Just weeks after coming within one playoff hole of a Class 6A state championship, Charlie Haney found himself playing for an even bigger title.<\/p>\n
The Manhattan High rising junior advanced to the championship match of the 116th Kansas Amateur Championship, becoming the youngest runner-up in tournament history after falling to fellow teenage standout Kaden Leivian in a sudden-death playoff Sunday at Mission Hills Country Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo spend time with my dad and all of the people that came up to support me, I thought it was really cool. A lot of memories were made,\u201d Haney said. \u201cThat much golf, competitive exposure and playing different people I\u2019ve never played against before really helps with development.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haney and Leivian, ages 16 and 15 respectively, were the two youngest players in a field of 156 golfers that averaged 27.1 years old. Had Haney won, he would have matched the record for youngest Kansas Amateur champion, first set by Fred Salmons in 1925. Instead, Leivian broke the century-old mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of keeps you chasing it a little bit,\u201d Haney said. \u201cI know I wanted to win it really bad, but I trust that this was the right plan, and it\u2019s all for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Haney, the week further cemented what has become one of the most impressive stretches by a high school golfer in Kansas.<\/p>\n
After posting rounds of 71 and 68 during 36-hole stroke play, Haney finished at 1-under-par to earn the No. 17 seed entering match play.<\/p>\n
From there, the Manhattan standout navigated one of the strongest brackets of his young career.<\/p>\n
He opened match play with a 3-and-2 victory over Baker University\u2019s NAIA All-American Gavin Dines before surviving a heavyweight Round of 32 showdown against Shawnee Mission East\u2019s Stuart Boulware \u2014 an Oklahoma commit who was the only player to finish ahead of Haney in the Class 6A scoring average this past spring.<\/p>\n
Boulware erased Haney\u2019s one-hole lead with a birdie on the 18th hole to force extra holes, but Haney answered with a par on the first playoff hole after Boulware bogeyed, completing a 19-hole match in which Haney carded seven birdies and finished 6-under par.<\/p>\n
Haney\u2019s path only became tougher.<\/p>\n
He rallied from one down with four holes remaining to edge 2023 Central Links Player of the Year Zach VanDolah, 1 up, before knocking off University of Kansas golfer Noah Holtzman, 2 up, in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
In the semifinals, Haney squared off with former professional golfer Nathaniel Spencer, overcoming a late deficit after stuffing a 4-iron from 212 yards to within a foot for birdie on the 16th hole before securing another 1-up victory to reach the championship match.<\/p>\n
By week\u2019s end, Haney had played 162 holes and finished 13-under par, including 12-under across six match-play rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can compete with anybody on the amateur side of it,\u201d Haney said. \u201cI don\u2019t tend to have a lot of expectations going into tournaments; I just play free. The whole goal was just to get into match play and then see what happens from there. I proved to myself that I can really play with all these guys week in and week out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The championship match featured two golfers who grew up competing against one another.<\/p>\n
Haney and Leivian first met in 2017 through U.S. Kids Golf tournaments and have since traveled together to compete in regional and national events. The pair also teamed up to win the 2024 Central Links Junior Boys Four-Ball Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really cool. I got sent so many photos of us when I used to play against him every Sunday, when we were seven and eight years old,\u201d Haney said. \u201cHonestly, there\u2019s not a person I\u2019d rather have win it besides me than him. So I\u2019m really proud of him, and what a great accomplishment for him to win at 15.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither player led by more than one hole throughout regulation. The match was tied after 16 different holes, with Haney pulling even late after hitting a 5-iron from 212 yards to within 10 feet for birdie on the 16th hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of people that have been in that match before tell me just to enjoy it and take it all in and really learn from it on either side of things, including Cooper Schultz, who played at K State,\u201d Haney said. \u201cAnd I think I did really well in that. I don\u2019t regret any decisions I made, or any shots that I didn\u2019t hit great.\u201d<\/p>\n
After both players matched pars on the final two holes, the championship moved to sudden death.<\/p>\n
Haney nearly chipped in for birdie on the opening playoff hole, but Leivian answered with a 7-foot birdie putt to capture the title after Haney\u2019s chip narrowly missed. Haney finished the final round with a 67 despite the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both such good players that it came down to one hole,\u201d Haney said. \u201cYou can\u2019t win every hole, and it was a really close match. I didn\u2019t even notice it till the end that I shot a 67, so it\u2019s not like I laid an egg or anything. I played great, and sometimes it just doesn\u2019t go in your favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The runner-up finish added another milestone to an already record-setting r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Haney became the youngest Kansas Amateur medalist in tournament history last summer after earning the No. 1 seed in stroke play at Firekeeper Golf Course. Before that in 2023, Haney was the second-youngest player ever to qualify, trailing a mark set by current PGA pro Sam Stevens.<\/p>\n
This year, he added another distinction as the youngest runner-up in tournament history.<\/p>\n
The summer performance came on the heels of arguably the best high school season in Manhattan history.<\/p>\n
Haney posted a school-record 70.6 scoring average, won four tournaments, finished in the top three in nine of his 10 starts and concluded the spring as the Class 6A state runner-up after another playoff finish.<\/p>\n
Including his first two varsity seasons, Haney owns seven tournament victories and 16 top-10 finishes in 19 starts. The consistency has only strengthened Haney\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already like proved to myself that I can play consistently well,\u201d Haney said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s just a one-week thing. That helps calm me down.\u201d<\/p>\n
His summer has been equally impressive, posting top-10 finishes in every event, including fourth at an AJGA event in Arizona, runner-up at the Southern Junior Championship in Georgia, fifth at the First Tee National Championship and now second at the Kansas Amateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be my third runner-up finish this summer, including state,\u201d Haney said. \u201cThey always say, \u2018You learn more from your losses than you do from your wins.\u2019 I know that my time is coming, and I just hope it\u2019s soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Haney\u2019s finish also earned exemptions into the 2027 Kansas Amateur Championship and the U.S. Amateur qualifying stage.<\/p>\n
With college recruitment just opening this summer for the junior-to-be, Haney said he\u2019s still early in the process of finding his future home.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecruitment is going really well,\u201d Haney said. \u201cI\u2019m going to go through the whole process, and I probably won\u2019t decide after I visit the schools and find a place that I want to be at for four, even five years now. I want to make sure it\u2019s really a place that I want to wake up every day. That\u2019s a big thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
With several national junior events still ahead this summer \u2014 including AJGA stops in Missouri and Florida, the Junior PGA Championship and the Pure Insurance Championship at the prestigious Pebble Beach \u2014 Haney\u2019s ascent appears far from over.<\/p>\n
Still, Haney remains grounded. His biggest takeaway from the week wasn\u2019t a trophy or a record. It was the people who shared the journey with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say thank you to my dad for caddying me for the whole time,\u201d Haney said. \u201cIt was a lot of fun, and he and my mom are big supporters of me. And all the people from Manhattan that came to watch. That was pretty cool. I\u2019m blessed to have great people that support me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just weeks after coming within one playoff hole of a Class 6A state championship, Charlie Haney found himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2014,2149,75,84,83,114488,9,24,63,114487,9763,26626],"class_list":["post-301969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-golf","tag-kansas","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-match-play","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-par-score","tag-sports-competitions","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}