SAN FRANCISCO — Tennessee teenager Jackson Herrington made a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to beat local favorite Niall Shiels Donegan on Saturday to advance to the U.S. Amateur final at The Olympic Club.
“I played this hole pretty well this week,” Herrington said. “I knew I could do it. Wind was in my favor. I hit a cut, was going to straighten every ball out. Had a good number for second shot.”
Herrington won 1 up and will face Georgia teenager Mason Howell in the 36-hole final Sunday. Howell beat Eric Lee 3 and 2 in the other semifinal at the 125th U.S. Amateur.
Both Harrington and Howell advanced to the final after being among the 17 players to survive a 20-man playoff Wednesday morning to determine the final 64 for match play.
The matches teed off in typical summer San Francisco weather with heavy fog that made it difficult to track shots, along with a steady mist and wind gusts of more than 20 mph.
Herrington got in an early hole after bogeying the first two holes against Donegan, the 20-year-old Scot who grew up just across the Golden Gate Bridge in Mill Valley.
Herrington, a 19-year-old about to enter his sophomore season at Tennessee, overcame the partisan crowd, the weather and the early deficit to get the win.
“I think I kind of feed off of it,” Herrington said about the crowd. “Today we’d be walking up the fairway, after he hit the fairway and they’d be yelling like he made a hole-in-one. It was funny, I’d walk up the fairway and be like thank you. I’d feed off of it. There’s a couple of people out here that wanted me to win, but it was kind of me against everybody else.”
Donegan nearly pulled off a fifth straight late rally. He erased a two-hole deficit when Herrington bogeyed the par-5 16th and then Donegan made a short birdie putt at the par-5 17th to set the stage for the decisive final hole in front of loud crowd of his supporters.
Herrington hit a perfect approach shot on the par-4 18th and then made his 5-foot birdie putt after Donegan narrowly missed his birdie attempt.
“I did what I could,” Donegan said. “I had a really good second shot in there, just didn’t quite spin, and then the putt. Just a tough putt. It’s just such a great experience still, though. I’m only 20. Like hopefully I’ve got a long career ahead of me, and this is just one of the many building blocks along the journey that hopefully commences.”
Howell, who is about to enter his senior year in high school, continued an impressive 2025 season after qualifying for the U.S. Open earlier this year. Howell, who turned 18 on June 28, is trying to become the youngest U.S. Amateur champion since Danny Lee won it in 2008 exactly one month after his 18th birthday.
He was tied at the turn with Lee but took a two-hole lead after Lee made bogey on the 11th and 14th holes. Howell then won the match with a long birdie putt on the par-5 16th, punctuating it with a fist pump.
“Happy to make that putt on 16,” Howell said. “Glad I didn’t have to walk up the hill on 17 and 18. Overall, it was a good day. I knew the pins were tucked again. It’s not really scoring weather. I knew if I made a couple birdies, three or four, that would put me in a good spot.”
Lee was playing in his first career U.S. Amateur after helping Oklahoma State win an NCAA title this year.
This is the fourth U.S. Amateur to be held at The Olympic Club. Charles Coe (1958), Nathaniel Crosby (1981) and Cole Knost (2007) won the others.
