Fang rolls into Western Am semis

Writing from Glencoe, Illinois

Friday, August 1, 2025

It’s good to be Ethan Fang these days. Even when something goes wrong, everything comes out all right.

Take the par-5 13th hole at Skokie Country Club, which at 602 yards is harder than a tax audit. Fang hammered his drive down the left side of the fairway, as did opponent Benjamin James. Each had about 300 yards with the wind unhelpful. Fang, 3 up in the match and hitting first, reached for his driver, swung and hooked his shot into gnarly fescue to the left. The ball could not be found during or after the allotted three minutes, and Fang conceded the hole.

“That was definitely a bold play,” Fang said. “I just tied to get it up there as far as I could.”

It was also a strategically smart play. Had Fang reached the green in two – James did not with his second – an eagle 3 would have moved him 4 up with five holes to play. Instead, he still had a 2 up advantage.

Fang won the match 3 and 1 when James’ biggest gamble of the match – hitting his second to the par-4 17th from the left rough through a copse of trees and over a neighbor’s back yard – didn’t come off. It crashed into a tree, caromed left and nearly ended up in a wishing well.

That errant shot and subsequent handshake moved Fang into Saturday’s first semifinal match. The Oklahoma State junior plays Notre Dame junior Jacob Modleski of Noblesville, Ind., ranked 18th in the world, at 8 a.m. Zackary Swanwick of New Zealand, a Florida sophomore, and Jase Summy of Keller, Tex., and Oklahoma, will follow at 8:12 a.m., with the winners meeting in the 123rd Western Amateur championship match Saturday afternoon.

“I’m pretty excited,” Fang said. “Today was staying patient and hitting greens. I was hitting it good so kind of let him make the mistakes, let him try to chase me.”

Fang is chasing a unique double. Nobody has won the Western Am and the British Amateur in the same year. Only Charlie Yates, Frank Stranahan and Steve Melnyk have won both championships in a career.

“That’s good company,” Fang said.

He’d make a nice fourth, but nothing can be assumed in match play. Swanwick’s 1 up quarterfinal victory over Scotland’s Cameron Adam was accomplished by winning there holes, two with bogeys, including the last, a 5 to Adam’s double-bogey 6. Both where bunkered close to the lip off the tee on the 18th.

“Words I can’t say,” Swanwick said of his thoughts then. He hammered a wedge to the fairway, knocked his third to the front of the green and two-putted for the win. “I’ve won holes with eights and nines before, so bogey isn’t bad.”

Swanwick, 93rd in the world rankings compared to Summy’s No. 9 position, is trying to become the second Florida Gator in succession to win the title. Ian Gilligan did so last year in a title match that went 11 extra holes.

And if it comes to Swanwick and Fang in the final?

“You just do your own thing, swing your own swing,” Swanwick said. “Do what the 19 years of work’s been all about.”

– Tim Cronin