For the first time in program history, No. 23 Florida State golf will take home the Havemeyer Trophy, as Jack Whaley becomes the first Seminole to win the U.S. Amateur Championship, held at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, PA.
With his win, Whaley automatically qualifies for the 2027 Masters, the 2027 U.S. Open, the 2027 Open Championship, and will join teammate Tyler Weaver in the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team.
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When asked about the difficulty of playing this tournament in the rain, Whaley responded with “Coming from England we’ve grown up playing in that. If it starts raining in England you ain’t coming off that golf course as you do here.”
Whaley transferred to the Seminoles in 2026 after two dominant years at Dalton State College in the NAIA.
During his freshman year, he was given the Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award. During his freshman year, he won two individual tournaments, and led his team to victory, winning the 2024 NAIA National Championship team title. He was an All-American and conference player of the year.
In his sophomore season, he won the NAIA Individual National Championship and was named the NAIA National Player of the Year after collecting all four major national honors (Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player Award). He won five of nine tournaments and finished top three in every single event.
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Before Whaley’s impressive win at the 126th U.S. Amateur Championships, only Drew Kittleson (2008), and Downing Gray (1962) have come close to matching this accomplishment. Both men finished as runners-up. Gray, who is in the Athletic Hall of Fame, would later go on to represent the United States in three Walker Cups, serving as captain for two of those events.
In 2026 Seminole golf will continue to build off its 2025 top ten finish with elite players such as Luke Clanton and Tyler Weaver.
Clanton won three state titles while at American Heritage High School in South Florida. He was an All-American at Heritage and a prized recruit for Seminole coach Trey Jones. Since joining the Seminoles he has set the single-season scoring record (69.33), while winning multiple tournaments early in his career. He was ranked No.1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking his sophomore year.
Weaver was ACC Freshman of the Year for the 2023-2024 season. Prior to winning the award only Brooks Koepka and John Pak had been honored with the achievement. As a sophomore, he won his first tournament at the 2025 Cabo Collegiate and was a runner-up at the ACC Championships. In 2025 he qualified for the U.S. Open and finished as the fourth-lowest amateur at the event.
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When asked about his teammates and his expectations for Florida State in 2026 Whaley stated “We’ve got a massive amount of talent on the team. On any given day anyone can go out and beat anyone.”
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