{"id":814089,"date":"2026-08-15T04:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814089\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:08:17","slug":"quarterfinal-routs-send-record-crowd-home-early-though-plenty-of-u-s-amateur-storylines-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814089\/","title":{"rendered":"Quarterfinal routs send record crowd home early, though plenty of U.S. Amateur storylines remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARDMORE, Pa. \u2013 It was a record-breaking day as Merion Golf Club welcomed the most ticketed fans for a U.S. Amateur in the championship\u2019s history. With attendance numbers pushing 3,000, the line to get into the pro shop remained wrapped around the clubhouse<\/a> most the day, while the scene at first tee as the four quarterfinal matches started was electric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was totally shell-shocked by the amount of people that were out there, to be brutally honest,\u201d Georgia grad Carter Loflin said. \u201cI\u2019ve played in front of people before, but not like that. Honestly, it took me a minute to get used the gallery and everything. I looked at Brandon [Knight, his opponent] on the first tee, and I was like, \u2018Dude, I\u2019ve never seen people four-deep like this before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Jack Whaley: \u201cIt\u2019s one of the best experiences I\u2019ve had playing golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Logan Reilly: \u201cUnbelievable atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the air was let out of the balloon early, and the thousands of fans clamoring to see some epic battles went home disappointed in that regard. None of the matches reached the 17th hole while three of them ended before the 15th hole.<\/p>\n

The 57 total holes played marked the fewest in a U.S. Amateur quarterfinal round since at least 2002. Prior to Friday, the fewest during that span was 60 holes, recorded twice, in 2002 and 2007.<\/p>\n

The good news is there is still time for fireworks.<\/p>\n

For now, here\u2019s a deeper dive into some of the best storylines surrounding our four semifinalists \u2013 Loflin, Whaley, Reilly and Jay Leng Jr.:<\/p>\n

Carter Loflin<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Carter Loflin smiles after playing his tee shot at the second hole during the quarterfinals of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Dustin Satloff\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Dustin Satloff\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

Carter Loflin\u2019s dad, Stephen, is an old-school bartender. Don\u2019t ask him for a Manhattan, but he can make you a mean Jack and Coke and provide some great conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was bartender of the year in Atlanta one time,\u201d Loflin said. \u201cBut that\u2019s more for his personality. People love to come and sit at the bar with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loflin shares similar personality traits with his pops, like the time he entered a diner near campus during first semester at Georgia and noticed the longtime starter at one of the Bulldogs\u2019 home courses having breakfast; Loflin bought the man\u2019s meal.<\/p>\n

Loflin had to ignore everyone on Friday against Knight. The energy from the large crowd had spiked Loflin\u2019s nerves, and he quickly fell 2 down through four holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was ever a point where I really settled in,\u201d Loflin said. \u201cI guess I kind of just started looking down at my feet, stopped looking around.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Ironically, Loflin did his post-round interview in flip-flops<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Loflin appeared on his way to making a mess of Merion\u2019s iconic par-4 fifth hole, hooking his drive left of the Cobbs Creek and having the punch back into the fairway. Then with Knight on the green in regulation, Loflin duffed his wedge shot.<\/p>\n

Somehow, Loflin remained calm, which is sometimes unusual for him. He grabbed his 58-degree wedge this time and from 25 yards, chipped in for what would be a hole-winning par after Knight three-putted.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the coolest thing I\u2019ve ever done, to be completely honest with you,\u201d Loflin said. \u201cI can\u2019t even remember the last time I chipped in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loflin hooked another drive at the next hole, the par-4 sixth, and was prepared to lay up again when he realized the lie he had, in the heather left of the dense rough, was good enough to go for the green. He found the dance floor and tied the hole with par to remain 1 down.<\/p>\n

That settled Loflin in as he didn\u2019t lose a hole after that, carding four birdies in the process before closing out Knight, 3 and 2.<\/p>\n

Jack Whaley<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Jack Whaley gets some low-fives from fans at the fifth ole during the quarterfinals of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Dustin Satloff\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Dustin Satloff\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

For a 4-year-old Jack Whaley, the prospect of whacking golf balls with his dad, Andy, at a double-decker driving range at the Pete Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham, England, was too much fun to pass up. It was there that Whaley began working with Cowen\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Nick Huby, who at the time was still teaching group lessons to beginners.<\/p>\n

Whaley has been coached by Huby ever since, seeing him for monthly lessons and talking to him daily when he\u2019s in school at Florida State, where Whaley is a rising senior.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best coaches in the world,\u201d Whaley said. \u201cHe\u2019s taught me everything I know \u2026 and I\u2019m never going to change from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whaley\u2019s run at Merion has proved himself one of the best amateurs in the world<\/a>, which is remarkable considering Whaley began playing tournaments with cuts around 12 years old but never made a cut until he was 17, at the English Amateur. He\u2019s also never represented England in a team event, though he did finally join the national program last year, not long after he transferred from NAIA Dalton State and joined the Seminoles.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully a lot more to come from this,\u201d said Whaley, who said Friday things have remained radio silent on the Walker Cup front after previously stating Thursday that he was \u201chere to prove\u201d he belonged on the GB&I squad.<\/p>\n

Entering the week ranked 90th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Whaley, with Andy on the bag for the first time ever, was among those in a 16-for-11 playoff on Wednesday morning. He got through emphatically, lipping out what would\u2019ve been his third career ace, at the 119-yard, par-3 13th hole.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one years ago, Edoardo Molinari also survived a playoff before capturing the Havemeyer Trophy at Merion. Last year, Mason Howell did the same at Olympic Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty cool one,\u201d said Whaley, who never trailed in his 5-and-4 win over Adam Bresnu, a junior-college product who joined Whaley in winning his respective Nicklaus Award in 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can go to the end, that would be a pretty cool story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jay Leng<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Jay Leng Jr. crosses the bridge to the tenth hole during the quarterfinals of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Dustin Satloff\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Dustin Satloff\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

Jay Leng typically warms up before tournament rounds by hitting a bunch of wedges, some irons and three to four drivers.<\/p>\n

But Friday on Merion\u2019s West Course, which is serving as the driving range this week, an exasperated Leng made the range-picker\u2019s job exponentially harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething was off,\u201d Leng said. \u201cEvery shot I hit was going 40 yards right. \u2026 I probably hit like 20 drivers trying to hit one straight and couldn\u2019t really figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the drive back to the East Course, Leng reminded himself that he had nothing to worry about. He\u2019d been playing great all summer, especially at the Western Amateur, which Leng won to set up the possibility of becoming just the 10th player to ever win both the Western and U.S. Amateur in the same year (Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are both on that list).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of shaky the first few holes,\u201d said Leng, who still managed to take an early lead with a birdie at the par-4 first hole and never trailed in his match against Florida\u2019s Jack Turner. \u201cBut I was making putts from everywhere, so that helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leng closed out his 6-and-5 victory with four straight birdies. He played his 13 holes in 6 under. He saved his best swing for last, too, nearly holing out for an ace at the par-3 13th.<\/p>\n

Maybe he\u2019d hope for a similar range-to-course dynamic on Saturday?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Leng responded, \u201cthat was too stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logan Reilly<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Logan Reilly walks to the second hole during the quarterfinals of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Dustin Satloff\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Dustin Satloff\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

Reilly was well conditioned to handle the swelling galleries on Friday, as the Auburn rising sophomore<\/a> played high-school basketball for two years at Bishop O\u2019Connell in Arlington, Virginia.<\/p>\n

He remembers his freshman year when his junior-varsity squad traveled to powerhouse St. Paul VI, which had a top-five varsity squad in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole student section was already in there,\u201d Reilly said. \u201cWe went into overtime with them and won, which was pretty sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even sicker: Reilly dropped 20 points that night.<\/p>\n

Nearly everything has dropped this week, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was firing on all cylinders today,\u201d said Reilly, who carded six birdies in 14 holes against Liberty\u2019s Michael Lugiano, who lives about 75 miles away and had plenty of rowdy friends and family rooting him on.<\/p>\n

\u201cGave me a little extra motivation, honestly,\u201d Reilly added. \u201cI just kept my foot on the gas and never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reilly has also impressed with his speedy pace of play, which likely comes from his athletic background. He played high-level flag football as well, quarterbacking his Virginia Xtreme team to two national semifinal appearances and one final, though they came away empty-handed each time.<\/p>\n

Reilly\u2019s Auburn Tigers didn\u2019t have that issue this past spring, collecting their second NCAA crown in three seasons<\/a>. Reilly, who sank the clinching putt at La Costa, is now two wins away from his second national championship in a few months.<\/p>\n

Reilly will face Leng at 2:15 p.m. ET on Saturday while Loflin and Whaley will go off first, at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARDMORE, Pa. \u2013 It was a record-breaking day as Merion Golf Club welcomed the most ticketed fans for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-814089","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\/814089","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=814089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}