​Carter Loflin has leaned on Merion caddie Jack Hopkins this week at the U.S. AmGetty ImagesARDMORE, Pa. — Carter Loflin doesn’t know the answer to the question. He’s standing outside the Merion clubhouse, having just punched his ticket to the U.S. Amateur semifinals after a 3&2 win over Brandon Knight, but unlike the rest of this week at Merion, he doesn’t have a cheat code that’s available only to him. “I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Loflin said. “I feel like I’m a good player. I feel like I’m definitely capable of doing this type of stuff, but I can’t say that it hasn’t helped me having like a positive voice on my shoulder the entire time. Yeah, it’s hard to say.”All week, when Loflin has found himself in a spot of bother or flummoxed by the tough questions Merion has asked of the world’s top amateurs, he has leaned on his caddie, Jack Hopkins. Hopkins started caddying at Merion when he was 12 years old. He is now in his 35th year carrying bags at the famed Hugh Wilson design and has helped guide Loflin to an unexpected semifinal berth in the Georgia senior’s first-ever U.S. Amateur appearance. As other top amateurs struggled to get out of stroke play, Loflin shot three under over the first two days of stroke play to claim the No. 8 seed. He easily dispatched Greyson Wood in the Round of 64 and rolled up Wolfgang Glawe in the Round of 32, while Hopkins helped unearth all of Merion’s secrets to keep the 22-year-old in the fight. It’s a superpower to have someone like Hopkins on the bag. A superpower that Loflin acquired thanks to a stroke of fate. During a scouting trip to Merion in July, Hopkins was added to Loflin’s group. After the round, Loflin went to the Merion caddie master and asked if there was any way he could get Hopkins on his bag for this week’s grueling U.S. Amateur exam. Getting to walk with Hopkins this week has been an unquantifiable advantage for Loflin, helping him go from under-the-radar contender to one of Merion’s Final Four. “He’s helped me immensely,” Loflin said on Saturday. “I was telling somebody out there, I was like, this must be what Scottie [Scheffler] feels like having Ted Scott on his bag. Before he even tees up his ball, he knows he’s going to save two or three strokes somewhere today. Maybe. It might not be that much if you just stripe it. But you feel like you’re saving shots before you even start, which is like just such a big confidence builder because it takes so much pressure off of you feeling like you have to play your A-game. “But he knows this place so well. He’s an incredible green reader, and he’s a very calming influence. He doesn’t talk very much. He’s very quiet, which I like because I talk a lot. I’ll talk to you if I’m pissed off or if I’m happy. It’s nice for me to have a caddie that doesn’t quite talk as much because he’s more — just like whenever he says stuff, it really means something. If he tells me no,