Jay Leng never trailed in the championship match of the Western Amateur.
Jenny Butler, Western Golf Association
With 72 holes of stroke play followed by four rounds of match play, the Western Amateur is a test unlike any other in golf. Founded in 1899, the tournament is the third-oldest amateur championship in golf, behind only the U.S. and British amateurs, with a list of past winners that includes Tiger Woods (1994) and Jack Nicklaus (1961). Simply making the “Sweet 16” match-play bracket puts players in esteemed company with the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth.
In last week’s 124th edition at Beverly Country Club in Chicago, 20-year-old Jay Leng conquered one of golf’s toughest tests to hoist the George R. Thorne Trophy. After inclement weather postponed the tournament’s scheduled Saturday finish, the rising Stanford junior handled howling winds that bent flagsticks around the course on Sunday to defeat top-ranked junior Miles Russell in the semifinals, 3 and 1, and then Vanderbilt’s Michael Riebe in the final, 5 and 4.
“I knew it was going to be a very long day with Miles in the morning and I ended up getting my friend Michael from back home in the second match so I was very excited to duel it out,” Leng said. “There wasn’t really a moment [I knew I’d win], but I felt very confident the whole day. I knew my game was there and I just needed to execute.”
“Before the tournament even started it was pretty challenging with no practice rounds, sitting around all day. My caddie no-showed. There were a lot of things that went wrong but I guess it ended up well.”
Jay Leng
After severe storms last Monday flooded the course, cancelled practice rounds and delayed Tuesday’s opening round by almost three hours, the Western Amateur got underway. Over the course of three days, Leng qualified for the Sweet 16 as the No. 5 seed with scores of 67-67-68-66 (16-under par). And he did it without a caddie, and didn’t employ one until Sunday.
“Before the tournament even started it was pretty challenging with no practice rounds, sitting around all day,” Leng said. “My caddie no-showed. There were a lot of things that went wrong but I guess it ended up well.”
Russell claimed medalist honors with a score of 21-under, one stroke ahead of Josiah Gilbert. The 17-year-old became the first player to earn medalist honors in both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the Western Amateur in the same year. He is only the fifth player to earn medalist honors in both events at all.
On the way to the semifinals, Leng beat Dean Greyserman, 1 up, in the round of 16, coming back from 2 down. Leng never trailed in the quarterfinals, beating 2025 and 2026 Pacific Coast Amateur champion Jaden Dumdumaya, 5 and 3.
In the first semifinal match, Leng took on Russell, who had only trailed for two holes total in the first two rounds of match play. But after Leng won the first hole with a par, he never lost the lead. Still, the match was tight and Leng hit several clutch shots and putts down the stretch.
Russell responded to going 2 down through 13 with a win of his own on the 14th hole. However, on 15, he left himself with a difficult, short, downhill putt for par, which he missed. Leng had a 2-up lead with three to play.
On the par-3 17th hole, the hardest hole all week, Leng hit his shot to within 15 feet. After Russell failed to chip in for birdie, he conceded the match.
“[It was] honestly really special,” Leng said. “I knew I had to give it all I had out there. I knew he was never out of it because his short game is so good so I tried to give myself as many opportunities as possible and did a good job of capitalizing on most of them.”
The second semifinal was a back-and-forth affair between Riebe and Logan Reilly. Riebe took a 2-up lead through four holes but Reilly won the next two holes to draw even.
And that’s where the match was going into the 17th hole. Both players hit the green and faced long birdie putts. And while Reilly’s putt might have gone in with one more revolution of the ball, Riebe’s went in on the last revolution. With a 1-up lead with one to play, Riebe tapped in for par on the 18th to join Leng in the final.
Leng took control early in the championship match. A poor tee shot by Riebe on the par-5 second hole opened the door for Leng to bury a birdie putt and take a 1-up lead. On the fifth hole, with Riebe looking at a 3-footer for birdie, Leng drained a 20-foot birdie putt to keep his lead.
Leng won Nos. 6 and 7 to go 3 up, capitalizing on Riebe’s short-game mistakes and making birdie on the latter hole.
Riebe won No. 8 with a par, but Leng wasn’t shaken. He went back to 3 up with a par on No. 10 and expanded it to 4 up with a birdie on 11.
Leng went 5 up with five to play after Riebe’s tee shot on the 13th hole prompted him to take an unplayable lie, and he clinched victory with a par on No. 14th.
With the victory, Leng secured an exemption to play in next year’s Evans Scholars Invitational on the Korn Ferry Tour. He also clinched the Elite Amateur Cup, for which he will receive exemptions into a PGA Tour event and 2027 U.S. Open Final Qualifying (provided he remains an amateur).
RESULTS
Everett Munez
