Jack Whaley of England holds off Jay Leng Jr. to win US Amateur at Merion

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Jack Whaley blinked back tears as he clutched the U.S. Amateur championship trophy and could only think of the countless times his father kept encouraging him, kept playing golf with him, all to urge a promising teenager on the cusp of quitting the game to stick with it for better days ahead.

With his dad on the bag, Whaley fulfilled Andy Whaley's unwavering belief and capped the tournament victory of his life at Merion with a father-son embrace that put an exclamation point on a career that at one point seemed destined to dry up on English soil.

“He can actually see me happy, and I can see him happy coming off the golf course,” Whaley said.

Whaley played with double gloves, needed an umbrella, was stung by a wasp at rainy Merion Golf Club and still pushed through the inconveniences to cap a tremendous tournament and hold off Jay Leng Jr. to win the U.S. Amateur on Sunday.

Whaley should keep the rain jacket.

The 22-year-old Englishman gets to soak up the spoils that come with winning amateur golf's greatest prize.

With the sky finally clear on the rain-slogged course, Whaley sank his final putt for birdie to win the 36-hole final 4 and 3 and hugged it out with his caddie — his father. Whaley's mother ran out to join them for a family embrace while Andy gripped the famed wicker basket flagstick.

“This week it just clicked,” Andy Whaley said. “I can’t explain it. I don’t know why.”

His son broke down in tears as he held the Havemeyer Trophy and dedicated the win to his father, who never gave up on Jack, even as he kept missing cuts as a teenager.

“As we were driving back, I was looking at my dad with some of the names that are on this thing,” Whaley said after his win. “I never thought my name would among such impressive people.”

Whaley made a rapid rise from NAIA star to Florida State to amateur champion the college senior now has an exemption into the 2027 US Open, and the 2027 British Open at St. Andrews and the Masters should he remain an amateur. He wore his Florida State Seminoles cap and team colors for the championship round.

Whaley won the seventh U.S. Amateur held at Merion and is the first Englishman winner since Matt Fitzpatrick at Brookline in 2013.

Whaley shook off a wasp sting on the fourth fairway in the afternoon session before he rallied his way to the title. Leng, a Stanford junior, held a 2-up advantage through the first 18 holes after both players bogeyed the par-5 18th on an overcast and windy round.

Whaley pointed to a spot on his right ankle where the wasp got him and left him throbbing for the next two holes.

“I had to pull this stinger out,” Whaley said with a laugh.

Maybe the stinger will be immortalized down the line at Merion.

The U.S. Amateur does hold a special place in Merion history. Take a look at the rock near the 11th hole tee box at Merion and one of the grandest holes in golf is marked.

“On September 27, 1930, And on this hole, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., completed his ‘Grand Slam’ by winning the U.S. Amateur Championship.”

It was on that hole where Bobby Jones closed out Eugene Homans 8 and 7 in the 36-hole final and clinched golf’s only season Grand Slam with a win at the U.S. Amateur.

Ben Hogan also has a plaque that honors his 1-iron on the 18th hole of the 1950 Open.

“It's a huge honor to be part of the names of all the famous people,” Whaley said.

Aaron Rai used double gloves months earlier in his PGA Championship victory at nearby Aronimink Golf Club, just as Whaley did months later.

Whaley made the change after he sliced one out of bounds on six because the rain affected his grip.

“It seemed to work, so I kept going,” Whaley said.

Merion is set to host the US Open in 2030, 2040, and 2050, alongside the U.S. Women’s Open in 2034 and 2046.

Consider, Whaley will be only 46 years old in 2050.

Whaley is No. 90 in the world amateur golf ranking, while Leng is at No. 23.

Leng gets pretty nice consolation prizes. He also earned a spot on the 2026 U.S. Walker Cup team, in the Masters and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next year, provided he is still an amateur.

The other five players named to the Walker Cup team were Kihei Akina, Ryder Cowan, Josiah Gilbert, William Jennings and Stewart Hagestad.

“It shows I can compete with the best,” Leng said. “I can compete with anyone, honestly. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

See AP’s full golf coverage here

Jack Whaley admires his US Amateur golf championship trophy Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Dan Gelston)

Jack Whaley admires his US Amateur golf championship trophy Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. (AP Photo/Dan Gelston)

MILAN (AP) — Thieves stole four works attributed to Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina worth millions of euros from the regional museum in the city of Messina in Sicily while crowds gathered across town for the traditional Assumption holiday celebrations, cultural officials and Italian media said Sunday.

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, the news agency LaPresse reported.

They removed all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their frame, but abandoned two behind a wall while fleeing.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen works at 70 million euros ($81 million) to 80 million euros ($92 million).

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.

Mercurio said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m., and that the alarms were working and the guards were on site. She described the works as central to the region's heritage.

“These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina,” she told Sky TG24. “They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value, because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”

Messina’s top culture official, Enzo Caruso, called the theft “more than a loss” and “a disaster.”

“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, calling for the swift recovery of the stolen works.

Caruso noted that international interest in the artist had intensified since Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s devotional painting “Ecce Homo” for $14.9 million through negotiations with Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.

Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

“Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Albertson, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another, serving as collateral for other illicit activity.

The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence. Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.

The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season, and was being celebrated in Messina with a procession that culminated in prayers and a blessing in the main Piazza Duomo around the time of the heist.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft from the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma province.

A journalist browses the Messina museum website showing a picture of the Early Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina's artwork where three of the five panels belonging to the Polyptych of San Gregorio and the double-sided panel with the Madonna and the Christ in Pietà, stolen from the Sicilian museum on Aug. 15, in Rome, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)