SAN FRANCISCO — The 125th U.S. Amateur Championship at The Olympic Club has produced a final with bite: Jackson Herrington (Dickson, Tenn.) vs. Mason Howell (Thomasville, Ga.). On Sunday, they’ll play 36 holes on the Lake Course for amateur golf’s most storied prize—and a springboard to the pro game.

Howell’s Cinderella run

Seeded 63rd after stroke play, Mason Howell has torn through the bracket with fearless golf, capped by a composed 3&2 semifinal over Eric Lee. The 18-year-old first drew headlines at 14 with a 59 at Glen Arven CC, then stacked junior titles—the 2022 Future Masters (13–14) and 2023 Billy Horschel Junior Championship among them. In 2025 he became the youngest player at the U.S. Open, firing 64 in local qualifying and co-medaling at Final Qualifying with twin 63s.

Born June 28, 2007, Howell is a Georgia Bulldog in waiting (verbal to UGA for 2026), following a family tradition—his sister, Megan, plays for the Dawgs, his mom is an alumna, and his dad graduated from Georgia Law. He plays Ping/Titleist/FootJoy and is represented by Hambric Sports. This week, it’s been all nerve and momentum—an underdog surge reminiscent of Steven Fox’s 2012 run.

Herrington’s Tennessee grit

If Howell is the haymaker, Jackson Herrington is the metronome. The left-hander outlasted Scotland’s Niall Shiels Donegan in the semifinals, 1 up, closing with a steely par on 18. His résumé screams closer: in 2024 he became the youngest Tennessee State Open champion (and first amateur winner since 2018), erasing a four-shot deficit with a furious finish. He also reached the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball final with Blades Brown and swept the Tennessee Men’s Player of the Year and Boys’ Junior Player of the Year awards in the same season.

An eighth-generation Volunteer at the University of Tennessee, Herrington keeps tempo with a quirky cue—softly saying “nine” to himself as he starts back. Ranked as high as No. 86 in WAGR, he’s now the first UT player to reach the U.S. Amateur final since Oliver Goss in 2013. The common thread all week: patience, fairways, greens, and zero drama.

What’s at stake

The winner’s rewards are seismic: the Havemeyer Trophy and exemptions into the 2026 Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship (subject to amateur status). The runner-up also earns a Masters invitation, meaning both finalists already have Augusta National in their future—an achievement that changes careers and expectations overnight.

Styles that travel—or crack—at Olympic

Olympic’s Lake Course punishes impatience with sloping fairways, side-hill lies, and slick greens. Howell brings surges—flurries of birdies when the iron play heats up. Herrington brings ballast—minimizing mistakes, trusting a tidy short game, and waiting out opponents. On this canvas, the final may hinge on two things: who blinks first on the short side, and who converts the eight-footers when the match tightens late.

One match, lifelong impact

By day’s end, one name joins Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Viktor Hovland on the trophy; the other leaves with silver—and a drive down Magnolia Lane to come. Either way, Herrington vs. Howell is the U.S. Amateur at its best: heart, nerve, and the game’s future on full display.