Sergio odd-man out in qualifying playoff
Masters champs Garcia, Reed top LIV's U.S. Open casualties; Rose in/Scott out; AI analysis of Nelly and Scottie
Sergio Garcia will have to hope to get in as alternate (Joel Marlund/ANGC)
No longer is there a long build-up to the U.S. Open. Since the PGA Championship moved to May starting in 2019, the next major comes up fast and furious. The first round of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 is only three weeks from today.
And while local qualifying began in April (the USGA accepted more than 10,000 entries for the third time), the serious stuff started taking place earlier this week with 36-hole final qualifiers that were held on Monday in Japan, England and Texas. The latter saw 44-year-old Sergio Garcia narrowly miss qualifying for his 25th consecutive U.S. Open.
Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion, made it through 36-hole qualifying a year ago and tied for 27th at Los Angeles Country Club. But on Monday at Dallas Athletic Club in Texas, he lost out in a seven-man playoff for six spots when he bogeyed the first playoff hole. That came after Garcia made a double bogey on the 16th hole in his second round that cost him qualifying outright. Brandon Wu, Sung Kang, S.H. Kim, Michael McGowan, Parker Bell and Logan McAllister survived the playoff to grab the last six of 11 spots available.
But there is still hope for the Spaniard. He is the first alternate out of the Texas site and will see his name be part of a reallocation list that the United States Golf Association keeps from all 13 of the qualifying sites. In simple terms, it’s basically a rating based on strength of field at each of the qualifiers and how many spots were originally allocated.
There are 10 more final qualifiers on Monday, June 3, including one in Canada following the RBC Canadian Open and one in Columbus, Ohio, preceding the Memorial Tournament. Those events will attract strong fields filled with tour players, as will another one in Durham, N.C.
So is Garcia in a good spot to snag an alternate entry into Pinehurst? Probably. The USGA holds back places for those who might qualify via the Official World Golf Ranking as of June 10, as well as spots left open in case a player not otherwise exempt wins a second PGA Tour event in the last 12 months. If those spots go empty, the allocation list is used, as it would be in case there are withdrawals due to injury.
So at the very least, Garcia is going to want to get to Pinehurst Resort that week and join his Fireballs GC teammate, Eugenio López-Chacarra, who did make it through the Texas qualifier — the only one of 13 LIV golfers to advance.