Subpar - 2026 U.S. Amateur Champion Jack Whaley recaps his victory at historic Merion Golf Club

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

On this week's episode of Subpar, Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by the newly minted winner of the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship Jack Whaley. The rising senior at Florida State University talks the incredible playoff shot he hit on the 13th hole to secure his place in match play, immediately following that up with a 22-hole showdown with Florida's Jackson Ormond and if hailing from England gave him an advantage in the wet conditions during the finals at Merion Golf Club. --Celebrate the wins on and off the course with Blue Run Whiskey. Crafted with exceptional attention to detail and a fresh, modern perspective, Blue Run is the perfect way to treat yourself after your next round. Discover all of Blue Run’s expressions and find a retailer near you at bluerunspirits.com.CELEBRATE RESPONSIBLY. © 2026 BLUE RUN SPIRITS, INC., KENTUCKY

you wake up that morning before the playoff knowing you could be going home or you could be playing in the afternoon and you kind of just got to prepare yourself for the best case scenario you need to prepare for playing golf in the afternoon. So I was kind of warming up in the morning just getting the wedges dialed in for that specific shot that I knew I needed to take a good one on 13. So I knew after the range session that the wedges felt good and the number felt good because I knew how far it was. And then going into the afternoon knowing that I was playing the fifth seat, I knew it was going to be a tough match. And Jackson is a great player. He was a young guy who just obviously committed to Florida.

So I knew it was going to be a little bit of rivalry being from Florida State against Florida. So that was kind of a good one. And honestly, there was absolutely nothing in it the entire day. I mean, it went to the 22nd hole in the afternoon. And it was probably one of the longest days of a point in my life. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Subpar, Colt Nose and Drew Stoltz. And the playoffs have begun.

And world number one went out and put on a performance, winning by 8 in Memphis. Scotty Sheffler picks up his second win of the season on the PGA tour. And what I thought was going to be a pretty exciting final round, Slice turned into an absolute boat race. Yeah, you know, like a couple years ago when Scottie was hitting at the best of all time and not putting well? And we were always asking like, what would happen? What would happen if he just had the best putting?

What would happen if it was number one, strokes gain putting? Well, this is what happens right here. And it wasn't even with his best ball striking that we've ever seen. But number one, strokes game putting, eight-shot win. We've been talking about him all year. It's like beating a dead horse. He's close. He's close.

We were like, oh, you just glazed Scotty all the time. But then like, yep, here you go, dude. This is why. Because he's the only guy on the planet, I would argue. They can go out there, top 70 in the world, win by eight, easy. Had the lead. Nobody made a charge. He didn't just sit on his lead.

He just kept going. I think it was just kind of like a statement win. Like, we've been expecting him to win for a while. But this one, like, there was like a lot of pent up. I want to prove a point, I feel like, in this. And he went out and did it. Yeah, I mean, five runner-up finishes, then goes on to absolutely boat race the field. I mean, he was a sprinkler head away, so he's from winning by 10.

Yeah, I mean, who knows? If that doesn't hit that and he taps in, like, he doesn't have to, like, quote-unquote, recover from anything. Like, he might have just been off to the races. It could have gotten even weirder. Yeah, but like you said, I mean, the ball striking, it's still been phenomenal this year. What we expect from Scotty Sheffler when he wins, you know, seven times in a season and six times in a season. but he did have five runner-up finishes. Sometimes he just got beat and that happens.

But the fact that yesterday, he goes out there and no one really made a charge. They kind of made it easy on him. He could play rather conservative. And then he picked a few birdies up here and there. And all of a sudden, the lead just grew. And it was, I mean, it was over before the fat lady started saying it. Yeah, I mean, Sam was one of the only guys that could have pressed him. He gets off to the rough start.

He's three over through five. Scottie's going forward after the bogey on three. And it was, I mean, it was over quick. Like, there was just no chance that that lead was going to be let up. And he wasn't even thinking about holding on to win. He was trying to win by as much as he can. And now, I mean, 21 wins. Third youngest to get there behind Tiger and Jack, pretty good company there.

But 10 of them, Colt, are by four or more. Like, dude, he, like, half his wins, he just beats the shit out of everyone. Like, A, it's really hard to win 21 times on the PJ tour. But when half of them aren't even like a, I mean, four strokes are pretty good ass-wipping. in professional golf and he's done it half the time basically. Yeah, his average margin of victory in major championships is four. It's just he has the ability to run away from fields the way Tiger did in his prime. And if you look, I got the stat from the great Justin Ray.

The final round on the PJ tour of the last five seasons, Gotti Schaeffler is number one in birdie average and avoidance. Yeah. Good combo. That works out pretty well. That means you need a massive trophy case, and you're going to put a lot of shit in there, because you're going to win a lot with that. And it's just, everybody said, you know, he's having a down year and all that.

Statistically, not really. But now two wins, winning a playoff event, and leading the Fagascup points list by 1,400 points, I think he's your favorite for player of the year. Yeah, winning the playoffs. I mean, there's no, like, person jumping off the page in this. You can make an argument for five guys going in. And now if Scotty goes and, I mean, hard to project him to not win one of these final two either.

And he got that on a part of the reason I think he was able to not only win, but win by a ton. Colt is like outside of Scotty, nobody got to double digits under par. That was a hard golf course. Like that was challenging for him. Even though this isn't the most difficult time of the year, that place still presents problems for him.

And when it's a golf course like that, which there aren't a ton of on the PJ tour outside of like major championships, Scotty just wears them down. Where's you down? Where's you down? Look at that final round. No one can make a move. And then he keeps going.

She's the second lowest round of the day behind Justin Rose, who is way back going for broke. So, I mean, anytime he gets those type of setups, I feel like it's even more in his favorite. I know it's August. It's hotter than hell. Memphis is the most pleasant place to be in that time of year. But that golf course,

and every player in the field will tell you, it's phenomenal. In my opinion, it's the second best TPC golf course there is behind sawgrass. You look at it. It's not crazy long. It's like 7,200 yards, par 70, but you have to actually put the ball in the fairway if you want to score. I mean, it was super dry.

They couldn't get it insanely firm because of how hot it was, but it played very difficult. And if you put the ball in the fairway, you could score. If you didn't, you got punished, which, hello, that's what we've preached about for years on this show, about how to test the best in the world. And at the end of the day, the best player on the planet showed why he, he's the best and he went out there and just put an ass whipping on the boys and it was so much fun to watch yeah i mean it became like the only intriguing part about watching it was like how many is he is he going to get to 10 will someone back up you know how many can he win by uh ends up being eight

pretty healthy whooping for the boys let's go to his playing partner uh Thursday friday bg rory mackroy on the other end of the spectrum i'll beat a couple of guys it was very clear he is not sharp going into the week he'd been having himself a good time as he's you're should. But I mean, I don't know if this is, this isn't conspiracy. There's no possible way on earth you can't convince me that Brian Rollout. Someone at the PJ tour is like, look, dude, it's the playoffs. I know you don't have to be here. You're already in East Lake. We're all good. You're going to need to be here. Last year with FedEx, you know, you've been at front and center for kind of a lot of these changes. Just a bad look if you're not there. And I think Roy was like, all right,

I'll be there, but I ain't touched a club until I show up in Memphis. And it looked that way. And I'm not sure if that's a better look or a worse look than just not even be in there. Yeah, you know, Brad Faxon, I believe, went on record and said he hadn't touched a club until two days before he left for Memphis. It's the Open Championship. Not sure how that went over. But look, Rory's one of the biggest stars in the game, if not the biggest star of the game. This is a guy who won the career grand slam. He is a stud. He's a second ranked player in the world. It just amazes me that when he goes out there and plays the way he did this week. Everybody's like, oh, he's just rusty.

He hasn't played in a little bit. But if Scotty finishes 24th, everybody's like, he's broken. That was just a fluke those last few years. His time is over. And he's finished him 24th. Like, he's not even playing bad. Scotty never finishes 66. He goes out there and contends, it seems like, every single week.

And if he doesn't, everybody goes into a panic. But for Rory, it's like, ah, it's no big deal. I don't understand. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of excuses to get made when he does. play to like the level that we expect him to whether it's like oh he's got a hangover from the career grant slam oh he doesn't he's not motivated oh his interests or elsewhere it's like we always justify it some way but when scotty has one bad week it's like oh see dude can't putt oh it can't do it like i'm like he's just but by the way that's props to scottie shuffler because he's in a

category by himself where we like because he does it every time we are shocked when he doesn't play well i just thought it was interesting that i was like dude rory mackroy's not going to commit to a golf tournament when he hasn't played in weeks and weeks leading up to it. Like, he's just not going to do it. And then he shows up in Memphis and plays. I don't know if that was a better look, having him there, but clearly he put zero effort into getting ready to be there or just not having him there at all. But it speaks to another thing, too, is like, we call this the playoffs.

Here we are. One guy played his way in to the top 50. Like, there's no volatility in this. And I think Rollap being an NFL guy, like, all this is going to change. Like, you know, there's just, it's really just an extension. of the regular season at this point. I mean, one guy plays his way in out of this. That's not a playoff.

It's just another tournament. I mean, before, you know, when we first had the FedEx Cup playoffs, when it first started Liberty National, he Slocum famously went from 124 to second when he won the first event. Everybody's like, oh, my, that can't happen. That is way too much. He hadn't played well all season long, and then all of a sudden he plays good one week,

and he vaults almost to the top of the FedEx Cup standing. But now I'm like, okay, if we're going to call this the playoffs, we need some action here. And the fact that one guy moved in and one guy moved out, that being Keith Mitchell and then obviously sung J.M. moved in. I don't know. I don't like it. They reduced the points from like when Heath won. It was like 2,000 points, I think, to the winner. Now it's 700. We need some more action. Like this is the bubble with Scotty winning by eight, like the tournament was over. The only exciting thing was the bubble watch. And there wasn't just there wasn't, there wasn't, there wasn't much action. And we need that. If that's, if you want people to tune in and watch and it's obviously such a big deal finishing top 50 with the signature events, top 30, getting into the majors and a

two-year exemption, you got to have some volatility or else it just doesn't work in my opinion. Especially when there's 50 guys getting to play the signature events all year long. They already have a huge head start. And then it's not volatile enough to even move in if you are able to play your way. You know what I mean? Play your way into the playoffs. Like it's just, it's stacked multiple ways. But I just found that like we hyped this as a playoff, playoff, And it's all of a sudden like nothing really much happens. And Eastlake is going to look exactly the way you expect it to look with maybe one guy plays his way in.

I think that ultimately needs to change going forward and just swipe this. By the way, Scottie's about to get, he's a million bucks now, career money behind Tiger Woods. He'll pretty good that he's going to surpass that here. Also, BG, after the BMW, they've like tweaked it so that, you know, Scottie could, now that there's no handicap, he couldn't go get hurt at Eastlake and finish last. 22 mil coming his way after the BMW. One million deferred, though, so only 21 lump sum. Yeah, but then taxes, it's after taxes and it's hardly worth winning.

He's like the Dodgers, just defers all his money. Yeah, a million of you. Probably forget about it. It's a rounding error at this point. But yeah, a million bucks behind Tiger. That's why. I mean, it's over. He's 14, 400 points ahead.

Send it to him today. It's a wrap. Yeah, it's, I don't know. We'll see what happens. I'm excited to see what the new playoffs are going to look like. I think, just for me personally, like, I think the Western Am is such a great format for your tour championship, where you have all the guys tee it up for 72 holes, and then top 16 go to match play. I think that's the best way to do it.

And if Scotty, Rory, whoever, happens to not make the top 16, so be it. But if you're going to call it a playoff, you got to have guys being eliminated. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's like, let's just, we got to, there's got to be a line. Like regular season playoffs. And like you said, if some of the stars don't make it, so what? We love Cinderella stories and everything else. I think you'll see a big change.

I think there'll be a stroke play and a match play element to it going forward. Speaking of the Western Am, the winner of that this year was also competing in the finals of the U.S. Am near and dear to your heart. I know I don't know how much of it you got to watch, but we got a great interview coming up with the man who did hoist that trophy. Yeah, Jack Whaley, the man out of Florida State from England is going to join us here in just a little bit. But yeah, obviously, such a special tournament, the 126 playing of the U.S. Amateur. I got to watch the early rounds of the match played. The final round, I didn't get to see the final match.

I was keeping an update on my phone as we were doing the broadcast there in Memphis. Saw Jay Lang Jr. was two up through the morning 18. I was like, this guy is just on a roll. He won the Western, has been playing phenomenal golf, going to be a part of the U.S. Walker Cup team, thought he was going to kind of cruise to victory. And then apparently, Molly Kaufman reports he had a rib eye. in between rounds, which just sounds a little heavy. As a guy who likes his food and also played in the final match,

I never thought about having a rib eye in between rounds, but went out there and he got absolutely smoked in the afternoon 18. Jack Whaley went on to win four and three after being two down through 18. Yeah, it's such a fun watch. And even going back to like the round of 64 and the 32, like that's some of the best. That's so fun to watch. We had these marquee matches out there. You got Miles Russell, Tyler Watts, all these guys that you want.

see. I love, especially the opening days, just because there's more matches going on and you get to the finals. Another thing, too, 36 holes, like, I feel like we need more coverage of this thing. Like, we, I think we got it, it showed up in the, on hole 22. It's like, dude, this, luckily, it was a close match, right? It swung from two-down deficit to a four-and-three win. So, like, it was close there for a while, but, like, you run the risk like we've had in the past where you're, all right, you've been waiting on this, sitting on it. I want to watch this. And you tune in, it's like, up, six up through 20. And you're like, well, I'm going to watch eight holes.

This thing's going to be, this thing's over. There's no more drama. And I wish we could get a little more coverage of that bad boy throughout the week. Honestly, I think it's one of the coolest things to watch. And Marion look unreal. Marion might now be top of my list of places I haven't played that I want to play. That thing looks so good. Well, the good news is the people in Philly love me, Slee, so I'd be happy to make a call for you.

I'll one up. Get your boy on there. It is phenomenal. And listen, this. This is one of the biggest tournaments in golf, the U.S. Amateur. I mean, it's got so much history. I'm with you. We need more coverage of it.

I was very happy that they actually did put it on NBC. This year, you know, it's been on Golf Channel or Peacock the last several years. I'm like, what are we doing here? Like, when I won, Roger Maltby was following me down the fairways. Like, I mean, they had the crew out there. It was, I mean, that's, and that's how it should be. It was a big deal. Johnny Miller used to broadcast it when he was with NBC.

I'm with you. Let's show this thing. It's one of the best tournaments in golf. It is so much fun to watch. And by the way, that Jay Lang Jr., who finished runner-up, who will be in the Masters in the U.S. Open, watching him play golf is incredible.

I mean, he, no disrespect. He is, he won the Western Am. He's on the Walker Cup team. He just lost in the finals of the USAF. He looks like a 12 handicap playing golf. He's just really good at it. Watching him swing, when I first saw it, I was like, no way.

And then they went like, I was like, what's like, dude, it's chipping. I'm like, I don't know how he does. And he chipped it unbelievable. Dude, from nasty lies, chipping it up dead, tight lies, chipping it up dead, little floppy's, I mean, dude, it was, and I kept watching it. I was like, how, how is he doing this? This is like, everything that can go wrong goes wrong.

And then you'll have, dude, he's got a little bit of Hedeky in him, too, where he's, like, these follow-throughs that stop right here, you know, and it's one hand off the club, and he hates it, and then it lands up there, in high, spins back, it's got eight feet. I mean, dude, dude, watching him play, I just, I couldn't get over it. I was like, this is one of those guys that just like, you watch him swing, you're playing against him like, dude, this has, something has to go wrong here. So, like, this can't keep up. And he just does it over and a shit. He wins that match.

He would have gone unbeaten at the Western end, the USAM. Back to back. Like, that's, he's beating all the best guys. But it is unreal watching. He also putted eyes out in a lot of the matches that I watch. It just shows, like, there's so many ways to play this game. And he does it very well. And it looks weird. Did you see the chip shot he hit in the afternoon on five?

Yeah, I watched the dude. I watched a ton of the USAM. Yeah. I mean, he played it 30 yards right of the target. target, used the slope, almost went in and went down to like a foot. Marion, I've been lucky. I played my first US AM there in 05, and then I've played it a couple of times since. It is a treat. One of the coolest first T shots in golf. Yeah, old school, man.

I know they've stretched a little bit. There's a couple of part three, like 17 maybe a little much where they're trying to stretch this. They were like just looking at it aesthetically, the design, the greens are some awesome holes. I mean, when it got nasty in that finals when it was raining and dumping, I mean, dude, like, bogeys were winning lots of holes out there. Rough was super real.

I mean, 18 was the unbelievable finishing hole watching guys trying to gag it into that fairway because you basically had no chance to hit in the green if you missed the fairway on that. Jack Whaley, got to give a shout out to my boy, Carter Loughlin, who went down in the semifinals to him. They had a hell of a match. It ended on 18, but exact same thing there. Both missed the fairway.

Both have to lay up. I just thought the place, like, showed up big time. Don't think I didn't notice your social media. during the USAM. The visor gang was rooting hard for Mr. Loughlin. Ever since I said it last week, all of a sudden now, we're paying attention to the visor. Well, this is my, we played him in the four ball a few years back. He was going to Georgia. His partner was like a freshman at the time. At Vanderbilt, he had the visor on, was like he and his partner were like probably the most fun guys we've ever played with.

And that thing, it's normally pretty tight. We were talking, having a good time. kept up with him ever since was texting him throughout the week. I was pulling hard for him. By the way, his golf swing looks incredible out there. That game looks really, really clean and tough break on 18. I mean, he had a T shot that landed

in the fairway. It was like last trickle into the rough, which if it's a yard shorter, it holds up, and he's probably hit not, you know, he probably knocks it on the green and makes par and could win the thing. Instead, he had to lay it up to, like, 80 yards. Which is, which makes for exciting finishes out there. That place was sweet.

Yeah, I love the golf course, but 17 and 18. I know 18's got all the history and everything, but you couldn't hold the fairway. And then I don't know, of all the matches I watched, I don't know if I saw a birdie putt on. There was a couple, and I feel like they, like, bounced onto the front and they were putting uphill. But yeah, I'm with, like, finding that fairway was diabolical. Every shot that looked good ended up just trickling in the rough, like Carter's. And then people were trying to get it down the right side and they would miss right, which was completely dead. It was fun in the sense that, like, dude, I mean, you didn't know what, it wasn't like, all right,

They're all going to make pars here. You know, it's going to be a driver and a seven iron. Like, dude, bogeys were winning that hole all over the place coming down the stretch. It was fun. Yeah, it was an awesome week. Congratulations to Jack Whaley. And let's hear from him on subpar. All right.

Our guest today had himself a life-changing week last week at the U.S. Amateur. He survived a playoff spot Wednesday morning for the final match play spots. He went on to win his next six matches, poising the Habemeyer trophy on Sunday as the U.S. Amateur champion. State Senior to be by way of England. Jack Whaley is here. Congratulations, Jack. What a week. Yeah, thank you very much for having me. Yeah, it's been a pretty electric week, to be honest. Yeah, insane. What's the last couple of days been like?

Oof. Well, Sunday was obviously pretty special. And then yesterday, I just spent the entire day in the car. We drove back from Philadelphia to North Georgia, and it was probably 11 hours. And it was brutal. You know, I'm on the phone the entire time, and it was just mad, madness. Did you get that Hibachi dinner you've been hoping for after you got it done on Sunday? Unfortunately not. No. We didn't leave the goal. We didn't leave Marion until 10.30.

So it was a late one. We ended up going at McDonald's on the way back before we fell asleep. So unfortunately not, but I'm sure we'll get around to doing that at some point. Mickey D. Well, let's go back to the start of the week. I mean, you show up at Mary. Marion. Had you ever been there before? And what was your first thoughts when you saw the place? No, that was the first time that I'd ever stepped foot. I think it was the first time I've

been in Philadelphia, to be honest. So, yeah, it was the first time being to Marion and Philadelphia Country Club. And, I mean, what they did for the golf course was, was unreal. I mean, the golf course was fantastic. Condition of it was incredible. And then stepping foot on Mary on the first two was to be able to stand there and be a part of history was something special. Yeah, awesome. I mean, that place looked unbelievable on TV. I want to get out there so bad. But take us back to Wednesday, the playoff, even before that actually, going into Tuesday, like closing out that stroke play portion. How close were you? Did you need birdies coming in? You have any bogeys? And how confident were you? Like, yeah, this is going to be a piece of a playoff?

I'm pretty sure I was, I was worn over going, because I played Mary in second. So I was, I was won over for the first 18. And I was one over coming through 13. So I knew it was It was a really, really tough stretch of holes and I knew that I just had to make pares on every hole coming in and knew it was going to be pretty close for making the cut. And fortunately enough, I managed to par every single hole coming in and I was probably the best golf I played all week, honestly, just under the gun knowing that you had to make the pares and managing to do it, especially 16, 17, 18, they're very, very tough holes. and I hold like an 8 to 10 footer on the last hole to get into the playoff, which I did actually know at the time, but my dad mentioned that I could do the par here. Fortunately enough, I made the foot for par.

Damn, that's nice. Yeah, and then you go out into the playoff the next morning, and you'll start on the 13th, which is one of the iconic holes there at Marion. How close did you hit it? Because you made two and were able to advance to the match point. Yeah, yeah, it was a pretty good number. to four degree. It was just a 116 yards. Just took to over the bunk, so I knew I needed something to spin.

So it landed full 54 on a pin eye, one hopped, spun back and leapt out for the hole in one, and finished about probably four or five inches away. Yeah. Okay. That makes a little less stressful. Yeah, damn near the hook the thing. It was a nice, comfortable eight-incher to go ahead and advance there. And so you draw, you know you're going to draw somebody good, getting through this thing. You draw the five-seat, Jackson Orman.

And what's the mindset like, do you feel like kind of you're playing with house money at that point? Not that you're not, but you wake up that morning and you don't even know if you're going to have a first round opponent. Yeah, 100%. I mean, you wake up that morning before the playoff, knowing you could even be going home

or more you could be playing in the afternoon. And you kind of just got to prepare yourself for the best case scenario. You need to prepare for playing golf in the afternoon. So I was kind of warming up in the morning, just getting the wedges dialed in for that specific shot that I knew I needed to take a good one on 13 so I knew after the range session that the wedges felt good and the number felt good because I knew how far it was so and then going into the afternoon knowing that I was playing the fifth seat I knew it was going to be a tough

match and Jackson was a great player the young guy who just obviously committed to Florida so I knew it was going to be a little bit of rivalry being from Florida State against Florida so that was kind of kind of a good one and honestly there was absolutely nothing in it the entire day I mean it went to the 22nd hole in the afternoon and it was probably one of the longest days of a point in my life having to wake up early for a playoff and I've got four hours in between I'm playing this round of 64 so yeah it was it was a good match in the afternoon and like I said it could have gone either way for um for both of us on that round so right from a playoff to 22 holes I mean it was just an incredible journey and and look golfers like a lot

athletes they can be superstitious you're rolling through match play did you have anything this past week that you made sure you did every night or every morning? Um, I think I had a Coke every morning with breakfast. Nice. And then I had a Coke mid-round on the final match. So I'm putting it down to a Coke this week that kept me guys. Little eggs and a Coke.

Is that typical? Or you just try that out during the ESM? No, I mean, I started doing it a little bit towards end of the season with one of my teammates, me and Pat. We're not huge coffee drinkers and we need a little bit of caffeine to boost us up. Yeah, I think that definitely has a big I don't know.

It's kind of a superstition, but not a superstition, if you know what I mean. It's just something that I've kind of done for the last couple of events and it seems to be working, so I want to keep it rolling. Yeah, keep the good... How special was...

Say that again, sorry. How special was it for you to have your dad on the bag? And y'all's embrace afterwards was just incredible. Yeah. Yeah, it was phenomenal. I mean, to have the opportunity to be able to do that with my dad was fantastic. And for the first time for him to caddy in as well, it's pretty spectacular to be able to do it and win at Mary and the US Amateurs.

So normally we kind of go like 200, 250 yards down a fairway and gets away from me and watch the binoculars. But I kind of just thought at the start of the week, this is the first time I played in such a big event. And I thought it'd mean a lot for him to caddy. I asked him if you wanted to. Give us a breakdown, a true, honest assessment of your dad's caddying skills. Now you've had a week under your belt. Strinks, weaknesses, things he needs to work on, all the above.

Yeah, he's a little rusty. He's not done it before. He's kind of like a rookie, you know. I think he did a couple of things where I told him to get out the way and when my opponent's trying to like either get a line or he's bound to stand it apart. and my dad stand out of the way and it kind of forgets about them things but as a week got on he got a lot better and it kind of didn't really do much in terms of telling me what clubs to hit and

shots to play that was kind of all me but I think the main thing that it was it was trying to get at was just it was just agreeing with every shot that I was telling him I was going to play and it kind of gave me the confidence so just go up there and commit to it you know does this earn him a spot on the bag at augusta national or are we going to go with maybe someone that knows the golf course. I don't know. I think we might have to go with someone that might know the golf course a little bit better.

I think it'll be the first time on the grounds for him, so I think he might want to just go and have a rummage around and go and see what August is like. So we'll see. I don't know. It's not decided yet, so. You take a... Have you even...

Have you even thought, like, next April, you're going to be playing the first two days at the Masters with Rory McElroy? Yeah, that's pretty special. And I think I was talking to a couple of friends about it on Saturday night. I haven't got through the semifinals. I knew I was potentially going to the Masters anyway. So make sure you win, you can play with Rory.

That would be pretty cool. So, yeah, it's kind of cool, though, because I was at the Masters with him when he won a Grand Slam, which was pretty special. So I was sat there on 18 watching, so it's going to be nice to be. be inside the ropes this time. I saw you getting phone calls from Justin Rose, fellow Englishmen and stuff. Do you have any relationship

with Rory? Have you met Rory? You played with Rory? No, I've actually, I've never, I think the only time I've ever seen him was in the Open this year and the Masters just when I'm spectating. So I've never actually met him, never talked to him. So, yeah,

it should be nice to have a conversation with him next year. Yeah, what butter time? Have you ever played Augusta? I haven't, no. No. Like I said, I was fortunate enough to go and watch it last two years ago. But it might be last year. Yeah, last year, I think. But, yeah, I never played it.

And it's going to be pretty special to go and play that one. Yeah. I mean, your entire 2027 is going to be rather special. I mean, you're playing three major championships next year. Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews. It's not too bad. Yeah. I was saying to a couple of my friends

that it's probably the best lineup of majors that I could have won a US amateur to get into. So it's going to be pretty special. I played a lot of San Andrews. Never played pebble, and obviously that's such a famous one, and obviously Augusta National that goes about saying, you know,

so it's going to be nice to go play such amazing venues in such amazing events, you know. So I'm really looking forward to it. Smart move by you to win it this year, as opposed to another year. You get the best line about. Our interview with Jack Whaley is brought to you by Blue Run Spirits.

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Now, back to Jack Whaley. go back to your matches just here for a minute because like starting in the round of 16 I mean dude you went on a tear like you win that match four and three you win your next match five and four and I was looking like you didn't lose a single hole during that stretch it was like 27 28 29 holes something weird like that like what clicked during that time and was that the time that you started to believe like dude this this is my week yeah I definitely thought that it was going to be a great week after coming up to that stretch and I think the driver was just getting me in play, you know, it was just in the fair way every time and I kept

on piling the pressure on my opponent. So, yeah, it gave me the opportunities to be able to be a little bit more aggressive into the Greens. It almost felt like I could, I was aiming towards a specific side of the fairway to have a better angle in. And it has been for the last probably six to eight months with the driver, you know, I played, I remember where it was where I was playing, but one of the guys I was playing with a said, he just, oh, it was the western, an arm and in the first two rounds he was saying he just aiming for the downgrained parts now the fairways because i kept on hitting on the down grain and it almost looked like i was just aiming for it so yeah the driver was was probably one of the better things you know and getting myself

and playing keeping out of that rough because that rough was brutal if you had more than 150 yards out of that rough and you got a dodgy lie you were not getting anywhere near it so um yeah definitely power the pressure on through that it's such a cool golf cool golf course to win there is is so special but during the finals you're playing jay leg junior who obviously won the western and playing some of the best golf of anybody this summer in amateur golf you're two down through 18 what was that time like in between the morning and the afternoon matches what did you do and how did you settle in that afternoon uh yeah um after walking off the the 18th green it was kind of everyone was just trying to build my confidence up again you know and after coming for a tough

stretch going from two up back to two down. It's kind of like, well, Jay just had a huge run and made a lot of birdies and made a lot of puts coming through that stretch. So it was just kind of just recouping. We went straight to putting green. Coach Jones was on the green with me. I felt like the greens were a little bit slower. The bit of moisture on the green slowed down a little bit. So I was either either leaving short or hitting him a little bit too far past and it kind of made a couple of three-put errors, which obviously was very unlike me for that week. So went to the putting green after Dowd the speed down and

Coach Jones noticed a little bit that I needed to work on and it somehow flicked and I was on a T-15 minutes earlier because I thought I was really ready to go out there and play again. And you were and you go out there and you turn the whole thing around. Nasty weather. I mean you were wearing double gloves for a while that place is brutal as it is but being an Englishman do you think that

the conditions playing in that? I assume you're accustomed to play in that growing up. You think that helped in any way? Yeah, absolutely. You've got the experience of playing from England and obviously we know that the weather's not always pretty imperfect there. So I think playing a lot of county golf in bad weather and constantly having to wear waterproofs and it's being cold and wet, you kind of get used to what you're used to them conditions. And I think it gave me a little bit of an advantage playing in them conditions. and my dad said to me when I was walking up six when it started really rainy, he said, listen, you played a lot more golf in these conditions. This is your time.

And I think it kind of showed a little bit my experience playing in it. Coming down the middle part of the golf course and early on it kind of won a lot more holes and a lot more puts and still managed to keep hitting him on the fairway and keeping in tight to the greens was huge. so well obviously so much comes with winning one of the biggest tournaments in all of golf you get one of the best trophies in all golf but i need this to be confirmed is the lid welded on now no i don't think it is i actually didn't check but one of the uh usGA officials said it does come off okay so i have to check that when i get back to i see because i don't have the trophy

with me right now they uh my floristate coaches they flew it back for me so i didn't have to lug it around the airport with me. Yeah, when I won, I raised it, right when I raised it, the lid came flying off. So I knew it was available to fill some stuff up with it. But then I heard somebody said they might have welded it on, which I was like, you cannot, well, it's only a proper trophy you can drink out of it. Yeah, I know. We didn't manage to drink out of it. So I don't know, I got to go and test that out for you and let you know. Tallahassee, a good place to check that, check out that drinking situation. Oh, yeah. With the lid. As you look back, though, Jack,

reflect on the whole week. I mean, from the clutch play just to make it into a playoff to get to match play, to the shot you hit to get, you know, on 13 there,

to make it into match play. Can you look back and identify maybe like a shot or a time during a match that you pulled something off that you're like, that's the one I'm most proud of? Oh.

I was pretty proud of the chip that I played Oster Green on 9 over the corner of the bunker. A couple of weeks prior during the summer, I had one similar at home. where funnily enough where Alex and Matt are members and a hold one. I'm sure that video will surface at some point.

But yeah, I felt pretty confident over that one. And my dad was like, you know what's going to happen here when I hit the green? You're going to have to chip it off the green. So I think that one was a spectacular one that I kind of almost knew I was going to play a good one. But apart from that, it's got to be probably the playoff hole, the 13th. When I nearly hold it, that was probably the shot of the week, I think. That's so cool. I love it. But obviously, you play your college golf at Florida State. Well-known football program on a scale of 1 to 10. How big a fan are you?

I was coming from England, we don't really watch much of American football. So probably at four or five. Whenever we're at home and not at tournament, we're always there, you know, sporting the boys. But obviously with the golf schedule that we have, and it's kind of limited to what games we can get to. We can only get to probably maybe three a year. So, yeah, I was fortunate not to be there for Alabama, so that was quite a good one.

That's a good one to turn you into a football fan. Slees, I believe my SMU Mustangs opened the season in Tallahassee. Oh, there you go. Good, easy win. Start off the year. It's all you can ask for. Yeah, I'll be there.

Have you got a bar picked out? There's got to be an official celebration, I would assume, when you get back to the trophy's already back there. When do you get back to Tallahassee and what's the game plan once you do? that's going to be a cool moment, I would have to assume. I don't know. We might have to take a trip down college town a little bit. A couple of guys are asking, are we going for a drink this weekend?

We'll see. I'm not too sure yet. See what the coaches have got in store for us. I know qualifying starts on Thursday, but we'll see. I'm guessing you probably get an exemption from qualifying after winning this. I actually haven't started to coach about that. but I'd like to have an exemption, yeah, it'd be nice, but we'll see.

If I have to go qualify, let's go qualify. I don't mind that. What's the schedule like, Briar, coming up? In terms of tournaments we're playing. Yeah. Well, we start with folds of honor, and then we'll be going to, that's in Michigan,

and I'll be going to Illinois's event at Olympia Fields, but that's on the other golf course this year. I believe that they're ripping Olympia Fields, the main course up. So it'll be on the other. side of the clubhouse. And then apart from that, I'm not too sure what's towards the end of the season. I haven't really looked at schedule too much.

I've kind of been concentrating on the summer so far. Does this change anything in terms of like your plans to turn pro or any time frame at all? I would assume after this season you're probably going to go to the professional ranks, but does this change the timeline at all? It's one of them. I've kind of not really had much time to think about it. I think it's one of them time, one of the things you guys speak to

coaches about and see what they think and the recommendations. But I don't think it's going to change anything. I've still got a, I still think I've got more things to prove than amateur golf. I can have another year at Florida State if I want it. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Hey, the pro game's not going anywhere.

You've got a very special 2027 coming up and it's going to be absolutely incredible, my man. That's just, yeah, awesome, man. So happy for you. Thank you. Yeah, it's going to be pretty fun. Solese, you got anything else? Enjoy that, my man.

No, I just want to say it was a pleasure to watch you. I was locked into this thing. It's one of my favorite events to watch. That chip, you mentioned. You hit a lot of good ones, man. Golf swing is spectacular, and I think you're just kind of getting to the surface of what your talent is going to allow you to do in this game.

So keep it up. Have a great college season. We look forward to chatting with you. Again, after future success. Thank you very much. Thanks for having gone, guys. You got it. Thank you, Jack.

All right, that was the 126th winner of the United States Amateur Jack Whaley joining us on subpar. So cool, man. Such a life-changing moment for him. Getting that done there, Marion, was really cool to sit down and talk with him for a few minutes. Yeah, game changer, life-changer. Kind of a Cinderella story-ish, as far as they come out there. Shows the depth of college golf, man.

Guys that you don't expect come out of there and make a reservation for Augusta in April. Big one. All right. How about his schedule next year? Hey, where are you going to be playing this year? Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews. Ever heard of them? Yeah.

Probably swing by Pine Valley on my way over there just to check it out. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good set up. Congratulations to him. Awesome sitting down with him. It's a game changer. And I'll tell you what else is the game changers, please. Losing your cell phone.

I've done it. I've been there. I feel your pain. Did it at the Phoenix Open just a year or so ago. And it is a disaster. You're there currently. Nashville strikes again. Well done.

Nashville won, Colt Zero. Came over here after Memphis. Was out on the town with the boys last night, having a great time. Got an Uber. Phone fell out of the pocket. Tried to yell at the guys he was driving off too late. And now I can't get a hold of him. So I'm currently communicating through my iPad.

And it is, life is hard without a cell phone. If you are the Uber driver who finds this phone, the pass code's 4852, let's go in there. Let's start tweeting some weird shit. Let's get all the pictures out there, they open. And now you own his entire life. This is a vulnerable time for you. You better hope this Uber driver is a trustworthy dude. He will not answer anything from me at the moment.

So I think I'm going to have to just wipe this one and go to the Apple store here in Nashville and pick up a new one. But it's not all been bad here in Nashville. I got something really cool that happened earlier. And you were actually a part of it on our Sirius X-Im, Gravy and the Slees show. You know I'm a huge country music fan. And the voice of country music, the man who hosts the highway. every afternoon if you're in your car driving down the road listening to Sirius XM, country music, you know Buzz Brainer.

He sat in with us on Gravy and the Slee's. Actually, it was just over at the studio here in Nashville, doing our show, hanging out with him. Actually just took a little shot this afternoon to get the day going with Buzz. But, man, it was cool. He loves his golf. And, you know, I love my country music. So that was a treat for me. Yeah, he's as advertised.

He's awesome. He'll be a good, he's going to be a nice future guest here on Subpar, without question. We might have to save that one for in person. down there in Nashville. Where you can do everything. He's actually gamble, basically. Yeah, you are, you are welcome. He has invited you every Friday, right here at Chiefs, on Broadway.

Eric Church's bar, he hosts the highway happy hour. They do it live right in there and they're drinking, passing the microphone around, bringing people up, country music stars popping in. He has asked us to co-host it with him one Friday afternoon. Don't say it if you don't mean it. Let's get up on that rooftop. I've heard great things about that rooftop in the, and the seating facility is up there.

The chairs are a little slippery. They slip right out of your midst. It's something to look out for. Also, props to us. We hit two bets last week. Yeah. How about it? Hey, Hater on social media

who just ripped us apart last week. We can't even pick a guy to make the cut. We went two for three. The only thing we didn't pick was the winner. How about a little love? We're idiots. Like, we're not gambling savants. We just like to fire.

So two out of three. Pretty damn good. All plus money, by the way. Yeah, I don't know if you know this. is rather difficult. There's 70 guys and Roy McElroy just beat like nobody. Things are weird in this game. And yeah, we hit a top 20 and a top 10 this past week.

So let's keep it rolling. BMW Championship, Bell Reef in St. Louis. Good news is I was worried we're about to have another disastrous week with the weather. But the highs are in the 80s of St. That ain't too bad. That ain't too bad. Yeah, 70 last week.

Only 50 this week. So when we go to this start off top 20, like it's hard to find plus money. You got to go down a good bit just because you only got to beat half the field, really. But for our top 20 play, we're going to go with, how about Gary Woodland going off at plus 150? 150? I remember, like, Bell Reeve, you know, Brooks went in there, just how well he drove the golf ball.

Gary, one of the best in the world right now. So I believe he had a good run last time he played there, too. 2018 PJ Championship, my first ever television job was right there, did featured holes. Gary played with Tiger, I believe, in either the last group or next to last group on Saturday, ended up finishing top 10 there. But yeah, I love, I love Gary's playing some great golf this season. I actually played with my boss, Sellers Shy, our producer, for CBS on Wednesday at the Pro Am in Memphis. So hopefully that didn't, you know, ruin him by any means.

But Gary plays some great golf. I love him for a top 20. All you got to do is beat 30 dudes, Gary. That's what I'm saying. This is as close to his home game as you get, too, by the way. Right there in St. Louis. All right, we'll go at top 10 now, BG.

I went back and forth on this. Again, it's hard to find a lot of value with the plus money. How about we just stick with what works and go Tommy Fleetwood, top 10 plus 130? How does he ever play back? Well, he doesn't. He never plays bad. But yeah, absolutely. Never going to go against Tommy.

Ball striking machine. If you can get the putter going. I expect some low scores at Bel Reef. By the way, they have sold out every single day. They're expecting over $150,000 a day there in St. Louis. Damn. Midwest gets starved for golf. There's a lot of golf fans.

When they only show up every handful of years, they turn out. That would be fun to watch. And it's not going to be 2 billion degrees out there. But going to our winner, you mentioned one of the reasons, like scoring is going to be low. You got the Zoya grass. It's going to be soft out there. This guy's been playing good golf.

He's got second and seventh in his last two stars. I just feel like his time's kind of coming. It's got to pop one of these weeks. Zander Shafle, plus 125. So you look at his record. This is a major championship golf course. Hosted the PGA. Zander Shaflai's first major championship win,

the PGA, on Zoya, at Valhalla. Why not do it again at Belruth? This is the deep analysis you don't get at the amateur level. You know what I mean? Just not a hat rack. There we go. Gary Woodland, Tommy Fleetwood, Zander Shafelahler. Those are three plays a week.

Stay hot. All right. Well, that was a lot of fun, Slays. I'm going to go to Apple, which is probably the worst thing in the world, other than the gym. But I'm going to go out, get a new cell phone, and figure life out again.

Yeah. You're in a vulnerable spot. You better get that thing shut down quick. Every minute is potentially life-changing at this point. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us this week. We'll talk to you on next week's stuff part.