ARDMORE, Pa. — Jack Whaley knew that simply getting to the final match of the U.S. Amateur came with two huge perks – spots in the 2027 Masters and 2027 U.S. Open. What he didn’t know was where one of those (the U.S. Open) was being played next June. As for the Masters, well, that’s an easy one.
Thankfully, he was able to find out via the Golf Channel on Friday evening, giving him a little more to think about all day.
“I actually didn’t know it was [at Pebble] next year until I watched it yesterday,” Whaley said after defeating Carter Loflin on Saturday. “I watched on Golf Channel, it said what was at stake, and it was obviously the Masters at Augusta and then Pebble Beach, and I was like, sh-t, it could be a pretty good one.”
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It certainly will be. And his 2027 schedule could get even better should Whaley go on to take down Jay Leng Jr. in the 36-hole final on Sunday. That would also earn him a spot in the 2027 Open Championship at … wait for it … St Andrews. He picked a good week to have a week.
Depending on who you ask, this Whaley run was a fairly unexpected one. He entered the week 90th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and would not even be considered as the best player on his college roster. That title would belong to Tyler Weaver, a fellow rising senior, and fellow Englishman, on the Seminoles’ men’s golf team who is currently the second-ranked amateur in the world. As Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine reported earlier this week, Whaley, prior to this week, was not even being seriously considered to be on the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team (the Walker Cup will take place in Ireland this September).
That may change on Sunday, and it possibly has already. One guy who is surprised by none of this is Whaley’s FSU teammate Drew Jones, who flew to Philadelphia on Saturday, landing at 12 p.m. ET and heading straight to the golf course. Jones has seen Whaley’s game up close, noting that he is not a guy you want to be down early against in match play. Especially at this course.
“He might be one of the straightest drivers of the golf ball I’ve ever seen. It’s a joke,” Jones said while Whaley was taking a 3 up lead over Loflin at the 12th. “We’ll joke around that he hits every single fairway a round. Whenever he does miss one, we’ll ask him ‘what happened?
“It’s not really a shock just because of how good he drives it. If he ever gets up in matches like he does, he just kind of peppers fairways and wears you out. Definitely a hard guy to beat. I can see why he’s playing so well here.”
They may be far apart in the rankings, but Jones says Weaver and Whaley are neck and neck when they are at school. And they may both work the hardest of anyone on the roster.
“[Their work ethic is] Off the charts. England’s finest,” Jones said. “Him and Tyler get after it pretty good. They both work incredibly hard. All the internationals do, really.”
Weaver, who has already locked up a spot on the GB&I Walker Cup team, unfortunately had to withdraw this week due to a back injury he’s dealt with since April. But his fellow countryman is carrying both the English and FSU flags proudly this week. They may end up linking up at Lahinch for the Walker Cup next month, not that Whaley was thinking about that.
“To be completely honest, I wasn’t even thinking about Walker Cup today,” Whaley said. “I didn’t really think about the U.S. Open or the Masters at all either, to be honest, until it came down to that last putt. I said to my dad on the last, we’ve come this far. We’d be very happy just to walk away now. But let’s just see what happens. If this goes in, it goes in. If not, we’re going down the first. I think standing over that putt on the last, knowing what was at stake, but just thinking, well, I could have a potential another hole if I need to, so it honestly didn’t really matter as much because I could prove myself on the next hole. So yeah, I was glad to get it finished before going down the extra hole.”
It shouldn’t have gotten to that point, but Whaley stumbled at the par-3 13th, finding the bunker off the tee and allowing Loflin to win with a par. Loflin won with another par at 15 and then a birdie at 17 while Whaley was making a messy five. That put immense pressure on both players on the 18th tee, perhaps one of the scariest tee shots in championship golf.
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Loflin missed the fairway left, Whaley missed it right. Right proved to be the more quality miss, as Whaley was able to advance it much closer to the hole than Loflin and eventually save a bogey five to claim a 1 up victory.
Making Whaley’s run all the more impressive was the fact he narrowly got into the match play portion of the event, surviving a 16-for-11 spots playoff. He made a birdie two on the opening playoff hole to advance and has not looked back since.
“Pretty incredible week, to say I was in a playoff,” he said. “Didn’t know if I was even going to get through into the match play. So being able to get through the playoff and get the matches won that I had to, I was very, very over the moon with what I’ve achieved this week.”
One more win and he’ll have achieved the ultimate goal of winning the Havemeyer Trophy, something a Seminole men’s golfer last had an opportunity to do in 2008, when FSU’s Drew Kittleson fell to Danny Lee in the final match at Pinehurst.
Whaley will be the underdog again, as he has all week, to Leng, the 23rd-ranked amateur in the world who just won the Western Amateur earlier this month. Just like he likes it.
“Definitely felt like an underdog [Saturday],” Whaley said. “But I kind of thrive off of that. I like being the underdog. I like being able to show what I can do. It’s good.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
