not complete his comeback against Reilly. Jennings, ranked fifth, erased Loflin’s lead before losing on the 19th hole.
Merion’s double-round Thursday required players to potentially navigate 36 holes over one of the most exacting golf courses in the country. The difficulty was not simply physical. Every approach demanded a plan, every miss created another decision and every green introduced a new layer of doubt.
Loflin felt it by the end of his second match.
“Thirty-six holes on this golf course is just so draining,” he said. “Eighteen holes is a lot out here. Thirty-six is a different beast.”
Adam Bresnu and Jack Turner avoided that late uncertainty with two of the day’s most commanding victories. Bresnu eliminated Max Herendeen, 5 and 4, while Turner defeated Joshua Bai by the same margin.
Jack Whaley advanced with a 4-and-3 win over Christian Cavaliere. Brandon Knight rallied past Gaven Lane, 1 up.
The quarterfinalists did not arrive through one common formula. Some dominated. Some recovered. A few simply endured longer than the player across from them.
Michael Lugiano Becomes Philadelphia’s Last Hope
Lugiano’s run carries an unmistakable local connection.
The 20-year-old Liberty University junior is from Jackson Township, Pennsylvania, and is the last remaining player representing the Golf Association of Philadelphia. As the field has narrowed, the gallery following him has grown.
He has given those supporters every reason to stay until the end.
Lugiano’s first three matches have all reached Merion’s 18th hole. He eliminated Michael Riebe, 1 up, in the Round of 64 and then survived Taishi Moto, 1 up, Thursday morning. His afternoon match with Harvey again reached the 501-yard closing hole.
After losing the 16th, Lugiano responded with a par to win the 17th. At the last, he missed the fairway slightly left, played his approach over the green and produced the up-and-down he needed to finish the match.
“It’s been quite stressful thus far,” Lugiano said. “I haven’t made it easy, but I’ve been able to get the job done.”
His presence in the quarterfinals would have seemed unlikely even to Lugiano two weeks ago. After struggling at the Western Amateur, he considered withdrawing from the U.S. Amateur.
Instead, he went back to work, found a better feel in his swing and rebuilt his confidence before arriving at Merion.
That confidence will be tested again Friday against Reilly, a player who has already won two extra-hole matches this week.
Reilly and Loflin Refuse to Let Go
Reilly appeared to have control of his match against Cowan until Merion’s closing stretch intervened.
A three-putt bogey at the par-3 17th cut Reilly’s lead to 1 up. He then needed four shots to get down from the front of the 18th green, allowing Cowan to extend the match.
Both players narrowly missed birdie opportunities on the 19th hole. At the par-5 second, Cowan drove into a bunker and could not save par. Reilly’s routine two-putt was enough to advance.
“Some of my best golf comes when it’s crunch time and I need to make the putts,” Reilly said.
That trait has already served him well at Auburn, where he earned the clinching point in the Tigers’ NCAA championship victory. It mattered again Thursday when a match he nearly owned had to be won a second time.
Loflin faced the same mental reset against Jennings.
Bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18 cost him his lead. Walking back to the first tee, Loflin admitted his mind was not in a particularly comfortable place.
“I was thinking I blew it, to be completely honest,” he said.
His local caddie, a Merion veteran of 35 years, helped slow him down. Loflin found the fairway, hit a wedge to approximately 5 feet and converted the birdie.
Neither Reilly nor Loflin advanced because the closing stretch was clean. They advanced because they refused to let two poor holes decide what happened next.
The Stakes at Merion
What the U.S. Amateur Champion Earns
🏆
Havemeyer Trophy
Custody of one of amateur golf’s most historic trophies for one year.
🌊
2027 U.S. Open
An exemption into the championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
⛳
The Open Championship
A place in the 2027 field at St. Andrews if he remains an amateur.
🌺
Likely Masters Invitation
The traditional invitation is contingent upon retaining amateur status.
Four Matches Now Separate the Contenders
Friday’s quarterfinals begin with Knight facing Loflin at 1:15 p.m. EDT. Bresnu and Whaley follow at 1:30, Leng meets Turner at 1:45 and Lugiano faces Reilly at 2.
Leng may arrive with the strongest recent match-play résumé. The Stanford junior won the Western Amateur earlier this summer and has now eliminated another leading contender at Merion.
“There’s no need to add any extra pressure,” Leng said. “I’m just trying to hit fairways and greens tomorrow and see what I can do.”
That sounds simple. Merion has spent the week demonstrating why it is not.
The championship continues with Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s 36-hole final. The winner will earn an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, a place in the 2027 Open Championship if he remains an amateur and a likely invitation to the Masters under the same amateur-status condition.
Those possibilities have moved much closer, but Merion has made looking ahead a dangerous exercise.
Lugiano has needed the 18th hole three times. Reilly and Loflin already survived matches that seemed to be slipping away. Leng has taken down another of the world’s best players.
Thursday did not identify a clear favorite. It revealed eight players still capable of answering Merion’s next question.
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.
