He is only the second Englishman to lift the crown
A rising young Doncaster golfer is set to rub shoulders with some of the game’s greats after becoming only the second Englishman to win the US Amateur Championship since 1911 – earning himself a place in the field for the Masters, US Open and The Open at St Andrews in 2027.
22-year-old Jack Whaley beat American Jay Leng Jr 4&3 at Merion over the weekend to secure his place among golf’s elite.
Jack, who attends Florida State University, came into the contest as a major underdog against Leng Jr, who is 23rd in the world amateur golf rankings, some 67 places higher than the Doncaster youngster.
The on-course form looked to be following the rankings as Whaley slipped two down after the opening 18 holes in Sunday’s 36-hole encounter.
However, Whaley fought back superbly, making back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes of his second round on his way to winning four holes consecutively.
With rain lashing down in Pennsylvania, both players took two of the next six holes before Leng Jr misread a putt on the 12th to hand his opponent a three-hole lead.
Whaley rounded off his win with a superb left-to-right putt for birdie at 15 to become the first English amateur to triumph in the US Amateur since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.
Prior to Fitzpatrick, Harold Hilton had been the last Englishman to won the title in 1911, with Scotland’s Richie Ramsay (2006) the only other British winner since 1898.
Emotional scenes erupted after Whaley, who is ranked 90th on the World Amateur Golf Rankings, hugged his caddie and dad Andy and his mum, who had ran onto the green to celebrate his success.
“Honestly, I can’t thank him enough for it. He was just telling me, just keep going, just keep playing.
“It’s just a huge honour to be able to experience this with my dad and hole that eight-footer on the last.”
Whaley will also be hopeful his epic victory will convince Walker Cup skipper Dean Robertson to name him as a captain’s pick for this September’s tournament, which is live on Sky Sports.
“I think I proved that I’m good at match play,” he said. “I think coming through and just scraping through the playoff, it opened my eyes that I was inside the top 64 players in the world and that my game is good enough.
“Knowing that I’ve played a lot of match play over the years, I kind of was very confident going into the matches. I think it’s all thanks to the upbringing that I had and county golf and Sheffield Union that have really got me ready for this moment.”
“I think I holed a lot more putts this afternoon,” Whaley said. “I think it was just getting confidence back into my head that I’m a good putter and I can definitely roll it.
“I think it’s just all down to my putting.”