COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a protracted day when it felt every thing was going improper, Cameron Younger birdied three of his final 4 holes Monday to get right into a 5-for-1 playoff after which made a 12-foot birdie to earn his spot within the U.S. Open in two weeks at Oakmont.
The drama went coast-to-coast, and even north of the border into Canada, with 47 locations out there at 10 qualifying websites to fill the sector for the main regarded the hardest take a look at in golf.
Younger superior together with his clutch play, whereas Rickie Fowler was eradicated with a bogey.
Younger, already enduring a troublesome 12 months that compelled him to do a 36-hole qualifier, hit 9-iron to eight ft for birdie on the fifteenth, birdied the par-5 sixteenth after which hit wedge to 18 inches on the ultimate gap to earn a spot within the 5-for-1 playoff.
“I really feel like I confirmed myself one thing as we speak,” he mentioned. “For thus lengthy as we speak I noticed nothing go in.”
The playoff started on the tenth gap, and Younger hit driver into the left tough and judged his wedge completely to 12 ft beneath the outlet.
“I began my day right here 12 hours in the past and made a 3, so I attempted to do it once more,” he mentioned.
Erik van Rooyen opened with a 64 at Kinsale and had no hassle attending to Oakmont for the U.S. Open on June 12-15. He wound up six pictures forward of the sector. Different qualifiers had been Bud Cauley, Lanto Griffin, Justin Decrease and Harrison Ott, at No. 2,651 on the planet rating.
Cauley is No. 56 on the planet, and is more likely to keep within the high 60 after the Canadian Open and get in by that class. If that occurs, Chase Johnson would get to his first U.S. Open. He received the playoff for the 2 alternate spots with Eric Cole.
Within the different Ohio qualifier in Springfield, Zac Blair received a 4-for-1 playoff for the final spot by outlasting John Peterson, a former PGA Tour participant who retired after which requested to be reinstated as an beginner.
The 4 spots from the Florida qualifier didn’t end due to a rain delay.
Three of the 5 spots from the Atlanta qualifier went to amateurs, with 17-year-old Mason Howell main the best way. The highschool junior performed bogey-free for an 18-under 126. Additionally qualifying was Jackson Koivun of Auburn, who already has locked up a PGA Tour card, and Florida State sophomore Tyler Weaver.
Qualifiers in Toronto and North Carolina every supplied seven spots — the PGA Tour is in Canada this week and the Korn Ferry Tour is in its Carolinas swing.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark and Emiliano Grillo of Argentina had been among the many seven qualifiers in Canada, the place Kevin Velo led the sector. In North Carolina, Zach Bauchou led the seven gamers who received into Oakmont. Bauchou was within the Ohio qualifier two years in the past when he had his school roommate – Viktor Hovland – caddie for him a day after Hovland received the Memorial.
A lot of the LIV Golf gamers who tried to qualify — or considered it, anyway — had been competing for 4 spots in Maryland. Marc Leishman of Australia, who has not certified for a significant the final two years since becoming a member of LIV, beat out fellow LIV participant Sebastián Muñoz to earn one of many 4 spots.
Fifteen gamers from LIV initially had been within the Maryland subject. 5 didn’t flip in playing cards when it was clear they would not make it — commonplace for tour gamers — whereas 5 withdrew earlier than it started, together with Bubba Watson and Lee Westwood.
The Related Press contributed to this story.
