Monday’s news that the USGA was canceling local and final qualifying for the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open will not eliminate any of the game’s top names from the fields in those events.
What is lost, however, is the suspense of rounding out the field, and the opportunity for new and unfamiliar names to rise up and become part of the golf conversation.
Julie Williams covers the amateur circuit for Golfweek, and she told JuliaKate Culpepper on a Golfweek Instagram Live that she’s sad to see the loss of storylines that always seem to surface,
“What you lose is the depth of your field. We don’t know what the exemption category will look like,” Williams said. “Whether that’s a professional player, maybe a college player who has just turned pro and is looking for that big breakthrough. Or it’s an amateur player. In 2015, that’s when we all met Cole Hammer, who was a 15-year-old at the U.S. Open, and we were making name jokes all week, And then Cole Hammer ends up at the NCAA finals match play a year ago.
“It’s not a life-breaking decision for some of these players, but it’s going to change the field, absolutely.”
Williams added that many around the golf world use these qualifying events to take a sneak peek at up-and-coming talent.
“I’m looking for players who show you what they do on the big stage. Watching local and sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open, watching sectional qualifying for the Women’s Open, it’s like playing Eye Spy on these leaderboards,” Williams said.
The 120th U.S. Open is scheduled to be played Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot in New York will feature an all-exempt field, while the 75th U.S. Women’s Open, which was moved to December 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston.
“When you say what’s it going to lose in the lead up to those championships, where we’re kind of doing the Easter Egg hunt. Who’s going to get in? Who’s this guy? What’s the story behind this player? Which I always find really fascinating,” Williams said.
The USGA’s only two other remaining tournaments after cancellations are the 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur, scheduled for August 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.; and the 120th U.S. Amateur, which takes place August 10-16 at Bandon Dunes in Oregon.
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