Jack Whaley was slumped in the passenger seat of his father’s car at Bristol and Clifton Golf Club as he watched his mates head back to the first tee through the window before turning to his dad.
“I see that now as the low point,” Whaley says. “We’ve gone there to the Carris Trophy [AKA the British Boys] and been with all of my golf mates and their parents and they’d all qualified and I’d missed the cut. I was totally sick of letting my dad down. I felt like quitting there and then.”
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Five years on and Whaley is only England’s third US Amateur champion since 1895.
Not only did that Philadelphia triumph, with father Andy on the bag, earn him a spot in this week’s Walker Cup but also in three of next year’s majors… the Masters at Augusta, the US Open at Pebble Beach and the Open at St Andrews. Oh yeah, and it earned him a message from Tiger Woods.
Whaley with father Andy, also his caddie, after winning the US Amateur Championship – Imagn Images/Reuters/Bill Streicher
Whaley is golf’s latest lesson in perseverance and he goes into this weekend’s Walker Cup clash, which is regularly labelled the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup, with the might of America thinking that nothing is beyond him or his team. “From my experience I know everything is possible, if you have the support and if you keep working and believing,” he says.
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“Yeah, GB&I [Great Britain and Ireland] have not beaten the US in more than a decade, but many of us have played against these opponents and beaten them this year. So why can’t we do it again as a collective? We are at home at Lahinch [on the West Coast of Ireland] and this is a talented bunch. We aren’t intimidated by them at all.”
They even have a Poulter on the team. Luke, son of Ian, is eighth in the world amateur rankings and is one of four in Dean Robertson’s ranks riding high in the top 20. Two more have famous fathers. Tyler Weaver (world No 3) is the son of classic-winning jockey Jason, while the father of Niall Sheils Donegan (world No 18) is Lawrence Donegan, who as well as being a former golf correspondent with the Guardian, was a chart-topping bassist with Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and The Bluebells. This is plainly a team with pedigree, as exemplified by Ian Poulter following Luke in practice this week.
Ian Poulter watches son Luke play a shot during a practice round ahead of the Walker Cup – Getty Images/David Cannon
There is no doubt that the Ryder Cup legend will have been gripped by Whaley’s tale. The 22-year-old from Sheffield fought back from his existential moment in that Clifton car park, but never made the national under-aged teams, peaking for the Yorkshire Under-18s.
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No matter, he ventured to the US college system but, without the glittering CV, had to accept a place at Dalton State, a university in Georgia in the NAIA college system, regarded as the poor relations to the NCAA. Within a few seasons the powerhouses were clambering for the NAIA’s leading player and he duly landed at Florida State.
Yet still, he arrived at Merion Golf Club three weeks ago as the world No 90 and largely unfancied.
“I guess I was confident of going deep into the tournament, but didn’t really think about what was on the line,” Whaley says. “My dad was my caddie and it felt special to have him there after everything he’d done for me. He is an engineer but when I was young was at the bottom of the bottom, if you know what I mean? Money was tight, but he would get me things when I asked. You don’t think as a kid, do you? I remember wanting this wedge and Dad bought it for me and slipped it into my bag. ‘Don’t tell your mum,’ Dad said.
“My parents – as many do in this sport, that at grass-roots level isn’t anywhere as wealthy as people think – took me everywhere and paid for so much they couldn’t really afford. Dad’s done really well in his job since and now he can afford it, I get everything free. It’s the wrong way around!
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“But at Merion I kept thinking of his sacrifice to me. Whenever I used to miss cuts, and for a while that was too often, I’d feel awful and honestly feel I’d let him down. Not that he was anything but positive and was never demanding. Merion felt like some payback, yes. So many doors opened up for me. I definitely wouldn’t have been in the Walker Cup without that week. But the Masters and Pebble Beach and St Andrews? With those venues, it must have been the best year to win it.”
There was also Woods. In February, the US Golf Association renamed the prize, the Tiger Woods Medal in honour of the three-time US Amateur Champion. Thus the icon took to social media after Whaley emulated the 2013 success of fellow Yorkshireman Matt Fitzpatrick. “Congrats to Jack Whaley on winning the US Am at Merion,” Woods posted on X. “An incredible accomplishment and a special place to make history.”
Tiger Woods has three US Amateur Championship wins to his name – AP/Jack Smith
Whaley was stunned. “The reaction was bonkers anyway, but that just made it insane,” he says. “As a lad from Doncaster who never had his first set of new irons until I was 16, to read my name in a Tiger tweet… well, I suppose it summed up the madness. I still can’t take it all in, but this Walker Cup will help with that. Playing for my country against the Americans in such an historic event. I feel very privileged and inspired.”
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