Big-hitting U.S. Am finalists are proving smart play gets the job done
U.S. Amateur finalists Mason Howell (left) and Jackson Herrington (right) both have impressive speed, but it's more recent improvements that have them one win away from the Havemeyer Trophy.
SAN FRANCISCO — Your eyes see the two U.S. Amateur finalists, Mason Howell and Jackson Herrington, quite differently. Howell is a long-armed 6-foot-4 18-year-old, while Herrington is country strong, his stalky build in part the result of his life on a farm in Dickson, Tenn. The ball doesn’t notice any difference, though, as both players possess incredible speed and are very well the two longest players in the starting field of 312 at The Olympic Club.
On Sunday, the bombers will meet in the 36-hole championship match on the Lake Course. Should Howell win, he would overtake Tiger Woods as the third-youngest player to win the Havemeyer Trophy in the 125th edition of the USGA’s oldest championship.
If the dominant trend in professional and amateur golf in recent years has been a race for speed, the final certainly confirms that movement is not going anywhere. But look beyond the 185-plus mph ball speeds of the two finalists and you notice the skills that have elevated both players’ games to an elite championship level have nothing to do with speed.
Get the ball in play off the tee and don’t short-side yourself. Those are the two things that Howell learned from watching the best players in the world as he shot 77-76 to miss the cut at in the U.S. Open in June. Howell, a native of Thomasville, Ga., shot a pair of 63s in Final Qualifying to qualify for his first major championship but ultimately didn’t find enough fairways to compete at Oakmont.
Mason Howell plays his second shot on the ninth hole during the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Amateur.
Chris Keane
“I've been really good at finding a fairway-finder, a consistent ball that I know is hitting the fairway, especially with thicker like this, there's got to be a tee shot that you can rely on,” Howell said after his 3-and-2 semifinal win against Oklahoma State’s Eric Lee.
It’s been that fairway-finder, paired with a new approach to match play, that Howell says has led to his deep run in the Bay Area. After the U.S. Open, Howell shot a pair of 67s to earn medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur but fell to the No. 64 seed in the first round of match play. Howell admits that he had “been in a little bit of a match-play funk” entering this week, and that he has learned to use a more conservative strategy—finding fairways and playing to the safe side of the green.
It's a lot of learning from a guy who is still over a year from entering college at the University of Georgia, where he is verbally committed. In addition to his natural athleticism, evident in his flowing, whip-like golf swing, Howell credits much of his success to his instructor back home in Georgia, Glen Arven Country Club’s director of golf Bill Connally.
“He’s always worked on my swing. I may have a little bit of a unique swing, but he never tries to make it perfect,” said Howell, who turned 18 in June. “Golf is not a game of perfection, and so my body’s just grown into it, and I've just kept it consistent.”
Like Howell, Herrington, 19, has long had clubhead speed (he routinely registers speeds of more than 130 mph), but his championship run has been fueled by improvements to his putting, fitness and mental game. “Don’t let you mind get to the hole before the ball,” is the advice Herrington’s mental coach, Steven Yellin, gave him this week, which is part of Herrington’s larger strategy get his mind to “shut off” right before he hits the ball.
Jackson Herrington celebrates with his caddie after sinking his putt to win the match during the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Amateur.
Chris Keane
“I feel like I can play a little more free. My goal was to get to the Masters,” said Herrington, a rising sophomore at Tennessee, of his approach to the championship match after defeating hometown hero Niall Shiels Donegan, 1 up, in the semifinals with a birdie on the 18th. “Ultimate goal is to win, but I'm out here to have fun. I can go out and play a little free, see what happens, play my game.”
Also potentially helping Herrington play more free in the championship match is the fact that he already has experience in a USGA final, as he paired up with teen phenom Blades Brown to finish runner-up in the 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. “Lucky for us, we got pretty deep there and got to learn all the pressure that comes with it,” Herrington said.
On Sunday at The Olympic Club, we will see which player has better applied their recent learnings to win the U.S. Amateur. After all, even this generation knows it’s not all about speed.