When the U.S. Open finally comes to life next week at Oakmont with its ice-slick greens and its jungle-thick tangle of rough, the attention will naturally gravitate to Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the other A-listers who tend to define their careers by major championship success.
The U.S. Open prides itself on being the meanest championship in golf, making no apologies for being as unrelenting as an Arizona summer while attracting 10,202 qualifying applicants who signed up this year with the hope of earning the right to be cuffed around at Oakmont, where the members wear the course’s difficulty as a badge of honor.
The USGA likes to boast about the national championship being golf’s version of a meritocracy, open to anyone capable of qualifying (provided of course they have a handicap index of 0.4 or lower) and it’s true.
It asks a simple question – can you play well enough to qualify?
Just qualifying for the U.S. Open is perhaps the hardest part and Monday (with two sites spilling over into Tuesday morning) was the culmination of that with 47 spots available to the players still standing after local qualifying.
To understand how much it matters, here’s what James Nicholas told Golf Channel after securing his spot at Oakmont by shooting 67-68 at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey, on Monday.
“I’ve had this circled on my calendar for years. When I was 15 and got through locals my first time, I was just a kid with a dream. I was so raw. I was never going to make it but you never know. I told myself one day I’m going to play in a major championship and one day I’m going to win a major championship and this is that first step,” Nicholas said, the emotion evident in his voice.
“I’m playing on the Korn Ferry Tour this year and it’s so hard. There are so many good golfers. To have this day be like, OK, this is my day – I played awesome – it’s just really special. I know it resets and now you’ve actually got to go prepare for a U.S. Open. That’s a much different beast but I’m just really thrilled with everything right now.”
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