How Jack Whaley earned himself a piece of Merion’s illustrious history

ARDMORE, Pa. – While the term cathedral is used to describe golf’s greatest venues, the East Course at Merion Golf Club is arguably its most revered chapel, set on approximately 120 acres packed with history and some of the best golf holes in the world.

A step into the converted farmhouse that now serves as Merion’s intricate clubhouse signifies a step back in time, with the club’s famed archive room as the main vehicle.

Advertisement

The small, windowless room, established by George Scudder and now chaired by historian and 19-time Merion club champ John Capers III, is the main repository of Merion’s history. It includes over 4,000 books and artifacts, including the standard from Justin Rose’s 2013 U.S. Open victory, the unwashed striped, Merion-logoed polo Edoardo Molinari wore in winning the 2005 U.S. Amateur final, aerial images from Bobby Jones’ slam-completing triumph at the 1930 U.S. Amateur, even some old horseshoes dug out of this historic dirt.

Jack Whaley will now have to part with his beloved Yorkshire County team rain jacket.

After a run of warm and sunny days in northwest Philadelphia, English skies set over Merion for the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship final. Perfect for Whaley, a 22-year-old from Doncaster, England, who embraced the relentless rain and washed away a 2-up deficit after 19 holes to defeat Stanford’s Jay Leng Jr., 4 and 3.

Not only did Whaley become the third English player to lift the Havemeyer Trophy, first since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013, but he’s also Merion’s first USGA champion since Rose, another Englishman.

Advertisement

“It just felt like home,” said Whaley, who had his father, Andy, on the bag for the first time in a big amateur tournament. What a debut, too, as this U.S. Amateur set records for crowds (over 20,000 ticketed fans) and likely pro-shop sales.

Home for Whaley has always been Yorkshire County. It’s where Andy Whaley signed up his 4-year-old son for group lessons after their first trip to the Pete Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham. Jack was initially intrigued by the two-story driving range, mini-golf course and lollipops after practice. But soon he was begging his dad to drive him to hit balls on the rainiest of winter days.

Nick Huby, Whaley’s coach ever since those first classes, has long told Whaley that he’s “better than everyone in the rain.” Whaley proved it to everyone else on a wet and wild Sunday that saw 20 of the 33 holes won by either player, including five holes with 5’s.

Advertisement

It was a dream start for Whaley, who chipped in for birdie on the first hole and led 2 up through eight holes, yet somehow, he found himself 2 down to Leng at the lunchbreak. In 53 previous U.S. Amateurs since the 36-hole, match-play final was reintroduced in 1972, only 11 champions had come back from an afternoon deficit, and just seven times had someone overcome multiple holes.

But Whaley had beaten the odds before.

Before Andy’s career in construction took off, money was tight. Jack didn’t receive his first new set of irons until he was 16 years old, and every time he’d hit a Pro V1 into the woods, he and his dad would both wince.

Andy once surprised a 12-year-old Jack with his first 60-degree wedge, dipping into his savings to purchase the club from the pro shop at Rotherham Golf Club. He then explained to his son, “You’ve worked hard, and you deserve it … just don’t tell your mom.”

Advertisement

So, when Jack went nearly his entire teens without making a significant cut, he accumulated not only frustration but guilt.

“I just couldn’t keep taking money out of my dad’s pocket for me not succeeding,” Whaley said. “He was trying to keep pushing me and pushing me, but if it was never going to get better, I was just wasting money at that point.”

Whaley took a gap year instead of signing with Eastern Kentucky in 2022, giving himself 12 months to improve or else he wouldn’t go to school or play golf anymore. That next summer, he finished runner-up at the Welsh Open Youths, reached the semifinals of the English Amateur, and for the first time, at age 18, became eligible for the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Over the next two seasons at Dalton State, an NAIA school in Georgia, Whaley won five times, including the 2025 NAIA individual title, and completed the grand slam of individual accolades – the Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Mickelson awards. That led to an opportunity to not only transfer to powerhouse Florida State last fall but to finally join the English National Team.

Advertisement

“He’s tough as nails,” said Ben Rickett, Whaley’s coach at Dalton.

Rickett, who is from Wimbledon, England, flew from Atlanta to Philadelphia on Sunday morning, just as he’d done 14 years ago at Cherry Hills, where midway through the final match, Steven Fox asked Rickett, then Fox’s assistant at Chattanooga, to take over caddying for his dad. Rickett looped the last 19 holes of Steven Fox’s win over Michael Weaver.

Like Fox and Molinari, among other, Whaley needed a playoff to advance to the U.S. Amateur’s knockout stage. He got through with birdie on the first extra hole, lipping out what could’ve been a hole-in-one at the 119-yard 13th hole. Whaley then went 22 holes in the Round of 64 before dispatching incoming Florida freshman Jack Ormond before storming through the bracket with victories over Bowen Mauss, Christian Cavaliere, Adam Bresnu and Carter Loflin.

Leng was easily Whaley’s toughest test. Not only was the 20-year-old from San Diego coming off a torrid summer that included a Western Amateur title, but he’d only played 75 match-play holes through the semifinals and was a 27-hole victory away from breaking the championship record for fewest holes needed to win the U.S. Amateur.

Advertisement

But Leng wasn’t the same after devouring a ribeye steak at lunch; his L.A.B. putter, which he started using along with the claw grip two springs ago, went cold, and Leng went birdie-less over his final 20 holes.

“Everyone has a bad day,” said a drenched Leng afterward. “The conditions were pretty tough out there. … Switching gloves every other shot, putting on my rain gear, everything was pretty tough about it. But that’s what a championship is.”

Whaley, meanwhile, received some advice from Florida State head coach Trey Jones on the practice green after missing a couple shorties in the morning. Jones noticed that Whaley was “peaking at his putts” and reminded him that he’d made more than he’d missed to reach this point.

“When you care so much, you’re trying to make putts too badly and not trusting yourself,” Jones said. “I told him, I want you to find something really positive about every putt you hit.”