It’s Noah Kent versus Jose Luis Ballester. On Sunday at Hazeltine National Golf Club, it will be the rising Iowa sophomore (Kent) versus the rising Arizona State senior (Ballester) facing off in the U.S. Amateur final with the Havemeyer Trophy on the line and a chance to claim the most prestigious title in amateur golf.
In Saturday’s semifinals, Kent beat Jackson Buchanan 2 up, while Ballester topped fellow Spaniard Luis Masaveu 3 and 2. With the win, both Kent and Ballester will receive an invite to next year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont and, perhaps more importantly, a likely invitation to the 2025 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
“It means the world,” Kent said. “I’ve had a couple of buddies play in majors, and to see my name and be in Augusta in April and be at Oakmont, you can’t really even put it into words.”
But there’s still one more match left to win.
The U.S. Amateur final is 36 holes of match play, with the opening 18 beginning at 8:15 a.m. ET on Sunday. After a brief lunch break, the final 18 begins around 1:15 p.m ET. Golf Channel will broadcast the final round from 2-5 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Kent, ranked 560th in the world, is a 19-year-old Naples, Fla., native. He was playing well last year and qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur before a wrist injury caused him to miss it. Now he’s gaining confidence and just one win away from a U.S. Am title.
“Tomorrow is a little bit more of a marathon, 36 holes,” Kent said. “You can’t really think about it too deeply. You don’t want to put too much pressure on yourself because that’s when you play badly. You kind of got to free ball the whole golf course.”
He’ll face Ballester, the 20-year-old 10th-ranked amateur who is the son of two Olympians.
“I again striped it today,” Ballester said. “Missed a bunch of putts on the front nine, but again I kept trusting on my swing. And yeah, I made a couple of wrong putts on the back nine and hit really good tee shots on 14, 15, 16 to kind of close the match. So again, I was pretty calm all the way, feeling super confident with my swing, and that made it easier.”
Six days down, one match to go.
