Here are nine things we’re loving about this week’s U.S. Amateur at Merion.
1. Merion has always been cramped, charming, difficult, great. This week has proved once again that not only is Merion ideal for a match-play event, such as this U.S. Amateur, but that it will be superb for the three U.S. Opens on its docket, in 2030, 2040 and 2050. (Plus the Women’s Open in 2034 and 2046.) If you want to diminish the value of the smashed driver, you need a shorter course, not a longer one. You need a course with peculiar angles and sledding-hill slopes.
Enter Merion, at 6,900 yards, with two long par-3s and two longish par-5s and a selection of mix-and-match par-4s. So good. Like, one of the best. Obviously, as Dustin Johnson might add here.
2. This Jay Leng Jr., a rising junior at Stanford with the widest stance you’ve ever seen on a good golfer and one of Saturday afternoon’s four semi-finalists, does something every golfer should do when hitting an approach shot into a greenside bunker: He grabs his sand wedge right away! It’s not complicated, people. The second one shot has ended is the time to start plotting your next one.
3. Leng’s Saturday afternoon opponent, Logan Reilly, a rising sophomore at Auburn, with a tangly and distinctive red mullet, has been a fixture in a clubhouse tent beside the 13th green, hanging with his people (his father is a prominent agent), iced tea in hand, in no rush to go anywhere, taking it all in.
4. This Jack Whaley from England, a rising senior at Florida State and one of Saturday afternoon’s four semi-finalists, endured the indignity of giving up three-hole leads twice in one match and never showed a moment of outward anxiety. This guy brings new meaning to Keep Calm and Carry On.
5. Whaley’s Saturday afternoon opponent, Carter Loflin, on the cusp of finishing his degree at Georgia after four years of golf there, sips water from a bottle that features a Grateful Dead Steal Your Face logo, wears a cotton golf shirt that Arnold Palmer would envy. The Last Days of Persimmon is paging this young golfer, welcoming him into the fold.
6. The USGA write-ups on these matches, posted in its website and written by a veteran newspaper writer David Shefter, a longtime USGA in-house writer: the pieces are loaded with information you’re unlikely to find elsewhere and have a style all their own, too, getting quotes down to their colorful essence. Carter Loflin, for instance, referring to Emilia Migliaccio Doran, the former Curtis Cup player, as “the Golf Channel lady.”
7. The incredible level of courtesy shown by fans, marshals, police officers, members, USGA officials, players, caddies. There was not a moment of boorishness. There was never a time you could not see any shot you wanted to see. There was, at times, a 15-minute line to get into the pro shop. Nobody seemed to mind.
8. Forgive me: I missed last call for lunch one day. A server invited me into the kitchen, gave me a plate, pointed to the leftovers and told me to have at it.
9. The golf had wild and unexpected turns in it, the four gents still at it on Saturday afternoon, brilliant at times, on edge at others. Whaley and Loflin were tied going into 18. Whaley won the home hole . . . with a bogey. Not what you want to see, but what happened. Leng defeated Reilly 2&1. So Leng and Whaley will face each other in the Sunday finale, likely in the rain, the electric SEPTA trains whistling on by. Timeless Merion. I haven’t heard a ringing cellphone yet.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.
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