A day after Scottie Scheffler took over his third-place Grand Slam at the PGA Championship, the 156ers in the U.S. Open began to take shape, adding 27 players to the world rankings on Monday and qualifiers were held on three continents.
Since 1999, the field will no longer include Sergio Garcia.
Garcia’s last loophole in the 36-hole match in Dallas qualifying match resulted in a 7-1 playoff killing him in the seventh place. Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson led seven qualifiers including Carlos Ortiz, who came in with his last cave bird.
36 others were exempt from qualifying. Among them are Davis Riley and Joe Highsmith, who both performed well in the final round of the PGA Championship to make the top 60 in the world.
The U.S. Open is held June 12-15 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where Dustin Johnson won his first major. Johnson competed in a practice match with 19-year-old Scheffler, who made his debut at the age of 19. Scheffler opened with 69 and then shot 78, missing out on the layoffs.
Liv Golf added five players to the court when Jinichiro Kozuma was one of three players who qualified through the Japanese qualifiers and Ortiz in Bent Tree in Dallas. Joaquín Niemann was added as the leading player in LIV points, while 60 Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed in the world added.
The majority of final qualifications are scheduled to be held in the United States and Canada on June 2.
The field of exempt players – not including qualified sites – is 85 players, a little higher than normal players than the U.S. Open, which strives to qualify about half of the field (78 players).
Riley, Gosmith, Jonathan Vegas and Sivo King all made the 60th place in the world in the last week. Riley took three bogeys on the seventh hole. He was 4 years old at that time, but had no bogey on the rest of the way ahead of second place.
That’s enough to move him from No. 53 to No. 53 to the top 60. Ibid, Highsmith bogeyed with three birdies in the last 12 holes, lifting nine positions to No. 60.
This hit Laurie Canter, though he was exempted for being the highest-ranked player on the roster that was not yet qualified for the European Tour.
The NCAA men’s individual champion is the only other exemption location, which will be confirmed on May 26 at La Costa Resort, California.
