Jack Whaley beat Carter Lofin in the 2026 U.S. Amateur semifinal, and his biggest supporter was there to see it. The young Englishman’s father, Andy, is responsible for his love of golf. Jack started playing at four, but the journey was never easy—missed cuts, close calls, early struggles; Andy was always by his side, pushing him. So when Jack advanced to the finals, with Andy on his bag at the Merion Golf Club, both got emotional and started crying. After the game, Jack reflected on how Andy’s support and encouragement got him through everything.
“My dad’s seen them all: the close calls, the failures, and missed cuts from age 12 through 17. Honestly, it broke my heart. Almost from the time I was five years old, playing this game, every time I failed, I would turn up and stay with him. But every single time, he would tell me to keep going. He’s been by my side my entire life. He’s honestly been my biggest supporter,” he said (source: GOLF.com’s X post).
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Andy even supported Jack when he almost didn’t make the bracket at all. He entered the week ranked 90th in the world but shot his way to the cut line through 36 holes of stroke play, tied for last. Sixteen players were chasing just 11 remaining spots. Whaley nearly made a hole-in-one on the first playoff hole, the par-3 13th, before settling in for a birdie that was enough for him to survive. He squeezed into the bracket as number 60.
The circumstances were tough, but from there, Whaley, with his father’s support, began winning. Whaley opened with a marathon win over Jackson Ormond, followed that with a 2-1 win over Bowen Mauss, and then beat Christian Cavaliere, rolling through the quarterfinals against Morocco’s Adam Bresnu.
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From there, he moved to Saturday’s semifinal against Georgia’s Loflin, and the matchup was the toughest one yet. Despite a three-stroke advantage, not once but twice, Loflin caught up with him by the 17th hole. On the 18th hole, which is one of the hardest closing holes, Whaley made a 4-foot bogey putt. Loflin had a double bogey and thus lost the semifinal by one stroke. He also won the match, sending him to Sunday’s 36-hole final against Stanford’s Jay Leng Jr. He was just happy to have made it despite losing the lead twice.
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“Honestly, my body was shaking. I’m proud of myself for being able to get across that barrier and get it done,” Jack said.
Although Jack has made a big win, the journey was never easy. He missed the cut for the 2025 U.S. Amateur, followed by a rough summer in 2026: T113 at the British Amateur and T33 at the European Amateur. He even narrowly missed the Sweet 16 at the Western Amateur.
Those results were a big reason Great Britain and Ireland’s Walker Cup selectors had largely overlooked him heading into next month’s match at Lytham, despite this week’s run. The pattern goes much further. By his own account, Whaley was missing cuts regularly between the ages of 12 and 17.
But his losses didn’t affect Andy, who kept supporting him. Jack had once told Andy that he wanted to quit the game entirely. But Andy helped him and bought him all the new equipment he needed until he was 16. Jack remembers Andy buying him his first 60-degree wedge at 12, dipping into his own savings to do it.
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“I didn’t know at the time, but he gave a lot for it. So did my grandma. At 12 years old, I didn’t understand, but now I look back and I really do appreciate the sacrifices,” Jack said.
With his performance, Jack has already earned an exemption into the 2027 Masters and U.S. Open, plus a three-year exemption into the U.S. Amateur Championship. If he beats Leng, he’d become the first Englishman to win the U.S. Amateur since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.
Leng and Jack are currently playing the finals on Sunday, and Leng has a one-stroke lead heading into the 13th hole.
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