When the U.S. Open finally comes to life next week at Oakmont with its ice-slick greens and its jungle-thick tangle of rough, the attention will naturally gravitate to Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the other A-listers who tend to define their careers by major championship success.
The U.S. Open prides itself on being the meanest championship in golf, making no apologies for being as unrelenting as an Arizona summer while attracting 10,202 qualifying applicants who signed up this year with the hope of earning the right to be cuffed around at Oakmont, where the members wear the course’s difficulty as a badge of honor.
The USGA likes to boast about the national championship being golf’s version of a meritocracy, open to anyone capable of qualifying (provided of course they have a handicap index of 0.4 or lower) and it’s true.
It asks a simple question – can you play well enough to qualify?
Just qualifying for the U.S. Open is perhaps the hardest part and Monday (with two sites spilling over into Tuesday morning) was the culmination of that with 47 spots available to the players still standing after local qualifying.
To understand how much it matters, here’s what James Nicholas told Golf Channel after securing his spot at Oakmont by shooting 67-68 at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey, on Monday.
“I’ve had this circled on my calendar for years. When I was 15 and got through locals my first time, I was just a kid with a dream. I was so raw. I was never going to make it but you never know. I told myself one day I’m going to play in a major championship and one day I’m going to win a major championship and this is that first step,” Nicholas said, the emotion evident in his voice.
“I’m playing on the Korn Ferry Tour this year and it’s so hard. There are so many good golfers. To have this day be like, OK, this is my day – I played awesome – it’s just really special. I know it resets and now you’ve actually got to go prepare for a U.S. Open. That’s a much different beast but I’m just really thrilled with everything right now.”
Consider some of the players who didn’t survive Monday. Stewart Cink. Zach Johnson. Webb Simpson. Harold Varner III. Alex Smalley. Tom McKibbin. Keith Mitchell. Luke Clanton. Rickie Fowler. Max Homa. Eric Cole.
For anyone who questions how good a player must be to succeed at the highest level, what is called the longest day in golf is a sweat-stained, 36-hole marathon which tests not only a player’s skill but his stamina and, ultimately, his determination.
Nicholas is 28 and played golf at Yale after picking the game up late. He’s good enough to be on the Korn Ferry Tour but missing seven cuts in 13 starts this year is a punch-in-the-nose reminder of how thin the air gets the higher a player goes.
Consider some of the players who didn’t survive Monday.
Stewart Cink. Zach Johnson. Webb Simpson. Harold Varner III. Alex Smalley. Tom McKibbin. Keith Mitchell. Luke Clanton. Rickie Fowler. Max Homa. Eric Cole.
There are plenty of others whose names pop up on PGA Tour leaderboards from time to time who have next week off because they couldn’t find what they needed Monday, but it comes with the territory.
Homa, a six-time PGA Tour winner, carried his own bag for 36 holes Monday after splitting with his second caddie in less than two months and found himself in a 5-for-1 playoff in Columbus, Ohio, with Fowler, Cole, Chase Johnson and Cameron Young, who ultimately birdied the first extra hole to book his spot at Oakmont.
Had Homa made a short putt on his 36th hole Monday he could have avoided the drama and the heartache but he didn’t. After Young earned the guaranteed spot in the playoff, the others kept playing to potentially get in as alternates and Homa four-putted that hole, adding one more chapter to his strange season.
On the flip side, Zac Blair holed a 30-foot putt on the first playoff hole in Springfield, Ohio, to stay alive and won his spot on the fourth extra hole with a dart to kick-in range.
Meanwhile, 17-year old Mason Howell – a high school junior – shot 63-63 at Piedmont Driving Club outside Atlanta to lock down his Oakmont spot and Matt Vogt, a full-time dentist in Indiana, went to Walla Walla, Washington, and played his way into the field, thereby allowing him to play the U.S. Open where he caddied as a youngster.
While next week will probably belong to the familiar faces, Monday belonged to guys like Harrison Ott, Kevin Velo, Zach Bauchou, Alistair Docherty and George Duangmanee, who earned their spots the hard way.
The U.S. Open way.