From a Colorado perspective, the road to the 2017 U.S. Open begins on Monday (May 8), and several golfers who have successfully negotiated the two-stage qualifying process in the past are set to compete in one of the three qualifying tournaments that will be held in the Centennial State.
The three Local Qualifiers in Colorado will take place Monday at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster (the former Heritage at Westmoor), May 15 at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, and May 16 at Collindale Golf Course in Fort Collins.
At each site, 84 players will vie for five spots into the second and final qualifying stage. Ten 36-hole U.S. Open Sectionals will be contested in the U.S. on June 5. The U.S. Open itself is set for June 15-18 at Erin Hills in Erin, Wis.
The odds of qualifying for the U.S. Open after going through both stages are very long, to say the least. The USGA accepted 9,485 entries into the championship, and 51 are fully exempt and many others are exempt into the Sectional Qualifying stage.
Among those scheduled to compete in Colorado-based Local Qualifying tournaments this year, a handful have beaten the odds in the past by qualifying for the Open: Derek Tolan and Ben Portie (2002), Jason Preeo (2010), Steve Irwin (2011) and Nick Mason (2014). Tolan and Mason will be playing at Walnut Creek, and Portie, Preeo and Irwin at Collinale.
Among the other entrants at Walnut Creek are former Colorado Open champions Zahkai Brown and Scott Petersen; NCAA Regional qualifiers Ethan Freeman, Jake Staiano, Josh Seiple and Yannik Paul; and Michael Schoolcraft, who played in this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour.
At CommonGround, the contestants include the winners of the two most prestigious CGA championships in 2016, Colin Prater and Nathaniel Goddard; and three-time Wyoming Open champion Kane Webber.
At Collindale, a regular host of U.S. Open Local Qualifying, the field includes — besides Portie, Preeo and Irwin — Geoff Keffer, the Colorado PGA Player of the Year each of the last three years; 2015 CGA Player of the Year David Oraee; Riley Arp, who competed in the Shell Houston Open on the PGA Tour in March; and Parker Edens, who finished a shot out of a playoff at a U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying site last year.
For pairings, click on the following: WALNUT CREEK, COMMONGROUND, COLLINDALE.
