Will bomb and gouge work at Merion? The answer could change during the week at the U.S. Amateur

ARDMORE, Pa — The U.S. Amateur poses a formidable test—physically and mentally—for all 312 players in the field, as Noah Kent can personally attest. The first time the 21-year-old University of Florida senior played in the championship was 2024, where he played 155 holes over the course of seven days, reaching Sunday’s final match before falling to Josele Ballester. He returned last year to Olympic Club, only to experience a much shorter week when he failed to play his way out of stroke play

This time around at Merion Golf Club, Kent is both motivated, philosophical and superstitious all at the same time. He’s playing video games between rounds, a la Hazeltine National. And his step-father, noted architect Dana Fry, helped connect him with a local caddie who has him confident in his sight lines off the tees and reading the contours of the greens.

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“I’m just making sure to keep things simple,” Kent said on Monday, after shooting a three-under 67 at Merion to get himself in prime position to grab one of the 64 match play spots. “I think the thing you can do is overcomplicate the week really, really quickly. If you can kind of just stay in your routine, know who you are as a person, not trying to do something you’re not used to … I think that’s really important.”

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Matt Hahn

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Courtesy of the club

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Courtesy of the club

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Matt Hahn

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Matt Hahn

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Matt Hahn

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Matt Hahn

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Stephen Szurlej

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Stephen Szurlej

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Previous Next Pause Play false Private Merion Golf Club: East Ardmore, PA 4.9 30 Panelists

Merion East has long been considered the best course on the tightest acreage in America, and when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2013, its first since 1981, the present generation of big hitters couldn’t conquer this clever little course. They couldn’t consistently hit its twisting fairways, which are edged by creeks, hodge-podge rough and OB stakes. Additionally, players couldn’t consistently hold its canted greens, edged by bunkers that stare back. Justin Rose won with a 72-hole total of one-over-par, two ahead of Jason Day and Phil Mickelson. With Gil Hanse’s extensive two-year renovation after that tournament, making even more improvements at Merion’s East Course, the design should be even more polished and pristine when the U.S. Amateur returns in 2026 and the U.S. Open returns again in 2030. View Course

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What Kent is used to, however, is sending his golf ball 300-plus yards off the tee with his driver. And in that respect, he acknowledges that he’s taking a restrained approach to Merion, a course that’s short by modern standards (6,939 yards) but penial with its narrow fairways and thick rough. During his opening round, Kent used driver on four of the opening six holes (including the two par 5s) and then not again until the 18th tee.

“I can kind of get away with hitting a little bit less club, which is nice,” Kent said. “I just like how it tests every single asset of your game. Like on 18, you have to hit a perfect drive to keep it in the fairway. And 14, you’ve got to place it perfectly to the corner. On 16 [the famed quarry hole] you’ve got to hit it perfectly. You can’t bomb and gouge it out here. You’ve got to kind of play what the course gives you.”

Kent isn’t looking past Tuesday’s second round of stroke play qualifying, this one at Philadelphia Country Club, knowing what it takes to get to match play. But if he does get in the bracket, he then thinks he might be able to be a little more aggressive at Merion, match play allowing for a more aggressive mindset.

“I think you just got to get through these first two days. And then you can kind of let your brain wander like it wants to.”

Maybe all the way to Sunday.