Boomer Sooner: Cowan Ousts Russell in Heavyweight Round-of-64 Duel at Merion
Two competitors who played the weekend at the 2026 U.S. Open. Both among the top 10 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR.® One player on the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team. Another on the cusp of being selected to play in next month’s Match at Lahinch.
A matchup between world No. 4 Miles Russell, the 17-year-old phenom from Jacksonville Beach, Fla., the runner-up in last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur, and world No. 8 Ryder Cowan, the co-low amateur in this year’s U.S. Open, would seem better suited for a semifinal or a final.
But after the University of Oklahoma rising senior survived a Wednesday 16-for-11 playoff for the final match-play spots in the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship at historic Merion Golf Club, the vagaries of the draw pitted the 21-year-old from Edmond, Okla., against the sixth-seeded Russell in the Round of 64.
The day’s marquee match lived up to the billing.
Cowan holed a 20-foot pitch from greenside rough for an improbable 3 on the 251-yard 17th hole to close out Russell, 2 and 1. The shot came shortly after Cowan had flubbed his initial pitch from the rough left of the putting surface. When Russell failed to convert his par putt from 12 feet, the hats were off and handshakes extended.
For some, this was an important victory for Cowan, who is among the players being heavily considered for the final six selections to Captain Nathan Smith’s USA Walker Cup Team.
Last month, Oklahoma State All-Americans Preston Stout and Ethan Fang were picked along with incoming University of Tennessee freshman Tyler Watts, 18, of Huntsville, Ala., and Russell, a 2027 Florida State University verbal commit.
Stout and Fang failed to qualify for match play, while Watts, the No. 2 seed, never trailed in rolling to a 3-and-2 victory over Parker Sands.
Cowan, the runner-up in the Trans-Mississippi Amateur, already has made one trip to the Republic of Ireland this year as a member of the USA Arnold Palmer Cup Team, and he would certainly love a return visit.
“I love it because I love competition,” said Cowan, who also converted a clutch 12-foot par putt on the 15th hole to keep the match tied.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of people out here. I knew there were going to be cameras. It was going to be tough, and I love that. I was pretty excited. I was excited to play with him. He's a good dude. He's fun to play with. It was good.”
After making a birdie on the par-3 13th, the first hole of the 16-for-11 playoff, Cowan found out he would be facing Russell in the early afternoon.
Russell overcame a 2-down deficit by winning Nos. 10 and 12 with birdies. It would remain tied until 16 when Russell’s approach from the rough came up well short in a bunker and he hit his third beyond the green. Cowan calmly two-putted from 12 feet for a 1-up lead.
That led to the remarkable hole-out par on No. 17.
“Those days happen,” said Russell. “Didn't have my best stuff, and I kind of needed it. That's the way it goes in match play.”
Besides Cowan, four other survivors from the morning playoff also advanced, including University of Arizona rising junior Taishi Moto, of Japan, who took out medalist Joshua Ryan in 19 holes.
Ryan had shot 8-under 132 in stroke play that included a 5-under 65 at Merion on Tuesday. Moto was 1 up going to 18, but snap-hooked his tee shot out of bounds to lose the hole. Then on the par-4 19th, Merion’s first hole, Moto’s 4 was good enough to advance.
The last medalist to lose in the opening round was mid-amateur Jimmy Ellis in 2024 at Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn.
University of Alabama All-American William Jennings, the runner-up in this year’s NCAA Championship, took out Malan Potgieter, of South Africa, 3 and 1.
Jack Whaley, of England, a candidate for the 2026 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup Team, eliminated No. 5 seed and 2026 U.S. Open qualifier Jackson Ormond in 22 holes, while Joshua Bai, of New Zealand, the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur runner-up, eliminated No. 10 seed and 2025 GB&I Walker Cupper Eliot Baker, 3 and 1.
Rudy Sautron, of France, had more than just golf on his mind on Wednesday. The University of Tennessee rising senior, who transferred from Nebraska in the spring, defeated 30-year-old Matthew Lowe, 1 up, and then rushed to the hotel shuttle to take a finite mathematics final exam as part of his summer school curriculum. This wasn’t anything new for Sautron, who faced a similar situation two weeks ago at the Western Amateur.
“I need to be on a Zoom call with my professor to make sure that I don't cheat and all that,” said Sautron. “There's a certain time that you need to take it, and that was the last time that I could take it. It was either this morning at 9, which I couldn't, or tonight at 6 p.m.”
Two of the five mid-amateurs to survive the cut managed to post opening-round victories. One is a highly familiar player (Stewart Hagestad) and the other (Christian Cavaliere) reached the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur, but had never made match play in five previous U.S. Amateur starts.
Hagestad, 34, of Newport Beach, Calif., an associate with BDT & MSD Partners who is vying for a sixth consecutive Walker Cup appearance, dispatched Vanderbilt standout Ryan Downes, 5 and 3. The three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion is making his 17th U.S. Amateur start this week, having reached the quarterfinals in 2020 and 2022. Hagestad, who made the stroke-play cut at the recent Western Amateur and posted a top-10 finish in the Southern Amateur, never gave his younger opponent a moment to breathe, collecting birdies on three of his first four holes and building a 4-up lead after five. He was the equivalent of 4 under par over the 15-hole encounter.
Cavaliere, 28, of Katonah, Calif., decided not to turn professional after graduating from Boston College in 2020. At the time, he was growing a custom golf goods company that eventually turned into Tremont Sporting Company. His golf game has also blossomed in that time as he qualified for the 2023 U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club while becoming one of the top mid-ams.
On Wednesday, Cavaliere produced a 3-and-2 victory over Arizona State rising sophomore Boston Bracken.
Jay Leng Jr., of San Diego, Calif., and a rising junior at Stanford University, came into this week’s championship off a remarkable summer season that included a win at the Western Amateur two weeks ago in Chicago. He also was the runner-up in the Northeast Amateur and tied for fifth at the Southern Amateur. Leng continued that mojo with a 5-and-4 win over 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Evan Beck.
Right from the start, Leng applied the pressure with an opening birdie, but after Beck tied it at No. 4 with a par, Leng claimed two of the next three holes and never looked back.
“It's pretty high,” Leng said of his confidence. “It's been pretty good for a while now. Now that my putting feels a lot better – I switched to a claw grip like a year ago – it's been much better ever since. I'm pretty confident with my whole game.”
Carter Loflin and Grayson Wood had plenty of tussles in practice at the University of Georgia the past three seasons. But they had never played against each other in a USGA competition until Wednesday when Loflin, who exhausted his eligibility last spring but still has a semester left to obtain his business degree, edged past his fellow Bulldog, 1 up. Next up for the Duluth, Ga., resident will be Germany’s Wolfgang Glawe.
Noah Kent, the runner-up in 2024, had an interesting finish to his 1-up victory over incoming Pepperdine University freshman Kailer Stone. The Naples, Fla., resident and University of Florida rising senior hit an errant tee shot on the 500-yard 18th hole that hit a spectator’s head and caromed across the 14th fairway and into the rough.
“My uncle came running towards me,” said Kent. “He's like, ‘you hit somebody.’ I'm like, ‘oh, gosh.’ But I didn't see the person at all. Walking up there, I went across the rough, and I got to my ball, and it was an okay lie, but I had no idea it hit somebody until I got up there.”
Not a shot he worked on during the practice round, Kent managed to find the front-left portion of the green by swinging as hard as he could with a 9-iron.
Kent then nearly holed his 50-foot birdie putt before calmly converting the short 2½-foot par putt to close out Stone, who two-putted for par. Even walking off the green, Kent looked perplexed over how he managed to tie the hole.
What’s Next
The Round of 32 will begin at 7:15 a.m. on Thursday followed by the Round of 16 in the afternoon. The quarterfinals are set for Friday, the semifinals on Saturday and the 36-hole championship match on Sunday starting at 9 a.m. Tickets are available for purchase by clicking here. Peacock and NBC Sports Network will have live streaming from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with NBC picking up the telecast on the weekend from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Notable
The 16-for-11 playoff lasted three holes and just over 90 minutes with Japan’s Taishi Moto nabbing the last spot with a bogey 5 on the 15th hole. Gabriel Palacios, of Guatemala, made a double-bogey 6.
Notable players to advance included 2026 U.S. Open qualifier/world No. 8 Ryder Cowan, world No. 5 William Jennings, 2026 Elite Amateur Program member Kihei Akina and 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Fifa Laopakdee. Notables who failed to advance were 2025 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cupper Luke Poulter, the son of European Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, and 2026 U.S. National Junior Team member/U.S. Open qualifier Giuseppe Puebla.
England’s Jack Whaley, a strong candidate for this year’s GB&I Walker Cup Team, nearly aced the 119-yard, par-3 13th hole during the playoff. His ball spun back and lipped out of the hole, leading to a tap-in birdie.
Joshua Bai advanced through the playoff for a second consecutive year, the first to accomplish that since Matthew Swan in 2005-06.
Ten of the 32 matches went the distances, with four going extra holes. Besides the aforementioned 22-hole win by Jack Whaley and 19-hole victory by Taishi Moto, Logan Reilly, a 2026 U.S. Open qualifier who helped Auburn win the NCAA title in June, edged Emile Lebrun in 19 holes, and 17-year-old Southern Californian Evan Liu defeated Aiden Krafft in 20 holes.
Seventeen countries were represented in the match-play draw. Besides the United States, the nations are Canada, People’s Republic of China, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Thailand and Venezuela.
The cut for match play came at 2-over 142, which matched the lowest in U.S. Amateur history with 2011 (Erin Hills) and 2016 (Oakland Hills C.C.).
Six players made the cut who earned exemptions into the field by capturing Allied Golf Association amateur championships: Byuongho Lee (Texas Amateur); Matthew Lowe (New York Amateur); medalist Joshua Ryan (Pennsylvania Amateur); Kailer Stone (California Amateur); McCoy Biagoli (Michigan Amateur); and Bowen Mauss (Utah Amateur). Stone, an incoming Pepperdine University freshman, is a member of the U.S. National Development Program’s Team North California and a USNDP Grant Athlete.
Two others made match play by claiming elite amateur competitions: Joshua Bai (North & South Amateur) and Dawson Lew (Canadian Amateur).
With U.S. National Junior Team member Chase Hughes losing to Pennsylvanian Michael Lugiano, 1 down, fellow 16-year-old Anson Munzlinger, of Columbia, Mo., is now the youngest player remaining in the field after his 7-and-6 rout of Tianyi Xiong.
Golf Channel on-course reporter Emilia (Migliacco) Doran returned to Merion for the first time since helping the USA Curtis Cup Team to victory in the 2022 Match.
The stroke average for the two courses was almost identical. Although it was 353 yards shorter, Merion played to an average of 73.97 as compared to 73.15 for stroke-play co-host Philadelphia Country Club.
When then-18-year-old Ryan Downes became the youngest champion of the Massachusetts Amateur in 2023 at Essex Country Club, in Manchester-by-the-Sea, the head professional was Jack Davis, who now serves as the Director of Golf at Merion Golf Club. Downes, of Longmeadow, Mass., is a rising junior at Vanderbilt University. He lost/defeated Stewart Hagestad in the Round of 64.
Lauren Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, was at Merion on Wednesday following the matches. Greenlief has won a ladies’ member-guest event at the club with member/U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball partner Jackie Rogowicz.
Quotable
“Miles' wedges are so good, it's unreal. I'll give you an example. Today he kind of hit it right on 5, and that's a hard par 4, and I hit a good tee shot and I striped my second shot, and then he kind of chipped it out and wedged it to [2 feet]. But the thing I like about Miles is he's such a good kid, too. I feel like emotions never really get to him. That's something that he has on others too. At such a young age, to be honest.” – Ryder Cowan
“I don't care if there is or if there isn't. I'm here to execute and hit golf shots to the best of my ability, and thankfully I was able to get a W in this first round and survive and advance.” – Tyler Watts when asked if there’s a target on his back being the No. 2 seed and No. 3 in WAGR
“I have not talked to [USA Walker Cup captain Nathan Smith] yet. I've seen him around but haven't gotten a chance to speak with him. It's been on my mind, but I'm kind of just focused on this week and playing as good as I can. I know I can't control whether I get picked or not. As long as I play as good as I can, that'll be that. But I'm excited. If I get picked, I am very excited because I think links golf suits my game very well.” – Jay Leng Jr. on his mindset surround Walker Cup selection
“To get done with the match, I'm happy.” – Noah Kent on his 1-up win over Kailer Stone
“It kind of goes back to the same answer that I've had for a long time of I love amateur golf, simply by nature of you have other things that give you satisfaction, that fill your cup, so to speak. And in an ironic way, if March or April rolls around, you're itching to go practice, and that's an exciting thing. So that's really cool. And if you played for a living, you may not have a lot of those same feelings.” – Stewart Hagestad
“Not necessarily. I think I'm just out there trying to play my own game and pretend like it's just me and my brother out there trying to play some good golf.” – Pennsylvanian Michael Lugiano when asked about the pressure of playing in his own area.
“Match play is always a grind. I knew my opponent (Emile Lebrun) would never go away. He started hitting really good shots towards the back nine, but the last ten holes made a bunch of birdies. I knew he would always stay in it and never fade away. That's what I tried to do. I knew if there were holes left, then there was a chance to win, and that's basically the mentality that I had.” – Logan Reilly on his 19-hole win
