Phoenix, Md. —  130 players battled it out in the U.S. Open Local Qualifier hosted at Hillendale Country Club in Phoenix, Maryland to move on to the Sectional Qualifying to be held June 3 at various locations across the country.

With seven qualifying spots and two alternate spots up for grabs, the morning wave teed off with clear skies and fair weather.  As morning turned to afternoon, however, the rain started falling.  While it was not pouring rain, it was steady enough to make the course conditions a little more tedious and difficult for the afternoon wave.

Benton Weinberg of Bethesda, Maryland seized the moment in the morning group by firing a bogey-free 6-under-par, 65 round.  “[The course] was in great condition.  It was kind of soft, so it was easy to hit some wedges close…I didn’t make many mistakes, just hit a lot of greens and had a lot of tap-ins,” said Weinberg.  He later earned medalist honors after the afternoon waved finished play.

Hillendale also yielded another bogey-free round.  Michael McGowan (Southern Pines, North Carolina) had three birdies and 15 pars on his scorecard to securely place himself in second place right behind Weinberg.  Chris Nido (Miami, Florida) also shot 68 to finish with McGowan.

Thanompol Soongnarata out of Richmond Virginia, Joseph Lenane out of Dedham, Massachusetts, and Brett Patterson out of Oxford, Mississippi grabbed the next three qualifying spots by shooting 1-under-par rounds of 70.

Brett Patterson, Joseph Lenane, and Thanompol Soongnarata advanced to Final Qualifying for the 124th U.S. Open Championship.

The seventh and final qualifying spot had to be decided by a playoff as Joshua Eure (Baltimore, Maryland) and Jack Hartman (Bethesda, Maryland) both shot even-par rounds of 71.  Eure and Hartman headed to No. 3 at Hillendale Country Club to start things off.  Both left their tee shots short on the slightly downhill par 3, but both managed to scramble to get up and down for par.  They then moved on to No. 4 where Hartman pulled his tee shot into the right rough behind some trees while Eure pounded his down the middle.  Hartman hit a miraculous wedge shot over the trees and up the hill to about 30 feet.  Eure proceeded to put his approach shot 12 feet beyond the hole.  Hartman ended up 2-putting for par, but Eure made the 12-foot, downhill, right-to-left sliding birdie putt to secure the seventh guaranteed advancing spot.  Hartman was then given the first alternate spot.

Josh Eure captured the final qualifying spot in a two hole playoff over Jack Hartman.

The second Alternate spot had to be decided by another playoff.  Connor Polender (Lake Bluff, Illinois), Elliot Grayson (Shelby, North Carolina), and Dugan McCabe (Bethesda, Maryland) stuck around after shooting 1-over-par rounds of 72.  It took 2 playoff holes for Polender to earn the second alternate position.

Thank you to Hillendale Country Club and their amazing staff for hosting this ever important USGA Qualifier.