U.S. Open Qualifying Stories from Golf's Longest Day(s)

Golf’s Longest Day earned its title as Monday’s final qualifying for the U.S. Open at Oakmont spilled over into Tuesday. Ten sites across the U.S. and Canada held 36-hole qualifiers to decide 47 open spots in the field at Oakmont. Here are some of the highlights:

It’s rare when amateurs get top billing, but there were too many good notes from Monday and Tuesday’s action to lead with the professionals. Nine amateurs played their way into the U.S. Open, with four taking medalist or co-medalist honors: Frankie Harris (co-medalist), Mason Howell (co-medalist), Benjamin James, Jackson Koivun, Bryan Lee, Zachery Pollo, Preston Summerhays (medalist), Matt Vogt (medalist), and Tyler Weaver.

The story of the event was Vogt, who won the Walla Walla, Washington, qualifier. A practicing dentist in Indiana and former Oakmont caddie who lost his father two months ago, the Pittsburgh native (No. 1,173 in the world amateur ranking) will head home and tee it up in what will be an emotional return. Three of the nine amateurs qualified in Atlanta, led by Howell, a high school junior who tied for low medalist honors with rounds of 63-63.

An additional seven amateurs missed qualification by one shot or a playoff: Clark Sonnenberg, John Peterson, Rudy Sautron, Miles Russell, Bryan Kim, Garrett Engle, and Luke Poulter. To tweak a famous PGA Tour slogan, these kids are good.

Now to the pros. Cameron Young won a five-for-one playoff, taking down Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Eric Cole, and Chase Johnson to get the last spot in Columbus, Ohio. A second-round 66 wasn’t enough for Padraig Harrington, who finished a shot outside of the playoff after a first-round 74. Nearly seven years to the day of his car accident at the Memorial that led to a three-year hiatus from golf, Bud Cauley qualified in Columbus, of all places, for his third U.S. Open and first since 2017.

Zac Blair and Maxwell Moldovan are in a battle for the Joe Quimby Award, aka the Mayor of Springfield (shoutout Brendan Porath for that joke), as the pair have become mainstays at the Springfield, Ohio, qualifier. Both advanced this year, but Blair, last year’s medalist in Springfield, had to do so via a playoff.

Let’s check in on LIV Golf. One of the few players on the 54 Tour who didn’t withdraw from the qualifier in Rockville, Maryland, Marc Leishman punched his ticket and joined fellow LIV players Carlos Ortiz and Jinichiro Kozuma, who qualified on May 19 in Dallas and Japan, respectively. Sebastian Munoz, Cameron Tringale, and Peter Uihlein are alternates.

Carlos’ brother, Alvaro Ortiz, who plays on the Korn Ferry Tour, was one of seven qualifiers in Durham, North Carolina.

Once again, Golf Channel did a great job covering all 10 sites this year. The reporters on the ground are knowledgeable about the players in the field, and the emotional post-round interviews remind us why these open championships are special. Plus, it's nice to see a little meritocracy these days in professional golf.

Final Qualifying Results By Location

Not In His League

By Will Knights

This weekend, "Inside the NBA" signed off on TNT for the final time and will transition to ESPN this fall. A roundtable of elite former players and Ernie Johnson has given the show more than 20 years of laughs, takes, and, most importantly, honesty. As analysts, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal are as refreshing as they come. This frankness has built trust over the years with fans, even if players aren’t always thrilled to hear criticism.

Compare that show to the world of golf and you see an ecosystem that has long been missing in honesty. Like him or hate him, Brandel Chamblee is a former player largely willing to say how he really feels. But while Brandel has the microphone, he doesn’t have the resume of other top players. A man who does have the resume? Jack Nicklaus.

"Ben Griffin's a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player,” Nicklaus said on Sunday at Muirfield Village. “[Scottie Scheffler] knows those guys are not in his league."

Jack’s quote earned him a lot of run on social media as fans rushed to fawn over the mic drop moment. But he didn’t mean it as one, he was just speaking honestly. It’s certainly how he felt as a player, and it’s the same mindset Tiger Woods had in his prime.

These frank moments are valuable. To golf fans, they signal how one of the best to ever do it feels about the current state of golf. We can all give players like Taylor, Straka, and Griffin their flowers, but there is a refocusing that happens when someone like Jack Nicklaus gives this kind of honest assessment. Scottie is the dude right now, and it’s a disservice to say that anyone but a few players should be considered as a threat.

This isn’t to say that golf media needs more honesty like Ernie and the gang provide. What we could use are more routine opinions from former experienced players. The quiet part can be said out loud, and certain voices amplify that sound more than others.

‍This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.