There can only be one winner on Sunday at the U.S. Amateur.
But that’s a funny thing to say on Saturday evening, the same day that two teenagers saw their boyhood dreams come true after victories in their respective U.S. Amateur semifinal matches punched their tickets to the Masters.
Yes, both the winner and runner-up of golf’s most prestigious amateur competition earn invites into the following April’s Masters, which was good news for both Jackson Herrington, 19, and Mason Howell, 18, who advanced into the final match at the Olympic Club in dramatic fashion on Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon, both golfers will take part in one of golf’s greatest match play traditions: A 36-hole marathon match that will determine the eventual winner of the Havemeyer Trophy and the title of U.S. Amateur Champion.
With so much on the line — and an invite into the Crow’s Nest at Augusta National already secure — let’s take a deeper look into each of the players who will battle it out on Sunday for the U.S. Amateur. (The final match will begin at 1:15 p.m. ET, or 10:15 a.m. local, on Golf Channel.)
Mason Howell
Age: 18
Hometown: Thomasville, Ga.
World Amateur Ranking: 362
Currently: Entering his senior year in high school
How he got here: Mason Howell is the U.S. Amateur’s unlikeliest finalist. He made it all the way into the final match at the Olympic Club after reportedly believing he’d bombed out of a 20-for-18 playoff to decide the end of the stroke play competition.
Howell, 18, is the first U.S. Amateur competitor to make it to the final match after winning a playoff since 2017, but the tournament’s 63-seed seems perfectly comfortable in the spoiler role. He defeated Tommy Morrison, one of the tournament’s preeminent favorites, in the round of 64, then bested arguably the field’s most famous competitor, John Daly II, in the quarterfinals.
After winning on Saturday, he will play in the Masters in April while still a senior in high school. He is committed to enroll at the University of Georgia for the fall after his first start at Augusta National, in the recruiting class of 2026.
Jackson Herrington
Age: 19
Hometown: Dickson, Tenn.
World Amateur Ranking: 198
Currently: Entering his sophomore year at the University of Tennessee
How he got here: Speaking of spoilers, Herrington has been a veritable Pumpkin Factory this weekend at the U.S. Amateur, ending the championship’s two biggest Cinderella stories in back-to-back matches to reach Sunday’s final match.
Herrington, 19, has played brilliant, savvy golf at Olympic Club, drawing off his experience in reaching the round of 32 last year at Hazeltine. More impressively, though, he’s beaten the tournament’s two fan favorites: 4,492nd-ranked Jimmy Abdo, and NorCal local Niall Shiels Donegan in the quarters and semis.
Herrington flourished under the most pressure he’ll find all week at the Olympic Club on Saturday afternoon, stuffing an approach shot on the 18th and pouring in the birdie putt to close out the hard-charging Donegan in front of a positively raucous crowd.
Herrington will look to exorcise some demons on Sunday at the U.S. Amateur. At the 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, he made it all the way to the finals alongside phenom partner Blades Brown before losing to Brian Branchard and Sam Engell.