This month’s Masters was the first of the year’s four major championships and – with just a 91-player field – was the smallest of those events. The biggest of the majors is the U.S. Open which officially started on Monday (APRIL 20) with the first of 109 local qualifiers.
Illinois will again have three such eliminations, the first of which is April 22 at Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake. The other two are at Illini Country Club, in Springfield, on May 4 and May 11 at Flossmoor Country Club.
Stonewall, an Arthur Hills design, previously hosted Open qualifiers in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2015. The course has also hosted qualifiers for the Korn Ferry Tour six times. This year’s Open elimination tees off at 8 a.m. with 78 players battling for four berths in the final qualifiers.
Illini CC was founded in 1906 and its course was designed by Tom Bendelow. A prolific architect, his other creations include the original No. 3 course at Medinah Country Club. Illini will host a U.S. Open local for the 45th consecutive year.
The Open is a massive annual event, and this year’s version had 10,201 entrants. That’s one less than the record turnout set last year when the 72-hole finals were held at Oakmont, in Pennsylvania. It’s the fifth time the entries have topped 10,000.
This year’s entrants ranged in age from 13-year old Californian Niko Ameredes, a two-time finalist in the Drive, Chip & Putt competition, to 71-year old New York club professional Mike Caporale. Entries came from all 50 states and 49 foreign countries.
The 126th playing of the U.S. Open concludes June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills, a New York layout which is similarly rich in history as Oakmont, but there will be lots of competition between now and then as the field is determined.
Entrants must either be declared professionals or amateurs with a handicap index not exceeding 0.4. Only 51 entrants are currently exempt from full qualifying thanks to past performances. One is two-time Open winner Brooks Koepka who was the champion the last time the finals were played at Shinnecock in 2018.
Another is Brandon Holtz, a 39-year old former Illinois State basketball player who works in real estate in Bloomington, IL. He received exemptions to both the Masters and U.S. Open after winning last year’s U.S. Mid- Amateur title. Holtz missed the 36-hole cut at the Masters.
Most all of the others must survive qualifying events to be among the156 players who get to tee off at Shinnecock. The local eliminations will determine who qualifies for the thirteen 36-hole final qualifiers, staged in 10 U.S. locations, England, Japan and Canada between May 18 and June 8. None of those will be played in Illinois.
HERE AND THERE: Including the three U.S. Open locals the Chicago District Golf Association will conduct 21 qualifiers for U.S. Golf Association championships this year. Next is the one for the U.S. Senior Open. It’s on April 27 at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.
The Illinois PGA Open Series begins on April 27 at the Glen Club in Glenview.
With coach Mike Small competing in last weekend’s Senior PGA Championship in Florida his University of Illinois team concluded its regular season with a second-place finish in the Hoosier Collegiate in Indiana. An Illini player, Freddie Turnell, was the individual champion while Kansas State took the team crown. Illinois begins postseason play at the Big Ten Championships May 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon. Illinois has won the title 14 times in the last 17 years.