England’s Jack Whaley defeated Jay Leng Jr. 4 and 3 to win the 2026 U.S. Amateur Championship. Whaley is a rising senior at Florida State University.
Before playing at Florida State, Whaley played at NAIA Dalton State. In 2015, he won the 2025 NAIA Men’s Golf Championship and became the first player in history to collect all of the NAIA national awards, including the Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player Awards.
Leng Jr. came into the week as one of the hottest amateurs of the summer. He won the Western Amateur, finished fifth at the Southern Amateur Championship and runner-up at the Northeast Amateur Invitational.
With his runner-up finish, Leng Jr. earned a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team that will compete Sept. 5-6 in Ireland. He also earned exemptions into the 2027 U.S. Open and Masters.
Whaley is the first Englishman to win the U.S. Amateur since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013. With the win, he earned exemptions into the 2027 U.S. Open, 2027 Open Championship and 2027 Masters.
Next year’s U.S. Amateur Championship will be held at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. The U.S. Amateur was held there in 1949 (won by Charles Coe) and 1998 (Hank Kuehne).
