The most unique swing in amateur golf is not short on results

Jay Leng chuckles as he replays the highlight.

Leng’s tee shot into the sixth green at Beverly Country Club during his Western Amateur semifinal match against wunderkind Miles Russell will long live as a social-media clip. As Leng swings 6-iron at his ball with a quick but mighty lash, color analyst Tripp Isenhour begins his call:

“Jay has a unique finish. There’s a lot of times it doesn’t look like he’s in sync at the finish…”

At this point, Leng’s ball cuts through the wind, reaching its apex early, and flies some 180 yards before landing just a couple feet in front of the extreme front hole location.

“… But then shots do exactly that right there.”

Leng is used to that sort of commentary.

“People often say stuff about my swing,” said Leng, the rising Stanford junior who’d go on to win the Western Amateur last Sunday in Chicago. “I’ve always loved my swing, but it makes me feel even better when I end up playing well because I know that it works. Others will figure that out soon enough.”

Leng’s swing is best described as, to borrow a term from Stanford head coach Conrad Ray, “abbreviated.” Leng takes the club back a tad inside, and before his hands can get to shoulder level, he reverses course with his clubface slightly closed at the top and attacks the ball, his shaft getting almost parallel with the ground on the follow-through. When he really goes after one, he goes airborne.

Ray calls Leng a “throwback,” as Leng hasn’t taken a formal lesson since freshman year of high school. He also plays a supersoft, high-spinning ball, unlike most elite amateurs, and flights down nearly every shot.

“He controls his golf ball better than most golfers I’ve seen,” Ray said. “He knows what works and what repeats … and he should be celebrated for how funky [his swing] looks. I’ve said this to our assistants a lot, that probably our best coaching job is to have some constraint on our thoughts on Jay Leng’s swing because why would you mess up something that’s working?”

Not that Leng hasn’t made significant changes in his game. He arrived on Stanford’s campus two summers ago as one of the top prospects in the country – a two-time AJGA first-teamer, member of the 2023 U.S Junior Ryder Cup team, twice a winner of AJGA invitationals, and a U.S. Junior Amateur semifinalist in 2024. But that junior pedigree didn’t translate to immediate college success, as Leng failed to notch a top-10 finish in 10 starts as a freshman.

The main culprit wasn’t the ball-striking but the putter. While Leng was known for rolling the rock as a kid, he ranked toward the bottom of Stanford’s roster in strokes gained putting as a freshman. At the Cardinal’s home event two springs ago, Leng put a L.A.B. putter in the bag for the first time, and after not seeing desired results in the first two rounds, Leng contemplated what else he could do to remedy his woes on the greens.

That’s when Ray suggested Leng try the claw grip.

“I’d always thought people who used the claw were at a point where their putting was that bad,” Leng said. “But I’m like, OK, I’ll try it.”

Leng wasted no time. After practicing the method for about 10 minutes, Leng used the claw in the final round, shot bogey-free 66, gained over four strokes putting and rose to what was then a career-best T-12.

“Since then, I feel like I did about my putting when I was a kid,” said Leng, who led Stanford in strokes gained putting last season after improving nearly two strokes per round on the greens. “At the Western, I literally thought I was going to make every single putt.”

Leng’s sophomore campaign included five finishes of T-11 or better, including four straight beginning with a T-3 at this year’s Goodwin and ending with a T-11 at the NCAA Columbus Regional. Leng hasn’t slowed down either.

Last summer, Leng ran out of steam quickly, going T-19 at the Northeast Amateur, T-46 at the North and South Amateur and then T-103 at the Western. But when Leng got back to school, he finally bought into weight training – he had long believed that it would ruin his swing.

Leng’s results this summer: Runner-up at Northeast, T-5 at the Southern Amateur and then his breakout at Beverly, which locked up the Elite Amateur Series points race; Leng will now receive a PGA Tour exemption, to be determined.

ISI Photos via Getty Images

After starting the year at No. 139 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Leng will enter next week’s U.S. Amateur at Merion at No. 24 in the world. Bummed to be left off this year’s U.S. Arnold Palmer Cup squad, Leng could instead earn his place on an even more prestigious roster: the U.S. Walker Cup team, which will compete next month at Lahinch.

Leng already has an Ireland trip planned with his Stanford teammates for later this month; he’d love to just stay out there.

Ray, who purposely put Leng against college stalwarts such as Ben James, Tyler Weaver and Josiah Gilbert in match play this past spring, believes Leng deserves the nod.

“He’d be a phenomenal add to that team,” Ray said. “Ball flies low, crafty wedges; that all matches well with a stern links test. ... There’s nothing but fight in that guy, and he just knows how to get the ball in the hole.”

No matter what it looks like.