José Luis Ballester celebrated his 21st birthday Sunday with the biggest present in American amateur golf.
Ballester, an Arizona State senior, became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Amateur, holding off Noah Kent, 2-up, in the 36-hole finale at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota.
Ballester, who entered the week tenth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is the fourth Sun Devils golfer to win the Havemeyer Trophy, joining Billy Mayfair (1987), Phil Mickelson (1990) and Jeff Quinney (2000). Ballester and 2021 U.S. Open winner Jon Rahm are the only Spaniards to win USGA titles.
“We have many great Spaniards, many great legends, and being able to add my name into that history, it’s pretty sweet,” said Ballester, who offered special thanks to his mother on his birthday.
Sporting his nation’s colors of red and yellow and sporting a well-worn Arizona State cap, Ballester took control early, storming to a 3-up lead through four holes. He stretched the margin to 4-up at the midday lunch break and appeared to be in control as Kent made only one birdie in the morning round.
Kent, a 19-year-old Iowa sophomore from Naples, Florida, showed some spunk early in the afternoon 18 when he chipped in from deep rough behind the first green for birdie to win the hole. But the Spaniard won the next hole with a birdie and threatened to make it a rout. Ballester won the 28th and 29th holes to go 4-up with seven holes to play before Kent gamely fought back by winning the 31st and 32nd holes with pars to trim the deficit to 2-down with four to play.
They matched short birdie putts at the par-5 15th, their 33rd hole of the day, as Ballester maintained a 2-up lead and Kent was running out of holes. But Ballester drove into trouble on the par-4 16th and made bogey as Kent won the hole with a par to get to 1-down, the closest he had been since the second hole of the morning round. Ballester closed out the match with two-putt pars on the final two holes.
“It's always hard to win no matter what championship it is,” Ballester said, “and today was hard again. Pretty grateful that I could close it on 18.”
Both finalists earned spots in next year’s Masters as well as the U.S. Open, which will be played at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Kent said he “wasn’t feeling good this morning at all and never really got my rhythm,” but added that some advice during lunch from John Harris, the 1993 U.S. Amateur champion and a lifelong Minnesotan, helped to settle him in the afternoon.
“Mr. Harris just said be creative,” Kent said. “So, I got up there on the range. I was hitting slices. I was hitting soft shots. I was ripping them. I just wanted to have fun and give it a fight.
“I fought like crazy out there. I got it to 18.”
Both finalists earned spots in next year’s Masters as well as the U.S. Open, which will be played at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ballester also landed a spot in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Kent entered the week at No. 560 in the WAGR, and other than a runner-up finish at the Porter Cup had done little to indicate that he would be capable of such a run at the U.S. Amateur. He failed to make match play at the British Amateur and the Western Amateur this summer and finished 44th at the Trans-Miss.
On Saturday, with a boisterous gallery of Iowa fans – many wearing Caitlin Clark jerseys – who made the 300-mile drive from Iowa City rooting for him, Kent upset Jackson Buchanan, the No. 17-ranked amateur and the Big Ten Conference player of the year out of Illinois, 2 up. Ballester eliminated Spanish national teammate Luis Masaveu, 3 and 2, in the semifinals.
It was a good week for mid-amateurs in an event that typically is dominated by the collegians. Jimmy Ellis, the 39-year-old recent Florida Amateur champion, won the stroke-play medal at 10-under 132, then lost in the first round of match play. Christian Brand, 36, the West Virginia Amateur champion, made it to the round of 16, and Bobby Massa, 36, of Dallas, Texas, advanced to the quarterfinals. Both lost to eventual champion Ballester.
Luke Clanton, the new world No. 1, was eliminated in the Round of 32 by Buchanan. Gordon Sargent, the No. 2-ranked amateur, fell in the first round of match play.
Among the notable players who missed the 36-hole stroke-play cut to decide the 64 players for match play: junior wunderkinds Miles Russell and Blades Brown; and Jackson Koivun, the No. 3-ranked amateur and the recent NCAA runner-up with national champion Auburn.
RESULTS
Luke Clanton and Lottie Woad will be returning to classes soon at Florida State with a couple of nice summer superlatives.
The Seminoles players rank No. 1 in the respective men’s and women’s divisions of the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Clanton, 20, a junior from Hialeah, has been on an extraordinary run this summer on the PGA Tour. Since he tied for 41st in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Clanton has parlayed five PGA Tour exemptions into three top-10 results: T10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, T2 at the John Deere Classic and fifth place at the Wyndham Championship. After contending at the tour’s regular-season-ending stop in Greensboro, North Carolina, Clanton reportedly hopped a private plan to make it to Minneapolis in time for Monday’s start to the U.S. Amateur. He advanced to the round of 32 in match play – his deepest run in the U.S. Amateur – before losing 1 down to Jackson Buchanan after his putt to potentially extend the match on the 18th hole came up short.
Woad, 20, a junior from Farnham, England, won the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur and finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament. By winning the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading woman in the WAGR, Woad earned exemptions into next year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills and the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl. Next week, Woad will lead the Great Britain & Ireland team against the U.S. in the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale in England. READ MORE
The USGA completed its eight-woman team for the upcoming Curtis Cup matches.
Anna Davis, 18, of Spring Valley, California; Melanie Green, 22, of Medina, New York; Rachel Kuehn, 23, of Asheville, North Carolina; Megan Schofill, 23, of Monticello, Florida; and Asterisk Talley, 15, of Chowchilla, California, finalized the American squad, the USGA announced. They joined Zoe Campos, 21, of Valencia, California; Jasmine Koo, 18, of Cerritos, California; and Catherine Park, 20, of Irvine, California, who were automatic selections based on the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The R&A completed its GB&I team earlier this month.
The 43rd Curtis Cup will be played August 30-September 1 at England’s Sunningdale Golf Club. The U.S. leads the series, 31-8-3. READ MORE
• Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, will serve as the host site for three USGA championships: the 2028 U.S. Amateur, 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls’ Junior. READ MORE
• Al Hamra Golf Club in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, will host the 2025 Bonallack Trophy and Patsy Hankins Trophy matches. The biennial matches, to be played January 8-10, pit the top male and female amateurs from the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation and the European Golf Association. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon