Jack Whaley grew to become solely the second Englishman to win the US Newbie Championship since 1911 as he beat American Jay Leng Jr 4&3 at Merion.
Victory will give the 22-year-old a spot within the subject for the Masters, US Open and The Open at St Andrews in 2027.
Whaley, who attends Florida State College, got here into the competition as a significant underdog towards Leng Jr, who’s twenty third on the earth newbie golf rankings, some 67 locations greater than the 22-year-old from Doncaster.
The on-course kind following the rankings as Whaley slipped two down after the opening 18 holes in Sunday’s 36-hole encounter.
Nevertheless, Whaley fought again fantastically, making back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes of his second spherical on his technique to profitable 4 holes consecutively.
With rain lashing down in Pennsylvania, each gamers took two of the subsequent six holes earlier than Leng Jr misinterpret a putt on the twelfth handy his opponent a three-hole lead.
Whaley rounded off his win with an outstanding left-to-right putt for birdie at 15 to grow to be the primary English newbie to triumph within the US Newbie since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.
Previous to Fitzpatrick, Harold Hilton had been the final Englishman to gained the title in 1911, with Scotland’s Richie Ramsay (2006) the one different British winner since 1898.
Fitzpatrick went on to observe up his success at The Nation Membership in Brookline by profitable the US Open on the identical course in 2022.
Former US Newbie winners embody Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland.
