American Wins Amateur in England
Winning a 72-hole stroke-play event is hard, but winning a major amateur championship seems even more daunting with two rounds of qualifying and then six rounds of match play.
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Ethan Fang of Oklahoma State University accomplished the overwhelming by defeating Ireland's Gavin Tiernan 1-up in The Amateur Championship in a 36-hole final on Saturday at Royal St. George's
The 130th edition of the oldest amateur championship didn't disappoint, with a match on paper that seemed to be one-sided; Fang is seventh in the World Amateur Rankings, while Tiernan is 1,340th in the world.
Through the 32nd hole, neither Fang nor Tiernan had a lead larger than 1-up, but when the Irishman from County Louth bogeyed the 33rd hole, the par-4 15th at Royal St. George's, the OSU Cowboy had a 2-up lead with only three holes remaining.
That is when the East Tennessee State University golfer turned it on, making long birdie putts on the 34th and 35th holes to erase the 2-down deficit, making the 36th the pivotal hole of the match. After losing the lead, Fang didn't disappoint, winning the match with a birdie at the last to be the first American to take the oldest amateur title since Drew Weaver in 2007.
Ethan Fang hits his opening drive in The 130th Amateur Championship Final, where he played for his place in The 153rd Open field.Courtesy of the R&A
'I was hitting it well all day and I knew if I just stayed in it, some putts would drop, kind of have him work for it, and it ended up working out,' Fang said of his strategy. 'It's probably the most consistent golf I've played in my life. It's a super-long championship, it and just feels really good to finally get it done.'
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Fang worked hard to get into the finals, winning his first match 1-up over Englishman Jamie Van Wyk, and then taking 20 holes to close out Scotland's Connor Graham in the round of 16.
After an easy 5-and-4 victory in the round of 8, Fang had to go to the 18th hole again, winning 2-up over Callixte Alzas of France. Fang made the semifinals an easy springboard to the finals with a 5-and-4 win over Finland's Veikka Viskari.
The win will propel Fang in the world rankings and open the door to the Masters, U.S. Open and the Open Championship at Royal Portrush next month.
'The Masters, The Open, I'm just glad it's all done now and I can just take a second to think about everything I did this week and just kind of enjoy it,' Fang said.
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Related: Heartbreak for Tommy Fleetwood After Travelers Championship Disaster on 72nd Hole
Related: Phil Mickelson Sends Message to Keegan Bradley After Dramatic Travelers Championship Win
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
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