Eight players remain at Merion Golf Club, and the bracket looks nothing like the one that started Wednesday. Not one of the top six seeds survived. The medalist is gone, so are the World No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5, and the highest seed still standing is No. 7. What is left is a genuinely open championship — and eight players who have already earned exemptions into the 127th U.S. Amateur at Oak Hill next August.
Here is who they are, how they got here, and what each has to play for on Friday.
Friday's quarterfinals
All matches begin at 1:30 p.m. ET, in 15-minute intervals
7 Jack Turner vs. Jay Leng Jr. 15
8 Carter Loflin vs. Brandon Knight 48
11 Logan Reilly vs. Michael Lugiano 19
29 Adam Bresnu vs. Jack Whaley 60
Michael Lugiano — the hometown story
No. 19 seed · Jackson Township, Pa. · Liberty University
3
wins, all 1 up
18
holes, every match
1996
last GAP quarterfinalist
Nobody at Merion has done it harder. All three of Lugiano's matches have gone to the 18th hole and all three have ended 1 up — over Chase Hughes, then Nevill Ruiter, then No. 3 seed Drake Harvey, whom he beat by taking the lead for good with a winning par at the 17th. Neither player led by more than one all match.
He is the first player from the Golf Association of Philadelphia to reach the quarterfinals since Merion member George "Buddy" Marucci in 1996 — the same Marucci who lost the 1995 final to Tiger Woods and later captained two winning Walker Cup teams. The Liberty rising junior, who won the NCAA Corvallis Regional in May, lives 90 minutes away and is spending the week at the home of former college teammate Josh Ryan, the stroke-play medalist, 10.5 miles from the course.
The galleries have found him.
"Having all the people out here, it's great. It's not nerve-racking at all. It's just really nice to have the support."
Jay Leng Jr. — the hottest player in amateur golf
No. 15 seed · 20 · San Diego, Calif. · Stanford University · WAGR 23
Leng won the Western Amateur two weeks ago. He was runner-up at the Northeast Amateur and tied for fifth at the Southern Amateur. On Thursday he beat No. 2 seed Tyler Watts 1 up, and the manner of it said as much as the result: 2 down early, he holed a 140-yard bunker shot with a 50-degree wedge at the seventh to set up the birdie that squared the match, then won the ninth and 10th with birdies.
Watts fought back with birdies at the 11th and 15th; Leng answered with a 2 at the short 13th. Both three-putted the 17th. At the last, both missed the fairway left and both found rough beside the green — Watts pitched to four feet and made par, and Leng lagged to two feet to close it.
There is a pattern here. On the way to the Western Amateur title he beat Miles Russell in the semifinals and then Watts in the final — the two left-handers ranked fourth and third in the world, both already named to the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team. At the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur he beat Russell in the quarterfinals before losing to Watts in the semis.
"I've always thought that my game was good enough to compete with anyone. I guess it just proves to me that I don't need to change anything."
A win Sunday would guarantee him a Walker Cup place. He is not thinking about it: "There's a lot to play for in the U.S. Am in general. There's no need to add any extra pressure."
Adam Bresnu — a first for Morocco
No. 29 seed · 22 · Morocco · Texas Tech University
Bresnu is the first player from Morocco to reach the quarterfinals of a USGA championship. He arrived at Texas Tech from Odessa College, where he won nine times and was ranked the No. 1 junior-college player in the country, and he has played this week with visible emotion — fist-pumping his way around Merion.
He beat Ward Harris 4 and 3, then removed No. 4 seed Finn Koelle 3 and 2, then routed Max Herendeen 5 and 4 despite Herendeen having needed only 25 holes to win his first two matches. Bresnu lost the opening hole of that one and won the next two with pars.
"The main goal for me is to try to show kids in Morocco that if I can do it, everyone can do it. We only have 34 golf courses in Morocco. There's probably more in Rhode Island."
Morocco hosts the 2027 World Amateur Team Championships. It now has a player to build the buildup around.
Jack Turner — the highest seed left
No. 7 seed · 22 · Orlando, Fla. · University of Florida · WAGR 19
The highest seed remaining in the field, and a member of this year's USA Arnold Palmer Cup Team. Turner's Round-of-16 win was the most complete performance of the day: 5 and 3 over Florida teammate Joshua Bai, playing the equivalent of 4 under par across the 15 holes. The two have played perhaps a hundred rounds together in Gainesville and never one like this.
"It's definitely weird playing one of my good friends on such a big stage. It was a lot of fun."
Carter Loflin — through on the 19th
No. 8 seed · 22 · Duluth, Ga. · University of Georgia · WAGR 47
Loflin has beaten a teammate and a top-five-ranked player in the same week. He edged fellow Georgia Bulldog Grayson Wood 1 up in the Round of 64, handled Wolfgang Glawe 3 and 1, then let a 2-up lead with two to play slip against Alabama's William Jennings before holing a six-foot birdie at the 19th. It is the best USGA showing of a career that already includes two U.S. Amateur Four-Ball semifinals with partner Wells Williams.
He has the last Merion club caddie left in the championship on his bag: Jack Hopkins, 35 years at the club.
"He knows every nook and cranny of this place. If I'm ever 50/50 on a read, he's just like, no, it's right here. I'm like, okay."
Logan Reilly — the survivor
No. 11 seed · 19 · Lovettsville, Va. · Auburn University
Reilly clinched the winning point for Auburn in this year's NCAA title match against UCLA, and he has spent this week refusing to lose. Two of his three victories have gone to extra holes: 19 over Emile Lebrun in the Round of 64, then 20 over World No. 8 Ryder Cowan in the Round of 16 after Cowan won the 17th and 18th to force overtime. Reilly's par at the 20th — Merion's par-4 15th — sent him through.
"I think it's so cool to have all those people out there. It's kind of what I grew up dreaming about is playing with big crowds."
Brandon Knight — the quietest run in the bracket
No. 48 seed · 21 · Pleasanton, Calif. · University of Colorado
Knight dismissed No. 17 seed Connor Graham 6 and 5, then beat 2024 runner-up Noah Kent 3 and 2, then survived Gaven Lane 1 up after trailing by three through 10 — winning the 17th with a par and watching Lane miss from five feet at the last.
"I was shocked, honestly. I was kind of gearing up to play 1. I figured he was going to make it. It was a relief."
Jack Whaley — the lowest seed standing
No. 60 seed · 22 · England · Florida State University
Whaley needed the 16-for-11 playoff just to make the bracket — where he nearly aced the 119-yard 13th, his ball spinning back and lipping out. Since then: 22 holes to eliminate No. 5 seed Jackson Ormond in the longest match of the week, 2 and 1 over Bowen Mauss, and a 4-and-3 win over Christian Cavaliere in which he was 5 up after eight. A strong candidate for the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, he prepared for Merion with a yardage app and only learned the club had hosted the 2013 U.S. Open the day before he played it.
"The last 36 hours, I didn't really expect it coming into this week. I knew my game was pretty solid, but there's so many good players in this field, you can never really say, 'Wow, I'm going to win.'"
What's at stake
Sunday's champion receives the Havemeyer Trophy, exemptions into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and the Open Championship at St. Andrews, and a likely Masters invitation. For Leng, and for Whaley on the other side of the Atlantic, there is also a Walker Cup place to be won: the final selections for next month's Match at Lahinch have not been made.
The weekend at Merion
Friday Quarterfinals from 1:30 p.m. ET · Peacock from 3 p.m.
Saturday Semifinals at 2 and 2:20 p.m. · NBC 4–6 p.m.
Sunday 36-hole final from 9 a.m. · NBC 4–6 p.m.
Follow every match on our live scoring, and see the full bracket and daily recaps on our 126th U.S. Amateur coverage hub.