Noah Kent lost in the US Amateur finals. But what he achieved was very important
Noah Kent didn't win the US Amateur but he may have left the Hazeltine National with more than any player in the field.
USGA/Chris Keane
CHASKA, Minn. – Noah Kent extended his stance and prepared for the most important chip shot of his life. He was on the short side and had 25 yards to the pin, and about 20 yards to the fairway.
He needed to hit a flop shot, like the one he hit on the 13th hole Thursday morning. One Phil Mickelson might hit. Kent has always been a big fan of Mickelson; growing up he loved watching Lefty try those dangerous shots. He practiced all the time and, hitting crazy, physics-defying flops about a thousand times. He says he has soft hands and feels like he can pull off anything.
But this flop shot was different. It was his 36th hole of the day. His lies were not good. And he needed to do it to have a chance to win the US Amateur.
The Iowa sophomore took one last look at the hole, jumped high and threw his bat into the open field. For a few seconds, thousands of people gathered around the green in silence. Dozens of fans wearing yellow Caitlin Clark shirts held their breath.
You probably know by now that Kent's last pitch was just off the 18th green at Hazeltine National Golf Club on Sunday night. not come in. It came out hot, missed to the left and went out again, leaving Jose Luis Ballester with an easy putt-putt par and 2-up, a US Amateur-clinching victory.
But you should also know that with a few beats, anything seemed possible when Kent had the club in his hand. Let's face it – he was with her for a week.
So you can win the US Amateur without a doubt victory US Amateur? Only one person gets the trophy, sure, but there's no shortage of other victories up for grabs. They are the original won, those came in bunches for Kent during the semi-finals of the tournament leading up to Sunday's final. There are also metaphors, such as being released from the US Open and the Masters both of which he won again the second runner-up traditionally accepted.
But don't count out moral victories, either. It's easy to point out that the title of “US Amateur runner-up” is a footnote in history, but for a beginner ranked 560th in the world, it's more than that.
It's proof that you belong to Noah Kent, and that's a different kind of trophy.
USGA/Chris Keane
Dana Fry, a golf course builder and Noah's stepfather, entered Noah's life in June 2014. Noah was 9 years old.
Noah's mother, Trisha, and father, David, divorced a few years earlier. David was a good player, qualified for the US Junior Amateur and later became a champion golfer. He is now the GM at The Golf Club at Crown Colony in Estero, Fla.
David tried to get Noah and his sister, Cameryn, into golf, but Noah's first love was hockey. He played on a team coached by former NHL player Brian Rafalski, and some of Fry's earliest memories with Noah and Trisha involved hockey trips.
But that all changed in 2017, the year Erin Hills captured the US Open. Fry was on the design team for the bucket list course in Wisconsin, and helped coordinate the meeting between Noah and Rory McIlroy. A few months later they met again, when TaylorMade held a photoshoot at Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Rhode Island, designed by Fry. Noah and McIlroy hit it off a second time, and when the young hockey player returned home, he was no longer a hockey player.
“I've decided to give up all my other sports,” Noah told Fry and Trisha. “I'm going to dedicate my life to golf, and I'm going to win on the PGA Tour.”
Young Noah began playing hard at Calusa Pines Golf Club, and later at Naples National. Before long, more golfers were on his trail.
At the 2019 Terra Cotta Invitational in Naples, Fla., Noah watched a young actor, Tommy Morrison, walk around the course. Morrison, now ranked 18th in the world, was one of the best players in his age group. (At 6-foot-8, he was also one of the most important.)
Morrison took 5th place that year in Naples, and when his round was over, Noah invited him to play nine more holes. Morrison agreed, and they have been friends ever since. Kent has reached out to Morrison over the years – and not just academically. When they met in 2019, Noah was 5-5. He is now 6-5.
“I think it was one of the best things Noah ever did,” Fry says now. “Everyone looked up to Tommy and that started a friendship. That was the boy Noah was always chasing.”
The two played a practice round for the US Amateur at the Chaska Town Course last week, and on the par-4 7th hole Noah blasted a monster drive down the middle. (He usually flies it about 330 yards.) Morrison looked at Fry and Trisha and smiled.
“What are you feeding this child with??”
USGA/Chris Keane
Like the rest of the world, Noah Kent felt golf hit hard during the Covid boom.
He used distance learning opportunities to travel to different countries with Fry. Perhaps most importantly, he began to grow into his frame. He started to get better. Even better. At age 16, he played Seminole with Fry and golf legend Bob Ford. As Noah drove the first green one, the Fords beamed at Fry.
“What's going on?”
At the lecture and later at lunch, Fry and Ford discuss Noah's method. Ford saw great talent, but he also saw greatness child. Noah had just turned twelve, but he was already well-spoken and intelligent. Ford offered one important piece of advice.
“Don't let anyone deceive this child.”
The Fords suggested they find someone with a proven track record to help Noah, who was hoping to live with Claude Harmon III. Harmon already had clients like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, but Kent agreed. After an introduction from former US Am winner John Cook, Harmon agreed to take on Noah.
“He believes in himself, and he instills that belief in Noah,” Fry said. “He is always fighting against belief. He's always been a good player, and he's friends with all those great players – Ben James and Tommy Morrison and Nick Dunlap – and he's played with all those guys. But in his mind they were better. He did not enter the big events. Claude was telling him that he was making his own way. He was saying, 'You have to accept the fact that you are this good.'
Fry for a while.
“The difference is now Noah believes.”
Noah, 19, has a growing list of mentors and people in his corner, and among them is John Harris, another former US Amateur champion and star athlete from the University of Minnesota. They met years ago at Calusa Pines and have kept in touch ever since.
Harris is being treated for leukemia, so he wasn't at the US Amateur, but he was watching from Florida. Noah kept Harris close, even writing Harris' initials on his golf glove.
“He's mature physically and mentally,” Harris told GOLF.com via email. “His physical game developed before he gained enough experience to be able to compete in all events. But he had a positive attitude, learned from his experiences and grew into a more aggressive and confident player.”
The most important experience has come to Noah at the University of Iowa, where he will begin his sophomore year. Kent says he chose Iowa because coach Tyler Stith was the first to believe in him, but it didn't take him long to return the favor. Before the fall of the upperclassmen vs. lowclassmen last fall, and not far from a wrist injury that kept him sidelined for several months, Noah asked to face fifth-year champion and two-time Big Ten champion Mac McClear.
He won 3 and 2.
Before the US Amateur began Tuesday, Stith reminded his young star of that memory.
“When you're lying in bed tonight, create a picture of someone you wouldn't want to face,” he said in a text he sent to the Golf Channel. … “Tomorrow that person is you.”
Kent answered quickly.
“I'm right that person.”
The next morning, Kent burst into tears. He won matches 4 and 2, 2 and 1, 4 and 2, 3 and 2, and 2 up to reach the final. As a freshman ranked 560th in the world, he was the underdog in nearly every one of those games — not that he cared.
“They talk about it, and it's like, 'You're 560 in the world,' but I know I can beat anybody here,” he said Friday. “It doesn't matter if they rank 1, 1,000, 10, 20, it doesn't matter to me.”
On Sunday, he faces his toughest competition yet in Jose Luis Ballester, the son of two Olympians who hits the ball a mile and changes the game with no apparent weakness.
The birdies came quickly for Ballester, and a 4 lead after 18 in the morning was evident just enough cushion for Kent's furious comeback in the 36-hole match. The 10th ranked amateur in the world won, but the No. 560 pushed him over the edge.
As Jose Luis Ballester raised the trophy on the 18th green and was equipped with a bronze USGA of twelve light cameras, Kent was not on the green, not far from his last chip shot, smiling for a photo with his family.
“You can hang your head about coming second, but fighting like that,” he told the press, referring to his second-18 comeback. “I spoke to Mr. Harris [during the break between rounds]then he said, 'If you fight, you know in your heart that you will not get angry. If you don't fight, it will leave you with an erection.'”
Kent will not leave Minnesota unscathed. A lot has changed in a week. He is now in the 2025 US Open and the Masters. He's on the Walker Cup radar. His level is increasing.
“It's been a full circle for him this week,” said his father, David Kent. “He's been on the road to knowing it's his time, and what I've been telling him this week is, 'It's your time.' It's big. And there is a little disappointment for him, but this is big for him. You're just getting started.”
After Noah finished speaking to the media, and before he went to sign autographs, he returned to his family and watched Ballester on the 18th green. His father put his arm around him and patted him on the back. He approached his son and told him that he was proud of him.
Noah Kent leaves Hazeltine with a gift almost the size of a cup. After a week at US Amateur, he no longer has to wonder if he's the one for you. You know.
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