Mason Howell's U.S. Amateur Defense Off To Slow Start

Mason Howell, in the field at Merion Golf Club this week defending his 2025 U.S. Amateur title, got a slow start out of the gate in Monday’s first round. After several months of primarily playing across pro tours, the 19-year-old Georgia commit has struggled to find his footing in recent amateur appearances. He’ll need to keep the card clean in the second round to move up a crowded leaderboard and find his way into match play.

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Despite all of his amateur success, Mason has yet to translate that to any big results on the PGA TOUR. Of course, that shouldn’t come as any big shock. He hasn’t even stepped onto Georgia’s campus for his freshman year yet. After all, his 2025 U.S. Amateur win saw him become the third youngest champion in the tournament's history. But the amateur and professional success of fellow teenagers like Miles Russell and Blades Brown makes his play on TOUR feel more surprising.

Following his massively successful 2025 campaign, which saw a Walker Cup appearance alongside the U.S. Amateur win, Mason’s schedule pivoted away from junior tournaments and towards the high-level amateur and professional games. But success hasn’t been consistent as he’s stepped into golf’s deeper waters.

Through nine TOUR starts, including four major championship appearances, Mason has yet to make the cut. His packed 2026 schedule hasn’t given him much chance to find his stride in amateur golf either. Since mid-March, he’s only competed in two amateur events counting towards his WAGR ranking, but he's teed it up in eight professional events.

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The first of those amateur tournaments was the Northeast Amateur Invitational, a stroke-play event where he finished in a tie for 38th. More recently was the Western Amateur, where two over-par rounds left Mason on the outside of the first cut line. He finished in a tie for 102nd.

Mason certainly didn’t enter the 2026 U.S. Amateur with the momentum he had the year prior, and that seemed to show in his first round at Merion. But his tournament is far from over. The leaderboard of 312 participants is incredibly crowded, and despite sitting at +4 in a tie for 172nd he enters the second round just four shots outside of a potential qualifying position.

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He will tee off at Philadelphia Country Club, co-hosting the tournament’s stroke-play section, at 2:24 p.m. ET alongside reigning Latin American Amateur champion Mateo Pulcini and winner of the 2026 Amateur Championship, Stuart Grehan. His playing partners, neither doing any better than Mason, will also need to go low on Tuesday to keep their hopes alive.