How Jack Whaley won the U.S. Amateur: six matches and 156 holes

Jack Whaley did not arrive in the U.S. Amateur match-play draw with any margin. Of the 312 players who started, 36 holes of stroke play cut the field to 64, and Whaley was among 16 left playing off for the last 11 places. He made a tap-in birdie at the 13th, the first playoff hole, and got in. Six matches later he was the champion.

What did the winning run look like?

Increasingly comfortable, until it wasn't. Whaley needed extra holes in the first round and then won three matches in a row without reaching the 16th, before a one-hole semi-final and a controlled final.

Which shot does he rate highest?

Two of them, and neither is the one that won him the trophy. The first was a chip played from off the green at the ninth, over the corner of a bunker, a shot he had faced weeks earlier at Hallamshire, where Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick are members, and holed. His father had told him beforehand that hitting the green would be the one thing to guarantee he ended up chipping from off it.

I felt pretty confident over that one.

The second was the approach at the 13th in the stroke-play playoff, which nearly went in and left the tap-in that put him in the bracket. Whaley rates that as the shot of his week, which is a reasonable position given that without it none of the six matches happen.