Writing from Chicago / Evergreen Park, Illinois
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Jay Leng felt at ease when he stepped on Beverly Country Club’s first tee a few minutes before noon on Sunday. His opponent in the Western Amateur’s 124th championship match was someone he’s been playing golf with and against in the San Diego area since he was 7 years old.
Michael Riebe, a Vanderbilt incoming freshman, had beaten Stanford junior Leng in a friendly game last week. That might have cost Leng a fiver or thereabouts, but he got his pal back, and good, scoring a 5 and 4 victory to win the title and thus lift the George Thorne Trophy to the sky.
Leng may have been playing an old acquaintance in “a friendly match,” as he called it, but did so with spunk, a carryover from his semifinal victory over medalist Miles Russell in the morning.
“On the range it started raining and the wind was kinda weird,” Leng said of his final warmup session. “I looked at it as a good thing because I think I play better in high wind. It was a different direction (from the north) so I had to think about it.”
A birdie 4 earned Leng a 1-up lead over Riebe on the second hole, he extended it to 3 up with a 12-foot birdie on the par-5 event after Riebe made a hash of the sixth hole, and lost only one hole, when he failed to get up and down on the par-4 eighth and took bogey to Riebe’s par. Leng led 2 up at the turn.
“I told myself I was never going to take my foot off the gas,” Lang said. “I know how many birdies he can make.”
It didn’t take long for Leng to press the advantage after a stroll through the tunnel under 87th Street. Leng won the par-3 10th with two putts when Riebe missed the green and couldn’t save par, went 4 up with a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th, and went dormie 5 by winning the par-4 13th by two-putting for par from 10 feet.
When Riebe settled for par on the par-4 14th and Leng matched, hats came off and hands were shaken. Leng had not only won, but matched the third-widest margin of victory since the final went to 18 holes in 1961.
“I tried not to think (of the stakes) on the golf course, just stay calm and play my game,” Leng said. “But my jaw does hurt from smiling a lot for all the pictures. When I picked the ball out of the hole on 14, there were a lot of thoughts going through my head – all the tournaments I’ve played that have led up to this. It’s a very happy moment.”
Leng’s 3 and 1 victory over Russell, an old U.S. Junior foe, in the semifinals raced to conclusion as well. Leng sank a 20-foot uphill birdie putt to go 2 up on 13, lost the 14th, won the 15th with a 2-putt par and closed the world’s top-ranked junior out on No. 17, when Russell pounded his tee shot to the back of the treacherously sloping green and then chipped to the front fringe.
Meanwhile, Riebe annexed his place in the title match with a 1 up victory over Virginian Logan Reilly. But he was erratic in the afternoon, hitting only four of 10 fairways to Leng’s seven.
“I guess I just didn’t show up the same way I did in the morning,” Riebe said. “I just wasn’t quiet as clinical – didn’t make the putts, my short game wasn’t as good, and I kinda relied on that all week. But Jay’s a tough competitor. We play all the time at home. He’s a great player – super gritty, a great putter, plays his own game, hits it straight. He’s always going to match you.”
In match play, that’s a recipe for success.
Semifinals
Jay Leng d. Miles Russell 3 & 1
Michael Riebe d. Logan Reilly 1 up
Championship
Leng d. Riebe 5 & 4
Around Beverly
Leng is the fifth Stanford student to win the Western Amateur, following Tiger Woods (1994), Joel Kribel (1996), David Chung (2010) and Michael Thorbjornsen (2021). Of that quartet, Woods also won the U.S. Amateur, which is economics major Leng’s next assignment a fortnight hence at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. “It shows how our program can mold players,” Leng said. “It shows I can play with anyone. I’m excited for the U.S. Am and excited to play Merion.” … The gallery of about 250 people was the largest for a championship match in several years. They walked a course that had been drenched by more than 5 inches of rain across the week, enough on Saturday to move the schedule back a day, yet there was only one spot with ground under repair and rarely any mud in the rough. … Next year’s Western Amateur is at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest.
– Tim Cronin