Noah Kent has played on several iconic golf courses this year, Augusta National Golf Club to Oakmont Country Club. But another historic location, the 165-year-old Olympic Club in Daly City, California, quickly ended the University of Florida golfer’s quest for additional amateur success.

Kent, 20, who graduated from Gulf Coast High School in Naples, was eliminated Aug. 12 from the 2025 U.S. Amateur Championship after the opening two rounds of stroke play in the sport’s top amateur event.

“I gave myself opportunities to make birdies, they just didn’t go in the hole,” said Kent, who will soon begin his junior season for the Gators. “It kinda sucks.”

Kent’s runner-up finish last year in the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota provided entrance into the Masters in April and U.S. Open in June in Pennsylvania. He played two rounds in both majors, just as he did this week on the century-old Lake Course and Ocean Course.

Entering the event as the country’s 95th-ranked amateur, Kent shot consecutive 74s on the par 70s and missed advancing to the match play round field of 64 by five shots.

“I felt like I hit it pretty solid; it just didn’t go my way,” Kent said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just a game.

You can’t take things too deeply.”

The tournament’s 125th edition began Monday, Aug. 11, with a field of 312 rotating rounds on the two courses located just south of San Francisco.

“I just need to [go] back to work, get back to basics and figure it out,” Kent said.

Kent, who had never played on either of the Olympic Club’s layouts, particularly faltered with a second-round, back-nine 40 that included four bogeys.

“It’s my first time here; it’s really cool,” Kent said of the Lake Course that hosted the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open. “It kicks you in the teeth whenever you don’t hit a good shot and it rewards you when you hit a good shot. But it’s hard.”

Both stroke day rounds were played in cool, overcast conditions with temperatures reaching the mid-60s.

Kent was never in contention. His opening round of 74 placed him eight shots behind first-day leaders Tommy Morrison of Dallas and Charlie Forster of England, both of whom shot 4-under 66s.

“I felt like I’ve been doing the right thing and playing well in the tournaments,” Kent said. “I just haven’t been able to get the putts to go in. That’s the hard game.”

Kent was runner-up in the 2024 U.S. Amateur to Jose Luis Ballester of Spain after overcoming a fourhole deficit and extending the championship match to the 36th hole.

He joined the Gators following two seasons at the University of Iowa. The 6-foot-4 golfer shot a career- low round 63 while at Iowa, tied for the second-lowest round in school history.

Kent’s best collegiate performance came at the 2024 Fighting Irish Intercollegiate, where he finished fifth.

“I’m just looking forward to getting back with the boys,” said Kent, who didn’t compete in the last collegiate season. “It’s been an OK summer; I just really haven’t gotten the ball in the hole recently.”

Nick Solimene, Ty Kaufman, Jake Marriott and David Morgan, all of Naples, advanced through the first round of this year’s qualifying but didn’t advance into the finale at The Olympic Club.