Seven championships, ten weeks, one number. The 2026 Elite Amateur Cup came down to the last match of the last day of the last event — and when Jay Leng closed out Michael Riebe 5 & 4 on the 14th green at Beverly Country Club, he did more than win the Western Amateur. He won the summer.
Leng finished with 57.4562 World Amateur Golf Ranking points from three starts, nearly ten clear of the field. It is the fewest events any Cup winner has needed, and it happened because the two biggest paydays on the schedule — the Northeast Amateur and the Western Amateur — both went his way, or nearly so.
How the Cup is decided
The Elite Amateur Cup is not a bonus-points invention. It is the straight cumulative total of World Amateur Golf Ranking performance points a player earns across the series' seven events. Field strength does the weighting automatically: a win at the Pacific Coast Amateur is worth less than a semifinal at the Western, because the Western's field is roughly two and a half times stronger.
That produces a leaderboard where a player can win an event outright and still lose ground. It also produces the central tension of the season: play more events and accumulate, or play fewer and go big. A player must compete in a minimum of three events to be eligible for the exemptions.
The math of the Cup rewards showing up at Wannamoisett and Beverly more than it rewards showing up everywhere — and 2026 made that unusually plain.
The seven events
| Event | Dates | Venue | Champion | Top Cup Earner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunnehanna Amateur | Jun 17–20 | Sunnehanna CC, Johnstown, Pa. | Grant Roscich | Roscich 20.9446 |
| Northeast Amateur | Jun 24–27 | Wannamoisett CC, Rumford, R.I. | Tyler Watts | Watts 24.0328 |
| North & South Amateur | Jun 30–Jul 4 | Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst, N.C. | Joshua Bai | Ford 10.6818 |
| Trans-Miss Amateur | Jul 7–10 | Southern Hills CC, Tulsa, Okla. | Parker Sands | Sands 20.19 |
| Southern Amateur | Jul 15–18 | Atlanta Athletic Club, Duluth, Ga. | William Love | Bertagnole 15.9340 |
| Pacific Coast Amateur | Jul 21–24 | Poppy Ridge GC, Livermore, Calif. | Jaden Dumdumaya | Dumdumaya 13.8803 |
| Western Amateur | Jul 27–Aug 1 | Beverly CC, Chicago, Ill. | Jay Leng | Leng 24.7010 |
Sunnehanna Amateur — Sunnehanna Country Club, Johnstown, Pa., June 17–20
The 85th edition of the series opener, on an A.W. Tillinghast layout whose champions run from Palmer and Nicklaus to Morikawa and Fowler. Grant Roscich birdied the final hole for 65-66-69–200 and a one-shot win, and for a month he sat near the top of the standings on the strength of a single week worth 20.9446 points. Gabriel Palacios Morataya and Jake Birdwell shared second at 201 — Palacios Morataya's 15.5246 would end up being the largest single haul by anyone who never won a series event. Defending champion Tyler Watts tied for 18th.
Northeast Amateur — Wannamoisett Country Club, Rumford, R.I., June 24–27
The week that shaped the race. Watts went 66-60-69-65–260 and won by five, the 60 standing as the round of the summer. It was worth 24.0328 points and put him in front of the Cup standings, where he stayed until the final week. Behind him: Jay Leng at 265 for 19.0244, and Carson Bertagnole tied for third at 266 after opening 61. Wannamoisett's strength meant even a T19 was worth 8.3587 — the exact figure both Jaden Dumdumaya and Palacios Morataya banked there.
North & South Amateur — Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst, N.C., June 30–July 4
Founded in 1901 and the longest consecutively run amateur tournament in the United States — Travis, Ouimet, Nicklaus and Strange are all on the trophy. Joshua Bai came through 36 holes of stroke play and five rounds of match play on No. 2 to beat Keaton Vo in the final. For the Cup, Pinehurst was where the depth players quietly built: Ryan Ford reached the quarterfinals for 10.6818, Palacios Morataya took 7.9521, Bertagnole 4.9388 — modest numbers individually, decisive collectively.
Trans-Miss Amateur — Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla., July 7–10
Parker Sands won wire-to-wire at 274 and vaulted 183 places in the standings in a single week — the largest jump of the season — banking 20.19 points from what was only his second series start. Jacob Goode's T6 kept his steady accumulation going. Palacios Morataya's T16 was worth 7.4254, and it left him 0.01 of a point behind Watts at the top of the table.
Southern Amateur — Atlanta Athletic Club (Highlands), Duluth, Ga., July 15–18
William Love went 65-65-68–198 to win the 120th Southern by three at his home club. The significance for the Cup was behind him: Bertagnole tied for third for 15.9340, Leng tied for fifth for 13.7308, Dumdumaya tied for eighth for 11.5487. Three of the eventual top five all scored in the same week.
Pacific Coast Amateur — Poppy Ridge Golf Course, Livermore, Calif., July 21–24
Jaden Dumdumaya opened 63 and closed with a gutsy 69 to successfully defend his title at 268. It was the series' weakest field by ranking strength, so the victory paid 13.8803 — barely more than half what Watts earned for winning the Northeast. Dumdumaya would need every hundredth of it.
Western Amateur — Beverly Country Club, Chicago, Ill., July 27–Aug. 1
The decider, the strongest field of the seven, and the third-oldest amateur championship in the world. Miles Russell took the stroke-play medal at 263. Leng qualified fourth at 67-67-68-66, then came out of the Sweet 16 by beating his own Stanford teammate Dean Greyserman 1 up, Dumdumaya 5 & 3, medalist Russell 3 & 1, and fellow San Diegan Michael Riebe 5 & 4 for the George R. Thorne Trophy. The week paid 24.7010 points, the largest single-event total of the season. Riebe's runner-up finish was worth 19.6978 and lifted him 59 places.
The top five
1. Jay Leng — 57.4562 points, 3 events
San Diego. Stanford. Eighteen months ago he was ranked 199th in the world; he arrived at Beverly 33rd and left as the Western Amateur champion and the Elite Amateur Cup winner. Leng did it on the smallest schedule of anyone in the top ten and the highest quality: runner-up at the Northeast, fifth at the Southern, champion at the Western. He had gone 2-6-2 in college match play before that week in Chicago.
His three finishes averaged 19.15 points apiece. No other player in the top ten averaged more than 16.
2. Carson Bertagnole — 47.7228 points, 4 events
Pinehurst, N.C., and North Carolina. The most consistent card in the field: T3 at the Northeast (15.8367), T3 at the Southern (15.9340), a Sweet 16 run at the Western (11.0133) and a quieter week at the North & South (4.9388). Two of his four starts produced almost identical hauls at two of the strongest events on the schedule, which is the hardest thing on this list to do on purpose. He opened 61 at Wannamoisett and 61 again at the Southern — the only player to card a 61 twice in the series. He has been closing tournaments since his AJGA days.
3. Jaden Dumdumaya — 47.3193 points, 4 events
Benicia, Calif., and USC. The only man in the top five to both win a series event and reach the Western semifinals — and he still finished third, a clean illustration of how field strength governs this race. His Pacific Coast title paid 13.8803; his semifinal loss to Leng at Beverly paid 13.5316. Two wildly different weeks, nearly the same number. Add a T8 at the Southern and a T19 at the Northeast and he was within half a point of second.
4. Tyler Watts — 45.3759 points, 3 events
Huntsville, Ala., headed to Tennessee, and named to the 2026 USA Walker Cup team for Lahinch in July. He led these standings from late June until the final weekend and finished fourth without playing a bad tournament. His 60 at Wannamoisett was the low round of the series and his five-shot win there the largest margin. He tied for 18th at the Sunnehanna — the championship he won in record fashion a year earlier — and reached the Western semifinals, losing his half of the bracket that Leng eventually ran through. Watts and Leng were the only players to reach 45 points in three starts.
5. Gabriel Palacios Morataya — 43.1886 points, 5 events
Guatemala. The volume play, and very nearly the winning one. Palacios Morataya was in a virtual dead heat for the lead as late as mid-July — 0.01 of a point behind Watts through the Trans-Miss — having built his total from a runner-up at the Sunnehanna and top-20s at the Northeast and North & South. He played all five of his events before August, which meant he had nothing left to add while Leng, Bertagnole and Dumdumaya were all still scoring at Beverly. He slipped four places in the final week without hitting a shot.
The top five, event by event
| Rank | Player | Ev | Total | Sunne- hanna |
North- east |
North & South |
Trans- Miss |
South- ern |
Pacific Coast |
West- ern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jay Leng | 3 | 57.4562 | — | 19.0244 | — | — | 13.7308 | — | 24.7010 |
| 2 | Carson Bertagnole | 4 | 47.7228 | — | 15.8367 | 4.9388 | — | 15.9340 | — | 11.0133 |
| 3 | Jaden Dumdumaya | 4 | 47.3193 | — | 8.3587 | — | — | 11.5487 | 13.8803 | 13.5316 |
| 4 | Tyler Watts | 3 | 45.3759 | 7.8115 | 24.0328 | — | — | — | — | 13.5316 |
| 5 | Gabriel Palacios Morataya | 5 | 43.1886 | 15.5246 | 8.3587 | 7.9521 | 7.4254 | 3.9278 | — | — |
The rest of the top 10
6. Grant Roscich — 38.1807 (4 events). Won the Sunnehanna to open the series and banked more than half his season total in that one week.
7. Jacob Goode — 37.1617 (5). The only player to score in five events without a top-five finish anywhere: T10 Sunnehanna, T6 Trans-Miss, T5 Pacific Coast. Pure accumulation.
8. Ryan Ford — 36.9170 (5). Westfield, Ind. T5 at the Northeast was his best week (13.2373); a quarterfinal run at the North & South worth 10.6818 kept him in the top ten all summer.
9. Michael Riebe — 36.3830 (4). Encinitas, Calif. Climbed 59 places in the final week — the biggest late move in the series — on the strength of his run to the Western final, worth 19.6978.
10. Jake Albert — 35.1187 (5). Blacksburg, Va. T4 at the Sunnehanna (12.2783), match play at the North & South and a T13 at the Southern; five starts, never worse than useful.
What they earned
The Cup pays in starts, not cash. The 2026 exemptions secured through the series:
- (2) PGA TOUR exemptions
- (1) 2026 Asian Tour exemption
- Top 5 — exemption into 2027 U.S. Open Final Qualifying (must remain an amateur)
- Top 10 — exemption into 2026 U.S. Amateur Final Qualifying
A player must have competed in a minimum of three series events to be eligible.
Seven of the oldest and strongest championships in amateur golf — the Sunnehanna, Northeast, North & South, Trans-Miss, Southern, Pacific Coast and Western Amateurs — combined into one season-long points race. Cumulative World Amateur Golf Ranking points decide the Elite Amateur Cup, and the top finishers earn exemptions into USGA championships, PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour events. Standings update every Wednesday through the summer.
What it says about the format
Three of the top five played three or four events. The player who played the most — Palacios Morataya, with five — finished fifth, and finished his season two weeks before anyone else in the group. The Northeast and the Western between them accounted for 43.7 of Leng's 57.5 points, 26.8 of Bertagnole's 47.7, and 37.6 of Watts's 45.4.
Leng returns to Stanford in the fall as a junior. The last time the Western Amateur was played at Beverly, in 2014, the final was Beau Hossler against Xander Schauffele.
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