U.S. Amateur winner talks gutsy win, Sergio Garcia influence in Q&A

The U.S. Amateur came to a thrilling conclusion last week at Hazeltine Golf Club in Minnesota. Spaniard Jose Luis Ballester defeated American Noah Kent 2-up after 36 holes in the championship match, thus making history in the process.

Ballester, who followed fellow countryman Jon Rahm to Arizona State, became the first man from Spain to win the U.S. Amateur. Interestingly, Rahm became the first Spanish player to win the U.S. Open in 2021, thus making Ballester the second Spaniard to win a championship conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Kent, meanwhile, will head back to the University of Iowa for his sophomore campaign after an incredible run to the finals. Ranked as the 560th player in the Amateur World Golf Rankings, Kent went on a St. Peter’s Peacocks-like run—a Cinderella who came just a tad short of achieving glory—not unlike the 2010 Butler Bulldogs. But his unexpected ride to the championship ended there, as he lost to Ballester, the 10th-ranked amateur in the world.

So after this historic moment, Playing Through caught up with Ballester to discuss his win, his relationship with Sergio Garcia, among other things, including who would join him in his dream foursome:

One-on-One with U.S. Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester:

(Editor’s Note: This conversation has been slightly edited and modified for readability and clarity.)

Playing Through: How did winning the U.S. Amateur on your 21st birthday feel? Pretty special, right?

Jose Luis Ballester: I didn’t receive many birthday wishes on Sunday because my phone was completely blown apart, but it made it sweeter.

It was very emotional because as soon as I finished, the first people I thought about were my family and my parents. It was such a unique and special day for me and them, and accomplishing such a great thing like I did was pretty special.

PT: You are the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Amateur. How does it feel to be recognized as the first player from your country to win such a prestigious tournament? Sounds pretty damn cool, right?

Ballester: We all know the amount of great players we have had in Spain, all the great legends currently on tour, and all the great players we have had through the years. So, being able to put your name and write history as the first Spaniard to accomplish this is even better.

PT: Your final match against Noah Kent, who’s from Iowa and not far away from Hazeltine in Minnesota, was like a Ryder Cup, right? You’re the European taking on the American, so he had the crowd on his side. Was it difficult for you to overcome Kent and the following that he had?

Ballester: Especially when you’re losing momentum, losing a couple of holes towards the end, and you hear the crowd rooting for the other guy. It made it tough at some points. But since I won in the semifinals and saw the people following Noah, I knew it was going to be like that or even worse in the championship match. So, I think I dealt with it pretty well, but it was hard in some moments. I did the same thing I was doing in every round, trying to stick to my routine and stay in the present. Although it was tough at some moments, I think I did a good job, especially towards the end when it got pretty tough.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

PT: Did the crowd get hostile at all?

Ballester: A little bit. Yeah. I felt like every time Kent made a really good shot, or he made a putt, or whatever, it was almost like a party out there. So, I had to find a way to quiet that noise a little bit. I got good advice from Sergio Garcia the previous night about the championship; he can relate to this. He told me that everyone was going to be rooting for the other guy, making a lot of noise for him and not for me. He told me that the best way to face that is not by doing anything or saying anything to the crowd but rather by just playing your own game and showing them how you’re able to.

So that’s what I did.

PT: That’s really cool. How is your relationship with Sergio?

Ballester: We’re good friends. His dad, Victor, has been my coach for the past seven years. We are from the same town in Spain, so I have had the chance to play with him multiple times growing up. And these past two years, we’ve gotten much closer. So it’s nice to have a relationship like the one I have with Sergio and to get the chance to learn from him every day.

PT: So I have to ask: You wore Fireball Colors—Sergio’s LIV Golf team—during the U.S. Amateur. Any coincidence?

Well, not the fireballs, but they are more like the Spanish colors. That’s the outfit we wear whenever we represent Spain and play in the championship match. It’s the outfit I wore when I won the European Amateur Championship in Estonia in 2023. It’s also the outfit I wore when I won a big event in Spain, the Spanish Amateur International when I was 16 years old. So it’s been pretty great for me over the years. And since I was the first Spaniard ever to reach a U.S. Amateur final, I felt it was the right occasion to wear that for them.

PT: Very cool. I love that answer and how passionate you are about your country; I think that’s amazing. So, obviously, with you going to Arizona State, how is your relationship with Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson? Have you had a chance to play with those guys at all?

Ballester: I haven’t had the chance to play with Phil Mickelson yet, but I have played with Jon Rahm a couple of times. I had a chance to actually play with him during a practice round at The Open Championship last summer. I also played with him this past summer before going back to Spain. And as soon as we finished the season here at Arizona State, I had a chance to play with him for a couple of days, too, with him and David Puig. So, it was pretty cool to play with them because I learned a couple of things that really helped me develop and grow as a player. I put that in my game this summer, and it has worked well.

I learned from Rahm and Puig that if you want to win nowadays, you gotta bring it. These guys have no fear. They are aggressive. You have to play aggressively to win. If you want to win or accomplish something big, nobody will give it to you. You will have to find a way to win and learn not to fear.

PT: Awesome, awesome answer. Shifting gears a bit, you now have invites to Oakmont, Augusta National, and Royal Portrush. Which of those courses are you looking forward to the most? And which tournament are you most excited for, given that you remain an amateur and earn these exemptions?

Ballester: It has to be Augusta. I am super excited for the U.S. Open as well, but maybe I don’t feel it as much because I am not an American. But yeah, that will be super special, and then, I am not sure how it will be for The Open. It would be super cool if I had the chance to play it because I have good memories of Royal Portrush. I finished runner-up at the British Boys Amateur in 2018. So I have good memories of that place. But I am not sure if I will remain an amateur.

Probably not.

As soon as I finish college, I will most likely turn professional. I don’t think I’m going to stay amateur for the entire summer, so if I want to play The Open, I will most likely have to make it through the qualifying stages.

PT: That makes sense, and Sergio came close to doing that this past summer.

Ballester: Right. I actually played the same side as him, and we played together.

PT: So, delving into your play at the U.S. Amateur more specifically, one thing I wanted to ask you was about your Round of 64 matches against Ben James. You were four up, then James cut it back to one, and you held on to win. You then had a similar circumstance in the Championship Match, being 4-up, and Kent comes back to cut it to one. So, did you lean on that experience from your match with James, hanging on down the stretch? And if so, what did you learn from that Round of 64 match?

Ballester: Well, first of all, I gotta say that closing a match is always hard, no matter how much you are up by. I haven’t played that well in match play over the past year. So being 4-up with six to go against a player like Ben James, was I wouldn’t say something new to me, but it was a nice scenario that maybe I was not imagining.

But then I lost two holes on 13 and 14. I actually hit two much better tee shots than he did, but he ended up making two amazing up-and-downs, and so I ended up losing two holes that I was meant to win. So that changed the momentum, and then, on the next hole, he almost made an eagle.

So it felt a little weird because it’s one of those moments in which you feel like you’re almost done, you’re going to close it out, and then you look at yourself, and you’re one up with three to go, and everything is wide open. So, yeah, it did feel a bit similar to the championship match. I didn’t think about that first match at all while I was playing in the final, but I kept doing what I was doing all week, right?

Stay in the present. Chat with my caddy. Try to stay as calm as I can. Again, I was pretty confident with my swing all week. It’s true that the momentum shifted on the back side of that championship match, but there was no reason to be afraid because I was still leading the match, right? And that’s a thought that I really like thinking. When I am in that situation when I am winning, and I start losing a few holes, and it seems like the other guy will come back, I like to think that I am the guy who has been leading all the way. It’s me. I’m the guy who set the tone of the match in the early beginning, and I’m still winning the match, although I have lost the last few holes. So that’s something I like to see when things are not going great—that I’m still the guy who dominated the match.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

PT: What are your goals for your Senior season at Arizona State?

Ballester: Well, I only have one goal. Coach told me the other day, ‘Are you ever going to win a tournament while you were in season with us?’ And I said, ‘I try!’ But it seems like I only win in the summertime when I am not in college. So, my goal is, before I leave Arizona State, I would like to win an individual title while representing the Sun Devils. So that’s my main goal for this season.

Although I’m not trying to get pretty obsessive about it because sometimes, when you get obsessive about winning, it works the other way, so I am just going to try to enjoy my last year. And I know that if I do that, I’ll be closer to accomplishing that.

PT: I have two more questions for you: What would you identify as the strengths and weaknesses of your game at this point in your career?

Ballester: Okay. Well, my strength has always been my distance and the way I hit the ball. That’s what separated me from the rest growing up as a junior player. But when I came to college, I noticed I was far back with my short game, putting, and wedges. And that’s what I have been practicing the most since my sophomore year. If you watch the tournament, my short game and putts were dialed in and that’s why I won this event because I was really good around the greens.

But right now, I feel like the aspect of my game that I need to keep working on, or that needs some more improvement, I would say, is my mental game. I feel like I’ve reached this point where my overall game is pretty, pretty good. I obviously want to make every part better and more consistent. But I think it comes a little bit with confidence and with believing in yourself. This tournament really helped me because it was a big confidence booster. So again, telling myself, feeling like I can hit any shot at any moment is what I need to keep working on because I did great this past week, but I need to keep getting better at it.

PT: It seems as if that really comes with more experience and more time.

Ballester: Correct. You have to see yourself in those kinds of situations. Failing over and over and seeing yourself in those situations, but then working through it to the moment you finally succeed—you learn from it all. But you learn especially when you lose, when you are you are under pressure, and you don’t hit the shots you want to hit. That makes you appreciate your game even more, especially when you actually hit the shot you want to hit under pressure. So, I’m pretty happy with how I manage those situations. But again, I still have to get much better at it if I want to become the player I want to be.

PT: My last question for you is a fun one. If you had to pick a dream foursome—that obviously includes yourself—who would it be? And where would you play?

Ballester: It would be a Spanish course for sure. But I have always said that one of my dreams is to play a round of golf with Rafael Nadal. So Rafa would be in that foursome. Then I’ll put Sergio Garcia because of my relationship with him. And then, I have seen that Carlos Alcaraz is getting better at golf. So I’d like to have Sergio and I against Rafa and Carlos, and then we’ll go to the tennis court and finish with doubles.

That would be my dream foursome.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.