The unusual situation happened at Dallas Athletic Club during a six-way playoff for the ninth and final spot available in the field next month at Shinnecock Hills. But after current LIV golfer Caleb Surratt birdied the first extra hole, there were still two alternate spots to play for.

That’s when Eugenio Chacarra decided to leave the premises, forfeiting his chance of getting into the U.S. Open. Monday Q Info’s Ryan French originally reported the bizarre scene.

According to a few people. Very odd scenario in the 6 for 1 playoff.

On the first hole Caleb Surratt made birdie to win. The other five players made par and moved on to play for 1st and 2nd alt. Both VERY important at this site.

And Eugenio Chacarra just left. Not sure what…

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) May 19, 2026

But on Chacarra, who now plays on the DP World Tour after three years on LIV, responded to explain why he left. And it makes more sense.

I left because my goal it’s to get my pga tour card through the Dp tour and for me to prepare Belgium the right way was to get that flight.
When you fly to Europe you lose one day and that’s was the only chance I had to get there on time to get some rest and practice the course

— Eugenio Chacarra (@Eugeniochacarra) May 19, 2026

As you can see, he had a flight to Belgium that he wanted to make in order to get there in time to prepare properly for this week’s DP World Tour event, the Soudal Open. And that his bigger focus is earning his PGA Tour card by being in the top 10 of that circuit.

Chacarra also explained that he chose the Dallas site instead of Walton Heath in England because he lives in Tulsa, doesn’t prefer links golf, and qualified for the 2024 U.S. Open in Dallas. So, again, his abrupt departure makes more sense, but it was still a strange sight.

Chandler Phillips and Henrik Norlander earned the first- and second-alternate spots in Dallas, while Peter Uihlein was medalist, one shot ahead of Tom Kim.

Chacarra is currently No. 18 on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai ranking, but several players above him already have PGA Tour status for next year. Recent Truist Championship winner Kristoffer Reitan is an example of one such player who used that category to come to the PGA Tour.

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Eighty-seven golfers earned exemptions into the full field for the USGA’s marquee championship. That group includes several golfers who earned exemptions in categories with a cutoff of May 19 (top 60 in World Rankings, top spots on FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai points lists, along with a first-ever exemption for one player from the LIV Golf League who ranks among the top three in league’s individual standings and isn’t already in the field.

In April, the USGA announced that it received a record 10,202 entries for this year’s event, breaking the previous mark of 10,187 set in 2023 for the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. This is the fourth time the USGA has gotten more than 10,000 entries. All those not fully exempt had to compete in Local and/or Final Qualifying to earn a place into the 156-player field at Oakmont.

Local Qualifying was conducted over 18 holes at 110 sites in 43 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico, taking place from April 16-May 19. Those players who advanced joined a group of locally exempt players in Final Qualifying, which was conducted over 36 holes at 10 U.S. and three international sites. The final stage was held in England, Japan and Texas on May 19, with 10 more qualifying sites on Monday, June 2: two in Ohio and one each in California, Florida (which was recently moved to Emerald Dunes Club, in West Palm Beach), Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington and Canada.

Among the entries, the nine most recent U.S. Open winners are all fully exempt for this year, as is 2009 winner Lucas Glover and 2013 winner Justin Rose (top 60 in the OWGR). Two other past U.S. Open winners—Graeme McDowell (2010) and Webb Simpson (2012)—filed entries and played in Final Qualifying.

During the nine previous U.S. Opens held at Oakmont, some of the game’s greatest players have claimed the title, including Tommy Armour (1927), Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1962) and Johnny Miller (1973). Most recently, Dustin Johnson won at Oakmont in 2016 by three shots despite being hit with a penalty at the end of his final round after his ball was found to move on a green earlier in the day. As an anchor site for the U.S. Open, Oakmont has already been named site for the 2033, 2042 and 2049 U.S. Open along with several other USGA championships.

Below is the final 156-player list, everybody who was either fully exempt into the Oakmont field or who qualified via Final Qualifying.

Players

Exemption Categories

1: Winners of the U.S. Open the last 10 years

2: From the 2024 U.S. Open, the 10 lowest scorers and anyone tying for 10th place

3: Winner of the 2024 U.S. Senior Open

4: Winner of the 2024 U.S. Amateur

5: Winners of the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur, and the 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up (must be an amateur)

6: Winners of the Masters Tournament (2020-2025)

7: Winners of the PGA Championship (2021-2025)

8: Winners of The Open (2021-2024)

9: Winners of The Players Championship (2023-2025)

10: Winner of the 2024 BMW PGA Championship (DP World Tour)

11: Those players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2024 Tour Championship

12: Multiple winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the FedExCup, from the conclusion of the 2024 U.S. Open to the initiation of the 2025 U.S. Open

13: The top 5 players in the 2025 FedExCup standings as of May 19 not otherwise exempt

14: The points leader from the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season

15: The top two players from the final 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings as of May 19 not otherwise exempt

16: The top player on the 2025 Race to Dubai Rankings as of May 19 not otherwise exempt

17: Winner of the 2024 British Amateur (must be an amateur)

18: Winner of the 2024 Mark H. McCormack Medal (Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking) (must be an amateur)

19: Winner of the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Individual Golf Championship (must be an amateur)

20: Winner of the 2025 Latin America Amateur Championship (must be an amateur)

21: From the current Official World Golf Rankings, the top 60 points leaders and ties as of May 19.

22: From the current Official World Golf Rankings, the top 60 points leaders and ties as of June 9

23: Winner of the 2024 Olympic Gold Medal

24: The top player who is not otherwise exempt and in the top 3 of the 2025 LIV Golf Individual Standings as of May 19

25: Special exemptions selected by the USGA. Deadline for submission of request: May 15

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Six-time PGA Tour winner Max Homa carried his own bag for 36 holes—and then some—Monday in a U.S. Open final qualifier and then opted to not disclose the reason why he did it. He did drop a clue or two, however.

Homa, who has fallen from a career-high of sixth in the world, to 90th, lugged a black carry bag with his name, “MAX,” on the lower back pocket at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club after competing this past weekend in the Memorial Tournament at nearby Muirfield Village Golf Club. After a promising four-under 68 in the opening round at the Memorial, a signature event on the tour, Homa struggled the final three days and closed with a 77 to end T-51 at 11-over 299.

His caddie since he and Joe Greiner parted ways before the Masters has been Bill Harke, but Harke did not come to Kinsale. Homa declined several offers to carry his bag, and he did not ask Kinsale if it could supply him with a caddie.

Asked if he had split with Harke, Homa replied, “I’d much rather talk about the golf than all the questions about the caddie.”

The golf was decent for Homa on day that began cool and a bit breezy and gave way to warm sunshine, but the California native gave away shots at the end of each round. He bogeyed his final two holes in the morning for a three-under 69 and then set himself up to advance without a playoff when he reached the par-5 ninth hole in two on what was his 18th hole of his second round. From 25 feet, his hard-breaking left-to-right putt wandered six feet left and below the hole. He then pulled the birdie putt, settling for a 70 and five-under 139 total.

This is what Golf's Longest Day is all about!

6x @PGATOUR winner Max Homa out here grinding 36 holes with his own bag on his back in an effort to play in his sixth-consecutive U.S. Open. pic.twitter.com/B3HsB33Znc

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 2, 2025

He headed for a five-player playoff for one spot at the end of regulation that included fellow tour members Rickie Fowler, Eric Cole and Cameron Young, who also completed 72 holes in the Memorial, and journeyman pro Chase Johnson, a product of Barberton, Ohio and Kent State University. Young made birdie on the first playoff hole to advance. Homa moved on to a second playoff hole to determine the first alternate—and a likely spot at Oakmont—and four-putted the hole.

“That’s going to be probably painful,” Homa said before the, well, painful, playoff. “I haven’t carried my bag 36 holes in a while so I’m a little tired. I would assume college [was the last time]. Good thing is I played decent. I was on the line [for qualifying], so kind of the day flew by, but then when I missed that putt on 18 on the last hole, it all kind of hit and my legs are a little bit tired.

“A playoff will be lovely,” he said facetiously.

Asked how his attitude held up, Homa, 34, gave the only clue to why he toured Kinsale solo.

“Pretty good. Seems to be better than when someone’s standing next to me, for some reason, so I might need to just walk by myself more,” he said. “Maybe I just looked at it as a nice peaceful day by myself. Probably got to battle some demons and just kind of have nobody to lean on. So sometimes maybe that helps a little bit. There’s no one to … it’s just everything’s me. So just kind of like the battle of that maybe helped a little bit.”

Ranked 110th in the FedEx Cup standings, Homa is entered in this week’s RBC Canadian Open, where he can likely climb into the top 60 in the world rankings with a victory. Any player in the top 60 not otherwise eligible earns a berth into the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Homa has missed the cut in five of his six U.S. Open appearances.

Pressed one last time why he carried his own bag Monday, Homa didn’t budge. “I wanted to carry for 36 holes,” he said, flatly, and walked away.

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Gooch, a three-time winner on the LIV Tour, was in a tour-pro-packed field at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, Texas on Monday. There were seven spots up for grabs and 86 players taking on the 36-hole qualifier. Names like Sergio Garcia, Carlos Ortiz, Adam Schenk, Doug Ghim and Abraham Ancer, among others, were all on site.

RELATED: Sergio Garcia fails to qualify for U.S. Open, streak of appearances ends at 25

Gooch lasted all of 15 holes, bowing out before reaching the par-5 16th. To that point he had made just one birdie and two bogeys, putting him at one over par, not completely out of the mix but certainly giving him an uphill climb if he wanted to finish in the top seven. Rather than gut it out, Gooch was marked as DNF, otherwise known as “did not finish.”

The 33-year-old was not the only tour pro to receive the DNF moniker, and not the only one to walk off during the first round. 2023 Valspar winner Taylor Moore walked off after going out in five-over 40 on his front nine. Joel Dahmen, who opened with a five-under 66, struggled in his second round and left after 14 holes. Kevin Yu, who shot 69 in Round 1, also did not finish his second round.

The score needed to qualify wound up being seven under over 36 holes, with Gooch’s fellow LIV golfer Carlos Ortiz among the seven qualifiers. PGA Tour players James Hahn and Adam Schenk also qualified, as did Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, who earned medalist honours at 11 under.

By not advancing, Gooch remains stuck on just two U.S. Opens played in his entire career. One came in 2017, when he finished 66th at Erin Hills, and the other in 2022, when he missed the cut at Brookline. In 2023, he was not in the field at LACC despite believing he qualified due to a questionable rules tweak from the USGA. A year later, when asked if he’d attempt to go through qualifying for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Gooch infamously said “I’m not.”

The internet, as you might imagine, is already making the easy joke that the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont now has an asterisk with Gooch not in the field, a call back to an even more infamous Gooch quote about the 2024 Masters having an asterisk since he and other LIV golfers would not be in the field. Of course, there will be no more asterisks starting with the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock, the USGA announcing this past February that it will be opening new pathways into the national championship for LIV golfers. If Gooch “plays better,” as they say, his future U.S. Open dreams are still alive.

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It was an impressive run for Sergio Garcia, but after competing in each of the last 25 straight U.S. Opens, his streak has ended. Garcia bogeyed his 36th hole of the day Monday during U.S. Open qualifying at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas and it pushed him one shot short of being in a large playoff for the final spot. He shot 65-71 to end at six-under total.

Garcia, 45, lost in a playoff last year to advance to Pinehurst No. 2 but ultimately got into the field as an alternate. He then tied for 12th place in North Carolina and has posted five top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open during his career. His best finish was a third-place tie in 2005, also at Pinehurst, where he was five shots behind Michael Campbell. His last top-10 finish in a major, oddly enough, came at the 2017 Masters, which he won.

Last week, Garcia tied for 67th place at the PGA Championship. It was there where he lamented his poor form, telling reporters that he needed to play better in order to be in the mix for a Ryder Cup pick in September at Bethpage Black.

“Obviously the way I’m playing, even if Luke [Donald] offered me a pick right now, I would tell him no,” Garcia said Sunday after the final round at Quail Hollow. “So obviously I need to get better. I need to get more where I was just before the Masters. You know, just show myself and show everyone that my game is solid, and it can help the Team Europe. It’s as simple as that.”

Garcia has 11 PGA Tour titles, 16 European Tour wins and two LIV Golf victories, including one in March in Hong Kong. He is fourth in the league’s season-long individual standings.

Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard Petersen was the medalist in Dallas after shooting 66-65 for an 11-under total and will be at Oakmont June 12-15 in Pennsylvania. James Hahn and Adam Schenk tied for second place. Hahn, 43, is a two-time PGA Tour winner but hasn’t played in a major since the 2018 PGA Championship. Schenk will play in his fourth consecutive U.S. Open, having missed the cut each of the last two years.

Some of the notables who missed out on qualifying in Texas were Alejandro Tosti, Peter Malnati, Cameron Champ, Austin Eckroat, Caleb Surratt, Charley Hoffman, Abe Ancer, Kevin Chappell, Joel Dahmen, Pierceson Coody and Talor Gooch.

Edoardo Molinari, Luke Donald’s vice captain for the 2023 and 2025 Ryder Cups, qualified for the U.S. Open in England – Richard Heathcote

There were qualifiers in England and Japan too.

At Walton Heath Golf Club in England, Englishman Jordan Smith was the medalist as eight players, including Edoardo Molinari, snagged the last spot in a playoff. The 44-year-old from Italy was a vice captain for Luke Donald in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome and will be again this year in New York. He qualified for the U.S. Open last year and was thrilled to do so again for Oakmont.

“It feels fantastic,” Molinari said. “When you get to my age you have to relish the opportunity. I’m really looking forward to it.

“It’s a proper U.S. Open test. I’m keen to go there and see what I can do.”

Molinari’s brother, Francesco, the 2018 British Open champion, was among those who did not qualify. Adrian Meronk, Sam Horsfield, Alex Fitzpatrick and Haotong Li were others who did not advance.

Yuta Sugiura, Scott Vincent and Jinichiro Kozuma advanced in the qualifier at Tarao Country Club in Japan. Vincent played the last two full seasons with LIV Golf but found himself in the Drop Zone last year. He’s played mostly in the Asian Tour’s International Series this year. Kozuma also played last season on LIV Golf and has only played in the last two events with the league this year.

Ryo Ishikawa is among the notables to have missed out on advancing to the U.S. Open from the Japan site.

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Reed was listed in the field for a sectional qualifier at Dallas Athletic Club, but never teed off. According to the USGA, a person WDing from a qualifier can’t try to qualify at a different site on a later date.

That means Reed will not be at Pinehurst No. 2 next month, ending a decade-plus run of playing in golf’s four biggest events. Reed has played in every major since the 2014 Masters.

The 2018 Masters champ was coming off a T-53 at the PGA Championship. According to Golf Channel, Reed would have needed to finish third at Valhalla to crack the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking and earn a spot in the U.S. Open.

Reed plays for LIV Golf, which does not receive world ranking points. He’s currently No. 92, thanks in large part to finishing T-12 at the Masters in April.

As a past champion, Reed has a lifetime exemption into the Masters. The PGA gave him a special exemption to play at Valhalla.

Sergio Garcia, a fellow LIV golfer, competed in the 36-hole qualifier at Dallas Athletic Club, barely missing out on a spot after losing a seven-for-six playoff. The 2017 Masters champ is an alternate for the U.S. Open, an event he’s played 24 consecutive years.

The 2024 U.S. Open is scheduled for June 13-16 at Pinehurst No. 2.

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Garcia, 44, shot an opening 66 at Dallas Athletic Club and was in prime position to advance late in the second round but he made a double-bogey on the par-5 16th after finding the water. He shot 73, which put him into a seven-man playoff for the final six spots. He made bogey in the playoff and was the lone man out.

However, Garcia is listed as an alternate, so there is still a chance that he could get the nod to play once the dust settles over the next three weeks. He has two second-place finishes this year with LIV Golf and missed the cut at the Masters.

BREAKING:

Sergio with the first group of the playoff has BOGEYED.

Brandon Wu birdied and McGowan made a par.

Now Sergio must wait to see if someone will bogey or worse or he will be OUT of the US Open pic.twitter.com/QCOt2kIe2z

— Will Driver (@williamdriver34) May 21, 2024

Kevin Streelman, Abraham Ancer, Scott Piercy, Caleb Surratt, Vincent Norrman, Lanto Griffin, Ryan Moore and Cam Champ were among others who did not qualify in Dallas.

Meanwhile, Nico Echavarria, the 2023 Puerto Rico Open winner, was medalist at seven-under total. Francesco Molinari, the 2018 British Open champion, shot 68-70 to advance and finish one shot better than those in the playoff.

While Francesco was in Texas, older brother Edoardo qualified at Walton Heath Golf Club in England. Edoardo shot 67-69 for an eight-under-par total. He was an assistant captain to Luke Donald in last year’s European Ryder Cup team and has already been announced as returning for Donald next year at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. He hasn’t played in a major since the 2021 U.S. Open.

Grant Forrest, Richard Mansell and Brandon Robinson Thompson all tied for the lead in England. Robert Rock, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour who is now 47 and announced his retirement from professional golf two years ago, shot 66 in his second round to take one of the nine spots.

Rock was once ranked as high as 55th in the world and was surprised he played so well.

“I was coming for my last chance really at playing this event,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity just to see where my game was, having not been out here for a couple years. I’ll just come and see where I fit.

2022: Announced retirement from professional golf
2024: Qualifies for the U.S. Open

A fantastic achievement for Robert Rock pic.twitter.com/DJeH6m3Oo8

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 20, 2024

He also noted that his back has been ailing him for a while and that he rarely plays more than nine holes at a time.

“I didn’t think I’d make 36,” said Rock, who made 12 birdies on the day. “It’s amazing what a few putts do. It keeps you going, doesn’t it?”

Matteo Manassero was another who advanced out of England. Now 31, the former teen standout from Italy, rebounded with a 65 in his second round Monday. He tied for 13th place at the British Open in 2009 as a 16-year-old, made the cut at the Masters the following year and was ranked as high as 25th in world when he was 20. After years of struggles, Manassero won on the DP World Tour earlier this year, his first victory on that tour in a decade.

Ryo Ishikawa (66-65) and Riki Kawamoto (68-63) shared medalist honors at Hino Golf Club in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Ishikawa won on the Japan Tour when he was 15 years old, was once ranked as high at 29th in the world and has played in seven U.S. Opens. He tied for 63rd last year at Los Angeles Country Club.

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How lovely it was, then, to ride the emotional roller coaster of “golf’s longest day.” The USGA successfully staged nine qualifiers across the United States on Monday, and those, in addition to May 24 qualifiers in Japan and Dallas completed this year’s process of narrowing down the 8,680 players who signed up for Local Qualifying to the 60 men who earned their tickets to Torrey Pines.

That is, they almost completed it. Storms in Columbus, Ohio, delayed play at that über-stacked site—with the Memorial finishing Sunday in the area, it’s chalk-filled with PGA Tour pros—for more than three hours, which will force the contenders to return Tuesday morning to finish things off. With that in mind, here are the seven most intriguing storylines to emerge from final qualifying, at least so far.

Cameron Young is giving us some serious Will Zalatoris vibes
Young, a 24-year-old graduate of Wake Forest, should not move a muscle. Because, as we learned in “The Hangover,” you never walk away from the table when you’re on a heater.

The torrid stretch began out of nowhere three weeks ago, when he won the Korn Ferry Tour’s AdventHealth Championship—which came right after he missed five cuts in his previous six starts. Young followed it with a five-shot victory at the Evans Scholars Invitational to put himself one win short of earning the ultra-rare Battlefield Promotion to the PGA Tour, and giving himself a chance to become the first player to win three Korn Ferry events in back-to-back-to-back weeks. It wasn’t to be at last week’s Rex Hospital Open; he finished T-78 before boarding a flight back home to New York. Young is something of a Met section hero, having won everything there is to win in the area as an amateur. He added another chapter to his local-legend status by shooting 67 at Old Oaks Country Club and 66 at Century Country Club to breeze to medalist honours. This is the second time he’s played his way into the U.S. Open, having done so in 2019. (He shot 75-76 at Pebble Beach to miss the cut).

Ed Zurga

Young’s run is bringing to mind another Korn Ferry star out of Wake Forest who caught a heater and rode it to stardom: Will Zalatoris, who got a spot into last year’s Open with his play on the KFT, then finished T-6—and, well, you know the rest.

Branden Grace rides the momentum from Muirfield
He’s the only man in golf history to shoot 62 in a major championship. He’s won 14 events around the world and two on the PGA Tour, including the Puerto Rico Open earlier this year. He’s appeared in the top 10 of the World Ranking and played on three International Presidents Cup teams. He has two top-five finishes in U.S. Opens. He’s squarely in his prime at 33 years old. He finished fourth in the Memorial the day before. And yet there Branden Grace was on Monday morning, playing in a 36-hole qualifier, a reminder that professional golf is a meritocracy.

In a stroke of good fortune, the qualifier took place at The Bear’s Club, where heaps of touring pros are members—including Patrick Rodgers, who took medalist honours, and Grace, who shot 70-72 to squeak in on the number. He’ll now tee it up in his seventh straight U.S. Open, although this one came a bit more difficult than the others.

Akshay Bhatia, still just 19, continues to show signs

In an age when nearly every great American junior spends at least some time in college, Bhatia raised quite a few eyebrows when the phenom eschewed that option in favour of turning professional as a 17-year-old. After a rough first year-plus as a pro, he’s slowly beginning to find his footing. Last fall, he finished T-9 at the Safeway Open. This February, he became the first player since 2008 to hit all 18 greens at Pebble Beach in the first round of the AT&T, eventually finishing T-30.

The rail-thin 19-year-old lefty will now get his first crack at a major after getting through a 3-for-1 playoff at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, S.C. His first-round 65 was the low round of the day, then he held on for dear life in shooting two-over 73 in the second round, then got up-and-down on the first playoff hole to stay alive, then parred the second to crush the hopes of Ben Martin and Zack Sucher.

Brian Stuard has to run for mayor of Springfield, Ohio

Harry How

Getting through one Final Qualifying to advance to the U.S. Open is hard. It’s a long day, it’s hot, and there’s significant pressure.

Brian Stuard missed the memo. The 38-year-old, whose one win on the PGA Tour was a rain-shortened Zurich Classic in 2016, qualified from the Springfield site for the fourth straight time (minus last year, when there was no qualifier) and sixth overall. No, seriously. The world No. 217 absolutely loves the place, and it’s not like he came in on a great run of form—he has just one top-10 in 25 starts on the PGA Tour this season, and it came in the very first event of the year in September. Doesn’t matter, though. There’s just something about Stuard in Springfield. Six times through Final Qualifying. Amazing!

Sahith Theegala’s first major as a pro will be at home in SoCal
Theegala’s senior season at Pepperdine in 2020 was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic with he, and his team, ranked No. 1 in the nation. He became the fifth player to sweep the Haskins, Ben Hogan and Nicklaus awards—Florida State’s John Pak just became the sixth a few days ago—but was forced to end his college career in unceremonious fashion.

The big Californian has been playing solidly on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021, having made the cut in all six of his starts, and finished a very respectable T-32 last week at the Memorial. He then made the hour trip down I-70 to Springfield Country Club and won a 3-for-1 playoff to get into the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is 80 miles from his hometown of Orange, Calif. He’ll be comfortable in that SoCal June gloom, as well as the kikuyu grass that covers Torrey, and surely his family will be able to attend. He’s actually played in one U.S. Open before, missing the cut in 2017 at Erin Hills, but this will be his first as a pro, and he couldn’t ask for a much better situation.

Joe Highsmith—from the natty to the Open

Jamie Schwaberow

Highsmith is having quite the golf month. The Pepperdine junior won his final match 4 and 3 at the NCAA Championship to help his Pepperdine Waves beat Oklahoma and win the national title. (If you watched the action on Golf Channel, which was highly compelling, he was the one in the bucket hat). Five days later, and back in his home state of Washington, he took medalist honors at the Meadow Springs Country Club site in Richland to claim a tee time at Torrey. How about that for a golf month?

Carson Schaake boatraces the field … wait, who?
Schaake played his college ball at non-powerhouse Iowa, turned pro in 2017 and hasn’t done all that much since. He Monday qualified into a Korn Ferry event last summer only to shoot 77-75 and miss the cut by a million. The 26-year-old has been on the mini-tour grind and had to play a local qualifier to get into the Sprinfield, Ohio, site, where he proceeded to shoot 68-63 to beat the rest of the field by a good three shots.

This is precisely why we love these qualifiers so much—they provide a struggling pro with a lifeline, an opportunity to earn his way into a field with Rory and Dustin and Jordan. We can only imagine the utter joy Schaake and his family are feeling this evening.

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By Brian Wacker
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Luis Gagne didn’t have to stick around this time.

A few weeks after heading home early thinking he had failed to advance from a U.S. Open local qualifier at Orange Tree in Orlando—only to find out later that he won a coin flip to move on to sectional qualifying—the LSU junior took medalist honors at the Bear’s Club on Monday with rounds of 68-70 to finish at six under and punch his ticket to next week’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Gagne, who was born in Costa Rica but moved to Orlando when he was 5 and took up golf after his grandfather bought him his first set of clubs. “I’m at a loss for words.”

Gagne finished two strokes clear of Richy Werenski, who has spent the last two years on the PGA Tour, and finished second at four under to secure the second of three spots.

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WATCH NOW WHAT’S AT STAKE AT THE U.S. OPEN AT SHINNECOCK

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The drama of golf’s longest day was saved for 19-year-old Georgia Tech junior-to-be Tyler Strafaci, who survived a six-for-one playoff to nab the final spot from the qualifier.

Strafaci vanquished a host of players with interesting storylines: Cristian DiMarco (son of former PGA Tour player Chris DiMarco); University of Florida standout and Fred Haskins Award finalist Andy Zhang; former wunderkind now 35-year-old washout Christo Greyling; and Nathan Stamey all finished regulation tied at three under.

Playing in two threesomes in the playoff, Strafaci and Stamey each stuck it close to set up birdies on the 450-yard par-4 first hole to make it a two-man showdown for one spot.

One hole later, they both faced long putts from the edge of the green on the 240-yard par-3 second, with Strafaci’s coming up woefully short, leaving himself a huge right-to-left sweeper. Somehow, he poured in the 10-footer to save par, with Stamey then missing his attempt from about half that distance.

“I haven’t been playing too well the past year so it was good to see the hard work come together,” said Strafaci, who a year ago survived an 11-for-1 playoff at the U.S. Junior Amateur. “I was feeling stressed the whole day. My weakness is I’m very conservative. I’ve been working on being more aggressive and it paid off last couple holes.”

Golf has always been a family affair for Strafaci, who grew up playing at tony La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, and had a club in his hand as soon as he could walk. He also had his brother on the bag on Monday and it was the fourth USGA event he has helped him qualify for.

Courtesy of South Florida athletics
DiMarco had the momentum going early after getting into the U.S. Open Sectional field as a alternate, but couldn’t finish off the 36-hole odyssey.

DiMarco had a similar family vibe, with his three-time PGA Tour winner dad carrying his sticks. You might recall DiMarco lost the coin flip to Gagne last month after he had left the site of the Local Qualifier thinking he had not done well enough to get into a playoff. Despite dropping to an alternate, DiMarco still managed to find his way to Sectional Qualifying.

After opening with a solid 68 that included a hole-in-one and handful of lengthy putts, DiMarco wasn’t as fortunate in the second round. He made five bogeys and four birdies en route to a 73. This time, of course, he did stick around (thankfully) to see if he was in a playoff. If there was a silver lining, however, he edged out Zhang, who earlier missed a 10-footer for birdie on the last hole that would have sent him to the U.S. Open, for the second alternate spot.

“Second alternate wasn’t what we came for, but you never know,” DiMarco said. “Love it when the caddie buys you a beer for your hole-in-one.”

Just in time, too, as darkness descended upon the Bear’s Club and the horn sounded for an incoming thunderstorm. Nearly 12 hours after it started, golf’s longest day had come to an end.

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