{"id":809460,"date":"2026-08-10T23:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/809460\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T23:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:44:20","slug":"meet-matthew-lowe-the-u-s-amateurs-aura-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/809460\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Matthew Lowe, the U.S. Amateur\u2019s aura champ"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARDMORE, Pa. \u2013 Merion members showed out Monday morning, waking early to join a couple hundred people in watching one of their own, Drue Nicholas, hit the opening tee shot of the 126th U.S. Amateur.<\/p>\n

They were introduced to Matthew Lowe in the process.<\/p>\n

Lowe, a 30-year-old from Farmingdale, New York, works for his dad as a beauty supply distributor and certainly knows a thing or two about aura. The red-haired and freckled Lowe stepped onto the first tee carrying his own bag and donning worn FootJoys, khakis that were at least a couple inches too long, a lime polo with the collar half popped, and to top it all off, a straw fedora that probably reminded some of the club\u2019s oldest members of Sam Snead or Byron Nelson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ordered it online recently, and I thought the brim was a lot larger,\u201d explained Lowe, who usually wears bucket hats but started branching out when he forgot to pack headwear for the 2024 U.S. Amateur and ended up purchasing an Indiana Jones-style hat.<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-8 Lowe\u2019s swing looks more like Ben Hogan, who famously won the 1950 U.S. Open on Merion\u2019s East Course.<\/p>\n

His recent results are Hogan-esque, too, as Lowe has dominated the Metropolitan Golf Association circuit.<\/p>\n

The four-time reigning Long Island Player of the Year ignited his torrid summer by beating buddy Darin Goldstein in the final of the Havemeyer Invitational and followed with a four-shot victory at the Mittelmark Invitational. He then successfully defended his Met Public Links title before capturing both the prestigious Ike Stroke Play Championship and New York State Amateur in back-to-back weeks.<\/p>\n

At the Ike, which he also won in 2017 with a closing 61, Lowe sank a 40-foot birdie on Sleepy Hollow\u2019s final hole to break out of a four-way tie for the lead.<\/p>\n

The week after his state amateur, Lowe held the 36-hole lead at the New York State Open before slipping to third, and two weeks later, he fell to eventual champion Barnes Blake in the quarterfinals of the Met Amateur.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve had a decent season,\u201d Lowe said, trying his hardest to be modest. That\u2019s a character trait not always common in the world of mid-amateur golf, which is crawling with trust-fund babies and finance bros, though by many accounts, Lowe is a genuine guy from humble means who arguably deserves a look from the U.S. Walker Cup committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just grateful for the flexibility I have working for my dad,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lowe couldn\u2019t have imagined when he graduated from Richmond University in 2018 that he\u2019d be competing in a U.S. Amateur at Merion eight years later, let alone carding 1-over 71. A three-time All-Atlantic-10 selection, Lowe turned pro shortly after making his U.S. Amateur debut at Pebble Beach in 2018. But after two spins through Q-School and little success, Lowe, who also worked as an assistant pro at North Hills Country Club in Manhasset, applied to get his amateur status reinstated.<\/p>\n

He returned to the amateur ranks in 2021 and then qualified for three straight U.S. Amateurs, starting in 2022. He\u2019s still vying for his first trip to match play, though Monday\u2019s round has him firmly in the mix.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Matthew Lowe watches his tee shot at the first hole during the first round of stroke play of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (Ishika Samant\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Ishika Samant\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

Lowe birdied the par-5 fourth hole before bogeying Nos. 5, 6 and 9, the latter coming on a short par miss, to turn in 2-over 38. But he got a lengthy par save to fall at the drivable, par-4 10th and then birdied the par-4 11th.<\/p>\n

He arrived on the par-4 16th at 2 over for the round before hooping a 20-footer for birdie and then nearly holing out from 215 yards at the par-3 17th. He had to scramble for bogey from under a tree at the last, though Lower said afterward, \u201cI\u2019ll take that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never stopped loving this game,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cYou just go through trials and tribulations, and it can be difficult. Like the practice rounds these last two days have been an absolute nightmare ball-striking-wise. I was really worried, and the practice range this morning was also not great; it was probably the worst I\u2019ve hit the ball in a year. But I went out with the mentality today of this is just survival golf, and I ended up hitting it better than that today.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lowe created some social-media buzz by carrying his own bag, he revealed that if he survives the cut, his dad, Michael, will drive down to loop.<\/p>\n

For now, though, Lowe will keep doing his thing as the U.S. Amateur\u2019s aura champ.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have so much adrenaline, I couldn\u2019t imagine being tired,\u201d Lowe said, smiling ear to ear. \u201c… Dude, I\u2019m jacked out of my mind right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARDMORE, Pa. \u2013 Merion members showed out Monday morning, waking early to join a couple hundred people in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-809460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}