Stanford’s Leng Jr. Among Quarterfinalists at Merion

Few players this summer have been hotter than Jay Leng Jr. Winner of the Western Amateur. Runner-up in the Northeast Amateur. A tie for fifth in the Southern Amateur. All are elite competitions against top-flight talent.

After his performance on Thursday, the San Diego, Calif., resident and rising Stanford University junior could add the biggest prize of his fledgling career: the Havemeyer Trophy.

Leng, 20, took out second-seeded Tyler Watts, 1 up, in the Round of 16 of the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Golf Club to reach the quarterfinals of a USGA championship for a second time.

He is joined in the final eight by Brandon Knight, 21, of Pleasanton, Calif.; Carter Loflin, 22, of Duluth, Ga.; Adam Bresnu, 22, of Morocco, Jack Whaley, 22, of England; Jack Turner, 22, of Orlando, Fla.; local favorite Michael Lugiano, of Jackson Township, Pa.; and Logan Reilly, 19, of Lovettsville, Va.

Just how impressive has Leng been the past couple of months?

En route to winning the Western Amateur at Beverly Country Club, in Chicago, he defeated the world’s best 17-year-old, Miles Russell, in the semifinals, and then he beat Watts. The two phenomenal left-handers, who were named to the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team last month, are ranked 3 (Watts) and 4 (Russell) in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®.

At the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur held at historic Oakland Hills Country Club, Leng beat Russell in the quarterfinals before losing to Watts, the eventual runner-up, in the semis.

Leng, who is No. 23 in WAGR, overcame an early 2-down deficit to Watts, thanks in part to a brilliant 140-yard bunker shot on the par-4 seventh with a 50-degree wedge to set up a long birdie putt to win the hole. That tied the match and he would use that momentum to win Nos. 9 and 10 with birdies for a 2-up advantage.

Watts answered by claiming 11 and 15 with birdies, but Leng offset those two 3s with a 2 on the short 13th. Leng managed to tie Watts on 17 as both players three-putted for bogeys. On 18, the two combatants missed the fairway left and their approach shots were just left of the putting surface in the rough. Watts deftly pitched to 4 feet and holed the par putt, while Leng lagged his putt from a comfortable lie in the rough inches from the green to 2 feet to seal the victory.

“I knew it was going to be a battle out there from the beginning,” said Leng, who hopes to be one of the last six selections to the USA Walker Cup Team, but a victory on Sunday would guarantee him a spot. “I've played with Tyler enough to know how good he is and what he's capable of.”

As for the Walker Cup spot, he added: “There's a lot to play for in the U.S. Am in general. There's no need to add any extra pressure.”

Lugiano is having a run like Northern Californian Niall Sheils Donegan did a year ago at The Olympic Club and the University of Michigan’s Nick Carlson produced at Oakland Hills a decade ago. Crowds have flocked out to see the “local” favorite, who resides 90 minutes away and is staying with his former Liberty University teammate and Norristown, Pa., resident Joshua Ryan, the stroke-play medalist who lost in Wednesday’s opening round.

All three of his matches have gone the distance and all three have resulted in 1-up victories. With the gallery whooping and hollering, the rising college junior managed to hold off Nevill Ruiter, of the Netherlands, in the morning and then ousted Brigham Young University incoming freshman Drake Harvey in the Round of 16. On Tuesday morning, Harvey matched the Merion competitive course record with a 64, which was last achieved by Ben Crenshaw in the 1981 U.S. Open.

Neither Lugiano nor Harvey held more than a 1-up advantage the entire match, with the former taking the lead for good with a winning par on the 17th hole.

The flame just continued to stay lit for the Liberty standout (school’s nickname is the Flames), who won the NCAA Corvalis (Ore.) Regional in May. Liberty also has some USGA karma going as incoming freshman Noah Maclauchlan claimed last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club, in Bethlehem, Pa., defeating Russell in the 36-hole final.

Lugiano can expect his gallery to be even larger on Friday afternoon.

“Having all the people out here, it's great,” said Lugiano. “It's not nerve-racking at all. It's just really nice to have the support.” 

Reilly, who clinched the winning point for Auburn in this year’s NCAA title match against UCLA, continued his march toward a possible individual national title by defeating University of Oklahoma rising senior Ryder Cowan in 20 holes. Two months ago, Cowan shared low-amateur honors in the U.S. Open with Reilly’s ex-teammate and now-PGA Tour winner Jackson Koivun.

The rising sophomore watched Cowan win Nos. 17 and 18 to force extra holes, but his par on No. 20, the par-4 15th at Merion, secured him a matchup against Lugiano on Friday. It was Reilly’s second extra-hole victory of the championship, as he outlasted Canadian Emile Lebrun in the opening round on Wednesday before taking out 17-year-old Evan Liu in the Round of 16, 2 and 1.

Playing in the Southeastern Conference, Loflin, who just completed his eligibility at the University of Georgia, had seen plenty of Alabama’s William Jennings over the past few years. Jennings came into their Round-of-16 encounter with the better credentials, namely being the runner-up in the NCAA Championship in June and owning a lofty No 5 ranking in WAGR. But Loflin (No. 47 in WAGR) was the higher seed after stroke play, with Jennings needing to survive a 16-for-11 playoff just to get into the draw.

And after letting a 2-up lead with two to play slip away, the Georgian calmly regrouped, holing a 6-foot birdie on the 19th hole to advance. It’s the best individual performance in a USGA championship by Loflin, who twice reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2022 and ’23 with partner Wells Williams.

“I mean, honestly, I would say that neither of us played our best golf,” said Loflin. “I think he would say that as well. We were kind of giving each other some breaks. He gave me a couple holes. But I've played a good bit with him. I knew he would come roaring back at some point, and he did.”  

Turner and Joshua Bai, the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur runner-up, have probably played some 100 rounds together at the University of Florida. But they never played one with a spot in the last eight of arguably the world’s most prestigious amateur competition. Turner, who is No. 19 in WAGR and competed on this year’s USA Arnold Palmer Cup Team, rolled to an impressive 5-ad-3 victory, earning him a matchup against Leng Jr.

Turner was the equivalent of 4 under par – with the usual match-play concessions – over the 15-hole encounter.

Mid-amateurs have performed well in the last two U.S. Amateurs held at Merion. Austin Eaton III reached the semis in 2005, and Danny Green beat legendary Philadelphia-area player Jay Sigel in the quarters and Jerry Courville Jr. in the semis before falling to Chris Patton in the final of the 1989 championship.

This year, however, the run for the 25-and-older group ended in the Round of 16 when 28-year-old Christian Cavalier, of Katonah, N.Y., was eliminated by Whaley, 4 and 3. The 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur semifinalist was impressive in beating 2026 Canadian Amateur champion Dawson Lew in the Round of 32 before running into the Florida State standout who could be representing Great Britain & Ireland in next month’s Walker Cup Match at Lahinch, in the Republic of Ireland.

Three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and five-time USA Walker Cupper Stewart Hagestad, 34, of Newport, Calif., was eliminated in the Round of 32 by Harvey, 2 and 1. The other three mid-amateurs to qualify for match play – Matthew Lowe, Evan Beck and Grady Brame Jr. – were eliminated on Wednesday.

Whaley, however, built a 5-up lead after eight holes and cruised home from there.

“The last 36 hours, I didn't really expect it coming into this week,” said Whaley “I knew my game was pretty solid. I knew I was playing nice. But obviously there's so many good players in this field, you can never really say, ‘Wow, I'm going to win.’ It's always a goal, but you never know.”

Two years ago, Bresnu was the No. 1 player in junior college, having won nine times for Odessa (Texas) College before signing with Texas Tech, where he’ll be a senior. Now he’s the first player from a country better known for soccer players and distance runners to make the quarterfinals in a USGA championship. Morocco, which will host the 2027 World Amateur Team Championships, now has a golf star to follow.

His 5-and-4 victory over University of Illinois All-American Max Herendeen was all the more impressive in that Herendeen had needed just 25 holes to win his first two matches.

Bresnu lost the opening hole, but the emotional Bresnu claimed the next two holes with pars and never looked back, fist-pumping his way around Merion.

Knight, a rising senior at the University of Colorado, never led his Round-of-16 encounter against Oklahoma State rising senior Gaven Lane, of Argyle, Texas, until his opponent missed a 5-foot bogey putt on the 507-yard, par-4 closing hole, one that has baffled the game’s best amateur all week. One hole earlier, Knight had tied the match with a winning par on the 186-yard par-3.

“I was shocked, honestly,” said Knight, who was 3 down after 10. “I was kind of gearing up to play 1. I figured he was going to make it. I was ready to go. It was a relief.”

What’s Next

Friday’s quarterfinal matches will begin at 1:30 p.m. EDT and continue in 15-minute intervals. The semifinals on Saturday are slated for 2 p.m. and 2:20 p.m., and Sunday’s 36-hole final is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. The afternoon portion will follow after the lunch break at a time to be determined. Tickets are available by clicking here. Peacock and the NBC Sports Network will have live streaming of the quarterfinals beginning at 3 p.m. NBC takes over the coverage on Saturday and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Notable

• All eight quarterfinalists are now exempt into the 127th U.S. Amateur to be staged at Oak Hill Country Club, in Rochester, N.Y., next August.
  
  
• How good was the Torrey Pines High boys’ golf team in 2024? Both Jay Leng Jr. and then freshman Evan Liu were both on the team that captured the Californian Interscholastic Federation state title. Both Liu and Leng, the recent winner of the Western Amateur, advanced to the Round of 32 and quarterfinals, respectively, this week at Merion. Liu has verbally committed to play for the University of North Carolina in 2027.
  
  
• Michael Lugiano is the first player from the Golf Association of Philadelphia to reach the quarterfinals since Merion member George “Buddy” Marucci in 1996 at Pumpkin Ridge. Marucci, a two-time USA Walker Cup captain (2007, 2009), lost in the 1995 final to Tiger Woods.
  
  
• Speaking of Merion, Jack Hopkins is the lone club caddie left. He is carrying for Carter Loflin.
  
  
• William Jennings ended his Round-of-32 match in dramatic fashion, holing out a fairway bunker shot from 132 yards on the 15th hole for an eagle 2 to close out Jack Beauchamp, 4 and 3.
  
  
• Basketball Hall of Famer and former Philadelphia 76ers star Charles Barkley was at Merion on Thursday taking in the action. The current NBA analyst was an 11-time all-star and the league’s MVP in 1993. Barkley also is an avid golfer.
  
  
• After being eliminated in the Round of 64 on Wednesday, Boston Bracken jumped on the bag of Arizona State teammate and fellow Utah resident Bowen Mauss for the Round of 32. Unfortunately for Mauss, he was eliminated by Florida State standout Jack Whaley, of England, 2 and 1.

Quotable

“I mean, I've always thought that my game was good enough to compete with anyone. I guess it just proves to me that I don't need to change anything, that I can just do my own thing and swing how I like to do and just keep doing that. I guess people will see how it works.” – Jay Leng Jr.

“Definitely really nice. Just being with a buddy all week and having his family to support me through it as well, it's really nice to have the comfort of a home instead of a hotel, which is most of these events.” – Michael Lugiano on staying at the residence of ex-college teammate Josh Ryan just 10.5 miles from Merion

“It's paramount. Yeah, he's been here for 35 years. He knows every nook and cranny of this place. I was telling the lady (Emilia Doran) from Golf Channel a minute ago, he just really slows me down. But he really knows the greens, like, really, really well. If I'm ever 50/50 on a read, he's just like, no, it's right here. I'm like, okay.” – Carter Loflin on the importance of having veteran Merion caddie Jack Hopkins on his bag

“I think it's so cool to have all those people out there. It's kind of what I grew up dreaming about is playing with big crowds. I love everyone getting loud and kind of rowdy out there. The more people out there and the more cameras, it means something is going well.” – Logan Reilly

“We always play games together and we were talking about how gimmes you just lay the putter down and just say pick it up. So, we had some laughs out there. But it's definitely weird playing one of my good friends on such a big stage. It was a lot of fun.” – Jack Turner on playing Florida teammate Joshua Bai

“I've got a golf shot app thing where I can pinpoint where all the tee boxes are, so I kind of used that and went through in the practice rounds how wide the fairways were so I could kind of navigate. But I also completely forgot the fact that Merion had the [2013] U.S. Open until my dad told me the day before. I wouldn't say it was 100 percent perfect, but it's working.” – Jack Whaley on preparing to play Merion

“I think the main goal for me is to try to show kids in Morocco, even young people, that if I can do it, everyone can do it. We only have 34 golf courses in Morocco. There's probably more in Rhode Island. It's just to show that even if you don't have a lot of golf courses or a facility, you can still make it.” – Adam Bresnu on being an inspiration for future players from Morocco

“This place is as good as it gets here at Merion. I have never played a golf course that's just so good through 18 holes.” – Brandon Knight

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.