A day after Scotty Schaeffler won the third major in the PGA Championship, the US 156-man field began taking shape on Monday, adding 27 players through the world rankings, and three continents were held.
This field does not include Sergio Garcia for the first time since 1999.
Garcia bogeyed the final hole in the 36-hole qualifier in Dallas, putting a spot on him in the 7-1 playoffs in 7th place. Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson led seven qualifiers, including Carlos Ortiz.
The other 36 people were exempt from qualifications. This includes Davis Riley and Joe High Smith. Both did well enough in the final round of the PGA Championship, moving to the top 60 in the world rankings.
The US Open won its first major on June 12-15 at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Johnson practiced with 19-year-old Schaeffler that week, making his US Open debut. Schaeffler opened at 69, shot a 78 and missed the cut.
Liv Golf added five more players to the field when Kozuma was among the three players who qualified at Dallas’ Bent Tree and three players who passed through Ortiz. Joaquín Niemann has been added as a major player in Liv Points, with the world’s top 60 adding Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed.
Most of the final qualifying rounds are scheduled for June 2nd throughout the United States and Canada.
The exempt player field does not include qualified sites, but is a little higher than usual at the US Open, where there are 85 players, and about half of the field (78 players) strive to qualify.
Riley, Highsmith, Jonattan Vegas and Siokim each moved to the top 60 in the world in their final week. Riley was in competition when he scored a triple bogey at Seventh Hall. He was over four years old in his round at that point, but played bogey-free the rest of the way.
That was enough to move him from 100th to the top 60 in the world at 53rd place. Same for Highsmith. He played bogey-free with three birdies in the final 12 holes, rising to 9th and reaching 60th.
It bumped Laurie Canter, but he was exempt from being the highest ranked player on the European Tour Points list, which is not yet qualifies.
The only other exemption spot available is the NCAA Men’s Individual Champion, which will be decided on May 26th at La Costa Resort in California.