With dad on bag, England's Jack Whaley plays on at Merion

ARDMORE, Pa. – Andy Whaley shares a mantra with his son, Jack: Drive forward, see where you go, and just have fun along the way.

But golf hasn’t always been enjoyable for Jack Whaley. As a kid and into his teenage years, it seemed like every big tournament he’d compete in, he’d leave disappointed, wondering if the financial sacrifices his family was making for him to pursue the sport competitively – and with little success – were worth it.

After one particularly frustrating junior event in Leeds, England, Jack told his dad that he didn’t want to play golf anymore.

“It felt like every time I failed to make a cut, I was failing him,” Jack said. “But every single time, he's like, ‘Keep going, you've got this.’ He's been behind me my entire life.”

So, what did Andy do upon hearing his heartbroken son wished to quit the game? Remembering his own clubs were in the trunk, Andy began the 45-minute drive home to Doncaster, but just a few miles into the trip, he turned into the car park of a nine-hole municipal course.

“Fancy playing your dad?” Andy asked Jack, who obliged.

“We played nine holes,” Andy recalled, “and he came off and was like, ‘OK, I want to keep playing golf.’”

And Jack Whaley has kept playing, all the way to the championship match of the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship.

Whaley, a 22-year-old rising senior at Florida State University, lost a 3-up lead to his semifinal opponent, Georgia’s Carter Loflin, on Saturday afternoon at Merion Golf Club before sinking a 4-footer for bogey to win the brutally difficult, par-4 18th hole.

“Honestly, my entire body is shaking,” Whaley said after his 1-up victory, which earned him a date with Stanford’s Jay Leng Jr. in Sunday’s 36-hole final. “Just got adrenaline pumping through me. … I'm proud of myself for being able to get across that barrier and get it done.”

Just a few days ago, Jack was in danger of missing another notable cut until he nearly aced Merion’s 13th hole during a 16-for-11 playoff before qualifying for the 64-man, match-play bracket as the 60th seed. Everything since has been gravy for Jack and Andy, who has been on the bag all week.

As the Whaleys made their way down the 495-yard 18th on Saturday, Jack, having just lost three of the last five holes, turned to his dad and said, “We've come this far. We'd be very happy just to walk away now. But let's just see what happens.”

After finding the right rough with 3-wood, Whaley swung his 7-iron so hard that he nearly fell over. He was able to advance his ball down the hill and back into the fairway, setting up a 58-degree wedge into what he called “probably one of the hardest greens I’ve ever played in in my life.” With Loflin’s third shot bounding into the back rough, Whaley kept his ball on the back part of the putting surface to set up his winning two-putt on the same green where Ben Hogan famously hit a pair of putts from 40 feet to force a playoff ahead of his 1950 U.S. Open triumph.

While preparing to roll in his fifth stroke, which would mark the third time this championship that the closing hole had been won with bogey, Whaley couldn’t help but think of the perks that’d come his way with a make – spots in next year’s Masters and U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He also caught a glimpse of his dad, whose eyes were already tearing up from behind his glasses and under his beige gambler hat.

“He didn’t have to look very hard,” Andy exclaimed.

Andy can still picture that 4-year-old boy hitting balls at the Pete Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham. Jack was initially drawn because of the two-storied driving range, mini-golf complete with a closing windmill hole, and the lollipops that Andy would buy him after each practice.

During Jack’s first trip to the range, Andy, who played semi-pro cricket but was a novice golfer, spotted an advertisement for group lessons and signed his son up. Jack learned not only the fundamentals but course etiquette and rules, and at the end of each 10-week course, students would be tested; pass, and they would level up, starting with their cadet badge and progressing to cadet-plus, bronze, silver and gold.

It took Jack just 14 months to earn his final badge, then he began taking private lessons from Nick Huby, one of Cowen’s proteges, who remains his instructor to this day.

“An absolute sliding-doors moment for his life,” Andy said of Jack’s time at the academy.

While Andy is now a successful project director for a construction company, finances were tight back then. Jack’s U.S. Kids Golf clubs were all used, and he didn’t receive his first new set of irons until he was 16 years old. Every time Jack would hit a Pro V1 into the woods, he and his dad would both wince.

When Andy 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 explained to his son, “You’ve worked hard, and you deserve it … just don’t tell your mom.”

“At 12 years old, I don't understand, but now when I look back at it, I really do appreciate the things he sacrificed for me,” Jack said. “He's my hero. I want him to see me play well and watch me succeed.”

Jack eventually earned his way onto the Yorkshire regional squad, led by Steve Robinson, whose students include LPGA player Lottie Woad. At 17 years old, he made his first cut of significance, at the English Amateur. A year later, he took a gap year, deciding he was not ready to attend Eastern Kentucky, but then played well enough in amateur events to be listed in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and eventually ended up at Dalton State, an NAIA school in Georgia.

In two seasons, Whaley won five times, including the 2025 NAIA individual title, while completing the grand slam of individual accolades – the Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Mickelson awards. He then transferred to Florida State last fall, when he also finally earned his way onto the English National Team.

Dustin Satloff/USGA Museum

And yet, Whaley, now ranked 90th in the world, has been largely overlooked by Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup selectors ahead of next month’s matches at Lahinch in Ireland.

“I’m not here to say I should be in the Walker Cup,” Whaley said. “I feel like I should be, but we’ll see.”

Whaley can force the hands of captain Dean Robertson and the R&A with a victory Sunday over Leng, the recent Western Amateur champion who beat Auburn’s Logan Reilly in their semifinal, 2 and 1, and surely will be named to the 10-man U.S. Walker Cup squad.

Should Whaley become the first U.S. Amateur champion since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013, he would also receive another major bonus: a spot in the Open Championship at St. Andrews.

And to think young Jack once wanted to stop playing.

“The rewards are amazing, but for me, it’s more pride,” Andy Whaley said. “The tears were of pride of what Jack has become and how he’s got there. It’s not always been easy. We have driven away from a lot of tournaments having missed cuts by, in the early days, a long way, and then not by much. But you could see the progression and see him enjoying it more and more.”

Andy and his wife, Kerry, were scheduled to fly home on Saturday night. Instead, Andy and Jack will enjoy one final walk together around Merion.

Maybe the day will end for Jack with the Havemeyer Trophy and a lollipop.

He'd love that.