After a grueling five days, Jase Summy defeated Ethan Fang, 6 and 5, in the final to win the 123rd Western Amateur Championship at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Illinois. With the victory, Summy added his name to the George R. Thorne Trophy, joining all-time greats such as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
“[Joining those champions] is pretty surreal,” Summy said. “Just to have my name on this trophy is pretty special and something I’ll never forget.”
The No. 9 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Summy likely clinched a berth on the 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team for September’s match at Cypress Point.
“[My chances] are pretty good,” Summy said. “But I need to have another good week at the U.S. [Amateur], see how well I can do there and then just fall where it falls.”
Seventy-two holes of medal play resulted in co-medalists at 5-under: Fang, the Amateur Championship winner who was recently named to the U.S. Walker Cup team, and New Zealand’s Zack Swanwick.
Others who advanced to the tournament’s Sweet Sixteen match-play portion included Tommy Morrison, Garrett Endicott and Max Herendeen, who shot 3-under. At 2-under, Stewart Hagestad was the only mid-amateur to make match play, a major boost to his Walker Cup chances after fellow mid-amateur hopeful Evan Beck missed the 36-hole cut.
Also at 2-under were Cameron Adam, Ben James, Eric Lee and William Sides. James, No. 2 in the WAGR and a U.S. Walker Cup team member, shot 3-under in the final round.
“You’re never out of a fight. I play best when my back’s against the wall.”
Jase Summy
With seven players at 1-under after 72 holes, a 7-for-6 playoff was held to determine the final players to advance to match play. Summy, Taishi Moto, Bryan Lee, Jacob Modleski, Hugo Le Goff and Nguyen Anh Minh advanced. Despite setting the Skokie Country Club course record with an 8-under 62 in the first round, Sunnehanna Amateur champion Tyler Watts missed out.
After losing the first hole in his opening match against Le Goff, Fang didn’t trail for another hole on his path to the final. He beat Le Goff, 5 and 4, before beating James, 3 and 1, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Fang dominated Modleski, winning by 5 and 3.
Summy’s road to the final contained a bit more stress. The 14-seed defeated Morrison, 1 up, in his first match after trailing by one hole through 16. In the quarterfinals, Summy beat Moto, 2 up.
Summy played co-medalist Swanwick in the semifinals. He fell behind on the first hole and didn’t square the match until he won the 18th hole, when Swanwick missed a putt of about 3 feet that would have closed out the match. On the first playoff hole, Summy made par while Swanwick three-putted for bogey.
“You’re never out of a fight,” Summy said. “I play best when my back’s against the wall.”
In the final, Summy took control early while Fang struggled. Summy won the second and third holes to go 2 up. Fang won the sixth hole to decrease the deficit to 1 down, but that proved to be his only win of the match.
Summy won Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 12 before closing out the match with a win on No. 13.
The chase for the final Walker Cup spots will culminate at the U.S. Amateur, which starts next Monday at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Everett Munez