The world’s best amateurs experienced classic Olympic Club golf at our legendary courses, with conditions that ranged from bright sunshine to dripping fog. OC member Roy Little watched the 125th U.S. Amateur Championship kick off that Monday morning. “I remember at the start, an official said, ‘We’re real close to postponing here.’ So, I thought, ‘Whoa.’ And they teed off anyway. No one could see where it went.”
The USAM whittled down more than 5,000 entrants in the qualifying stages to the best 312, who competed at the Club. The players ranged in age from 15 to 61 years old, most from the United States but also 30 other countries, including Canada, England, Australia, China, Guatemala, and, for the first time, Iceland. The competition from August 11–17 began with two rounds of stroke play, then 64 golfers advanced to match play. Preston Stout emerged as the medalist and No. 1 seed after stellar rounds of 67 and 65, and top amateurs such as Jackson Koivun, Miles Russell and Tommy Morrison made the cut, but got knocked out by other rising stars.
EPIC RUN FOR RELATIVE UNKNOWN
An unassuming high school senior from Thomasville, Georgia, Mason Howell, entered the event ranked 362nd globally. Howell missed the first week of school to compete in the Amateur; he has committed to play for the University of Georgia in 2026. At The Olympic Club, he had to survive a 20-for-17 playoff to qualify for match play. Howell took the 63rd seed and then went on an epic run, beating several higher ranked golfers, including second seed Morrison in 19 holes. Howell secured his spot in the semifinals with a 1-up victory over 26th seed John Daly II, son of two-time major champion John Daly. “His family has so much legacy, I understand it,” Howell said. “I’m just a boy from South Georgia. I hope a lot of people got their eyes opened to my golf game today.” In that match, Howell took the lead with par on the first hole, but Daly managed to tie on three occasions. Howell birdied on the 14th and halved the last four holes, including the 18th, where both players stuffed their approaches and tapped in for birdie.
That win set up the youngest final in U.S. Amateur history, pitting Howell against 19-year-old Jackson Herrington from Dickson, Tennessee. Howell dominated the two-round final on Sunday, finishing at the 12th hole of the second round with a resounding 7 and 6 victory. As the USGA put it, “Howell played steady, smart golf around the Lake Course, capitalizing on Herrington’s mistakes by finding fairways and greens each time Herrington was long, short or out of position.”
At the Lakeside Clubhouse, Howell watched his name being etched into the Havemeyer Trophy beside Tiger Woods’, who won the U.S. Amateur three times. “To be next to somebody named Tiger, that’s an unreal feeling,” Howell said. “It’s been such a great week here, and props to The Olympic Club. It’s a world-class venue.” At 18 years, 1 month and 3 weeks old, Howell became the third-youngest player to win the Amateur, overtaking Woods, who won the first of his three USAMs in 1994, when he was 18 years, 7 months old. “To be ahead of Tiger in something, that’s something that not a lot of people can say,” Howell said. He acknowledged his underdog status coming into the U.S. Amateur, telling the Golf Channel, “I have been a little too comfortable with top-10 finishes, and not that that’s a bad thing. It feels like a while since I have won a tournament. I know I played well in the U.S. Open qualifier in June, but winning an actual big tournament, that was my goal.”
Following his defeat, Herrington assessed his performance, saying, “I just played terrible. Can’t lie. I hit some good shots like this one that didn’t even end up close. I thought I flagged it, and it flew 10 yards too far. I didn’t even know what I was doing, and I couldn’t figure it out.” Herrington also finished runner-up a year ago in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and focused on the positives. “I got through a lot of people this week, and it was tough. I proved to myself I could do it. He played good and I didn’t play great. It was unfortunate I was that way, but I learned a lot about myself. So, it was good.”
Howell had a special caddie for the championship, Jimmy Gillam, his coach at Brookwood High School and the teaching pro and short-game coach at Howell’s home course, Glen Arven Country Club. “My caddie, Jimmy, played a huge role. You just always have to keep your foot on the gas, and one thing I definitely learned was never make a mistake on top of a mistake in match play. If somebody opens a door, you have to walk right through it because winning a hole is so valuable, and it goes a long way towards the final score.” Gillam described Howell, “He is just wise beyond his years and so mature for his age. He has the tools that all the best players have, but most importantly, he has it between the ears.”
By winning the USAM, Howell earned an automatic spot on the 2025 USA Walker Cup Team, and he helped Team USA win against Great Britain and Ireland in the 50th edition of the match at Cypress Point Golf Club, September 6–8. Howell said beforehand, “The Walker Cup is such a great venue this year, it’s one I felt I didn’t want to miss with this opportunity in my hands. I’m really pumped to be part of that team with so many great players.”
HOMETOWN FAVORITE
Judging from the crowd response, Niall Shiels Donegan of Mill Valley was the most popular competitor at the USAM. A rising junior at the University of North Carolina, Shiels Donegan received the 49th seed in the match play bracket, and then beat three higher seeded players, including Stout, the first seed. All of Shiels Donegan’s victories went down to the last hole, including his semifinal loss to runner-up Herrington. “I think a lot of it is down to the experience of being in those holes and not clawing your way back, learning from those, I guess you could call them failures,” Shiels Donegan said after the USAM. “I call them just little steps along the way. I think it’s just a big learning experience.”
The semifinals on Saturday, featuring Shiels Donegan, had the second highest attendance in USAM history, giving him something of a home-course advantage. “I feel like with this crowd, I know so many of them, it just feels very natural,” Shiels Donegan said. “I can’t thank them enough for being here. I’m just trying to enjoy the moment. It’s amazing they’re giving me so much support.” His semifinals opponent, Herrington, laughed about interacting with fans on the 18th green. “It was funny. Everyone was yelling, ‘Niall,’ and some guy said ‘Jackson,’ and I had to give him a little pump. It was awesome.” The crowds were already big on Thursday when OC member Chris Williams caddied for the group trailing Shiels Donegan. “We were literally behind them, so we heard all the roars, and the guys in my group were saying they’ve never seen anything like this in a tournament. So, that was a pretty fun experience.”
OTHER STORYLINES
20-year-old Eric Lee, a junior from Oklahoma State, reached the semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, Howell. “Can’t lie. Probably got a little too tired,” Lee said after. “Body wasn’t feeling too great. Wasn’t able to hit the shots that I normally do.” Lee pulled off remarkable chip shots during the week, including a notable chip on the 17th hole in the Round of 16 against Josh Duangmanee. Lee also took down 16-year-old Miles Russell, the highest ranked junior in the world at No. 16 in the WAGR.
San Francisco native Jacob Goode, member of The Olympic Club and a fifth-year senior at the University of Washington, had the honor of hitting the championship’s opening tee shot. “That was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been,” Goode said. “It was pretty surreal. I hit it okay and it went really far, which was nice. Hearing my name called was a great feeling.” Goode shot 73–73 in the opening round, failing to advance to match play.
The No. 1 ranked amateur in the world got knocked out in the round of 32, after a summer that featured three top 15 performances on the PGA Tour. “These guys are really good,” Jack Koivun, a 20-year-old from San Jose, said. “And it’s great to be back playing amateur golf, especially at a tournament like this. It’s just such a good test and it’s a long week, and kind of like a Tour event. You’ve got to manage your sleep and your rest correctly before going out.”
First round co-leader Charlie Forster, a 22-year-old from England, registered a hole-in-one on the 162-yard 15th with a 9-iron, playing in Tuesday’s afternoon wave on the Ocean Course.
57-year-old Todd White of Spartansburg, South Carolina, won the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at The Olympic Club in 2015, but he came up short for match play at this year’s U.S. Amateur Championship, with an 81 on the Lake Course and 74 on the Ocean. His partner in the 2015 Four-Ball, and this year’s Walker Cup captain, Nathan Smith, was there at the Amateur, eyeing potential players for the 2025 match at Cypress Point.
20-year-old Luke Poulter, son of English professional golfer Ian Poulter, and 22-year-old John Daly II both competed in the U.S. Amateur. Their fathers appeared in U.S. Opens at The Olympic Club, Poulter in 2012 and Daly in 1998.
OC MEMBERS SHARE COURSE KNOWLEDGE
Some Olympic Club members volunteered to caddie and share their knowledge of the storied course, but OC member Chris Williams went above and beyond. He not only caddied for Paul Chang, an amateur golfer from the People’s Republic of China, but also hosted him at Willliams’ Marin County home for the week. “I was happy doing it,” Willliams told The Olympian. “It helped our relationship. We spent some more time together, which probably helped us work together a little better. It made it, I think for me, more of a full experience, which was enjoyable.” Williams said Chang appreciated hearing from someone who knows the course so well. “I could tell him what are the really nasty spots you want to avoid, you know, making sure he understands which places on greens are faster than others.”
In phone calls before the championship, Williams did his best to warn Chang about the San Francisco summer and how the weather can change so quickly. “The golf course itself is really hard. And then you add on top of that the fog, wind that can swirl and impacts the golf course, and it makes it even harder. And that was one thing that Paul commented on. He was like, ‘Yeah, this golf course is really hard because of all the different conditions. And it just makes you uncomfortable.’ And, you know, I think that’s something that people are proud of at The Olympic Club, how hard that golf course is.”
With Williams by his side, Chang made it to the Round of 16. “For me, I think it was probably once in a lifetime or something close to that,” Williams said. “I got to see up close and personal, not just Paul, but some of the best college players in the country who someday will be on TV. We lost in the sweet 16 to a kid who’s No. 11 in the world rankings (Jacob Modleski) and was in the Walker Cup. So, really cool just to see the quality of golf up close and personal, and kudos to Paul for playing so well. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it all.”
OC member Jeff Hamm missed competing in the U.S. Amateur by two strokes during a playoff at the Chambers Bay qualifier, so he volunteered to caddie for the son of family friends, Davis Johnson, a senior at the University of Utah. “I probably haven’t seen Davis since he was like 6 years old,” Hamm said, adding that Johnson was hitting well from the start. “He would ask a line or something, because there are some blind shots here and there, of different aiming points or with the wind and different things. And I would tell him to do something and he would do it. It was pretty easy. I was like, ‘I wish I was able to do that!’” Hamm said there was only one time when he had to take a club out of Johnson’s hand. In the first round of stroke play on the Lake Course, Johnson was 1 under par heading into the 18th hole. “And he pulls out his driver. He wants to hit driver because he’s like, ‘It’s the widest part of the fairway.’ I was like, ‘I’m not letting you hit driver. We don’t need it. I know it’s wider up there, but it’s still not wide,’ so I gave him an iron. He hit iron in the fairway, hit it on the green and made birdie.”
Hamm said there was a close call the following day at the Ocean Course’s 10th hole. Johnson was five strokes above the cut at that point, but he hit his tee shot out of bounds into the parking lot. Johnson was able to keep his composure and made it to the Round of 32, where he lost to Caleb Bond. Hamm noted the physical toll that the Amateur takes on the golfers. “I don’t know, if he had won another match, how I was going to even walk it again. It’s a lot. I think the winners end up playing like nine rounds in six days or something like that. It’s crazy.”
OC member Mike Finn caddied for Tommy Morrison, a 6’8″ rising senior at the University of Texas, who celebrated his 21st birthday with a 4-under 66 on the first day of stroke play. Morrison, the sixth-ranked amateur in the world, birdied the par-3 10th (his first hole of the day) before stringing together 12 consecutive pars and closing with three birdies in his last five holes. Finn told The Olympian that the USGA paired Morrison with the top players in the world, something to experience up close. “They hit it in places that I’ve never even seen before, taking it over trees that I didn’t even think were possible. For instance, on both 12 and 16, he took it straight over the left trees. So, that was fun, to see shots up close that I’ve never seen.” In the first round of match play, Morrison ran into Howell on his championship run.
AMAZING FAN EXPERIENCE
The U.S. Amateur gave the fans access to the fairways and to the players that you will not see at most competitions. “Really great golf at its best,” OC member Roy Little said, while standing at one of the greens with players preparing to putt. “And, you know, boy, the ball goes high and the ball goes where they want to, and all that sort of stuff. And when they get in trouble, they know how to get out. It’s just awesome, and I just walked behind the guys, you know, try to make sure your cell phone’s turned off,” Little said with a laugh.
We also spotted a heartwarming father-son moment as Jesse LaCroix of Lafayatte crouched behind his 7-year-old, who was watching the action with binoculars. LaCroix said the boy is fascinated by the sport and wanted to see the Amateur Championship. “It’s a riot. He showed up and he says, ‘So, they just gather around and follow these guys around while they play?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s how this goes.’ And he said, ‘That’s really cool!’ So he’s into golf as a really young 7-year-old, and yeah, we’re hoping he can come out and play some day with these guys.”
The lines were long at Hot Dog Bills — they sold over 8,000 Burgerdogs, the signature halfway house menu item.
OC MEMBER VOLUNTEERS STEP UP
Putting on such an event took a tremendous amount of planning, preparation and knowledge. OC member KC Murphy has volunteered for several Major Championships at the Club over the years, and worked his way up to Vice Chair for the U.S. Amateur Championship. He started organizing the volunteer effort two years ago. “It could not have gone better,” Murphy said. “A great experience all around, and our membership came through once again.” He organized close to 60 chairs to oversee some 900 volunteers, the vast majority of whom were OC members. They served many different functions, including acting as marshals, standard bearers and hospitality concierges; scanning tickets and driving golf carts for players and camera crews. “We stacked them up. I asked a lot of Olympians to take on leadership roles, and they all stepped up and delivered, and it was just great. ‘Backbone of the championship’ is what I call the volunteers.”
Murphy attended several Amateur Championships, including the USAM last year at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, to gather information and prepare for the event in San Francisco. Murphy said hosting the Amateur goes to the very foundation of The Olympic Club, that it’s who we are. “We foster amateur athletics, that’s how it started. Amateur events, we’re for the amateurs. To host amateur golf, I think for me personally, it’s a bigger deal than hosting the U.S. Open.”
Murphy said he had to make plans to extend volunteers in case the championship hit a rain delay. It was not looking good the first weekend, when competitors had access to the Lake and Ocean Courses for practice rounds in foggy, wet conditions. “It was very close,” Murphy said. “I mean, we were nervous about it all Saturday and Sunday for the practice rounds. They would not have gone ahead and played. The only reason they went is because it was a practice round, but the fog would have been too heavy for them to play. On Monday, thank God, it cleared out and we got the round in.”
COURSES “READY FOR A CLOSEUP”
The Olympic Club got a week’s worth of television coverage from the Golf Channel and Peacock, a chance to show off the effort that the course maintenance team puts in day in and day out. “The pride we have for the members here, you know, we did all this for them. It’s their golf course,” OC Director of Golf Maintenance Troy Flanagan said. “And it’s exciting for us to see The Olympic Club again stand up to the best amateurs in the world and show that this golf course has some bite to it.”
The Amateur also marked the first in a series of marquee events for The Olympic Club: the PGA Championship in 2028, U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2030 and Ryder Cup in 2033. Flanagan had concerns when he learned that this year’s Amateur was scheduled for August. “My thought was, it’s going to be tough because we don’t know if we’re going to have high fog or if we’re going to have low fog, or if the low fog is going to be drippy, meaning where you just get a lot of extra moisture to come down. Some days, you stand under a tree and it feels like it’s raining on you. And that’s what happened to us.”
Maintaining championship-level conditioning across two courses is a tremendous feat, but the OC team was up to the challenge. Greens reached a fast 13.5 feet on the Stimpmeter, fairways were mowed to 0.375 inches, and the rough grew up to 5 inches. “We had a great day on Friday,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan hoped to have a dry weekend for the final, with the course getting firmer, not softer. “But other than that, man, the place played great. It showed great on TV. I think our members were super proud of their facility here, and they should be. And that’s, in the end, for me and my team, that’s our number one goal. You know, we’re here for the members and to really show off this great property for them.”
In all, the U.S. Amateur Championship proved to be an overwhelming success for the Club, its members, the golfers and their fans. Years of preparation and hard work paid off.
What the U.S. Amateur champion receives:
- Gold medal.
- Custody of the Havemeyer Trophy for one year.
- Exemption from qualifying for the next 10 U.S. Amateurs.
- Exemption into the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Country Club, in Southampton, New York.
- Exemption into the 2026 Open Championship, conducted by The R&A, at Royal Birkdale (must be an amateur).
- Likely invitation into the 2026 Masters Tournament (must be an amateur).
- Name engraved into 2025 USGA Champions’ plaque that resides in the USGA Museum’s Hall of Champions in Liberty Corner, New Jersey
Member Caddies
- Chris Williams — Paul Chang
- Curtis Abbey — Charlie Forster
- Dan Corral — Trevor Lewis
- Ian Doss — Clark Van Gallen
- Will Ellard — Matthew Troutman
- Mike Finn — Tommy Morrison
- Jeff Hamm — Davis Johnson
- Luke Johnson — Matt Parziale
- James Lee — Jacob Goode
- Maurice Monserez — Jeg Coughlin III
- Trevor Murphy — Jaxon Bandelier
- Ian Osborne — Zach Pollo
- George Stefko — Trevor Gutschewski
- Adam Taylor — Ethan Fang
