LOS ANGELES — Olin Browne Jr. had to make a 30-foot putt on his 18th hole just to make a playoff to advance to Final Stage of U.S. Open Qualifying. He survived and then was the medalist last Monday at the Columbus, Ohio, site to book his first berth in a major at age 34. What makes him keep signing up to attempt to qualify year after year?
“It’s really fun to have the opportunity to come play the biggest tournament in American golf,” said Browne Jr., whose father, Olin Sr., won the U.S. Senior Open and played in 12 U.S. Opens during his career. “I think this is the Super Bowl of golf. It’s awesome, and it’s awesome that they allow people like me the opportunity to play two qualifiers to get here.”
Anyone who thinks the qualifying process is a hopeless quest should talk to Steve Jones, who survived his own playoff in his Columbus sectional en route to winning the 1996 U.S. Open.
Browne Jr. was one of a record 10,189 entries to fork over $200 — somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million in revenue — to try to earn a spot into the 156-man field at the 123rd U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. Do the math and that’s more than 9,500 players that had to play both stages of qualifying, of which 20 made it through both qualifying stages, the most since 2018.
The odds are about the same as winning the lottery. Ron Read, a former USGA executive and the longtime first tee starter, calls making it through the two stages of qualifying “the impossible dream.” Yet every year the dreamers keep dreaming, such as Berry Henson, a 43-year-old journeyman who has played on no less than 12 different tours around the world and side hustles as an Uber driver to make ends meet. He qualified for his first U.S. Open this week. He’s one of the dollar-and-a-dream stories trying to be the Open’s version of club pro Michael Block at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill last month. But seemingly every year, the number of spots open to the dreamers dwindles.
“Winners of the U.S. Open in the last 10 years” is the first of 24 categories of exempt players. Twenty-four! In all a record 89 players — closing in on 60 percent of the field — are exempt and 47 only played final qualifying.
Should more than half of the U.S. Open field be exempt? I say no. Exempt status should follow the old Marine Corps slogan: the few, the proud. Bobby Jones in 1924 was the first defending champion to get a free pass. Qualifying is a cherished part of what makes the Open the Open. Allow Jeff Hall, the U.S. Golf Association’s managing director of rules and Opens, to explain its importance: “Who here at one point in their golf career early on practiced as a teenager waiting for mom and dad to pick you up, hit that five-foot putt as darkness is coming down, the dwindling daylight, stating quietly, not so everybody could hear but just so you could hear, ‘This is for the U.S. Open.’ Guilty. Didn’t quite work out…If you’ve got the ability, if you’ve got the game, the U.S. Open empowers you to pursue your dream.”
Qualifying is a grind and a hassle for touring professionals — there’s always the usual rash of withdrawals — but the number of exemptions has tilted overwhelmingly in their favor at the expense of Hall’s dreamers.
In 1967, there were 27 players exempt. By 1982, that number had grown to 50. Fifteen years later, it had mushroomed to 72. Seeking a stronger international contingent (and the larger TV dollars they draw), the Official World Golf Ranking exemption began in 1998, giving a free pass to the top 20 from the previous year. In 2001, the OWGR exemption grew to the top 50, and expanded again in 2012 to the current top 60. Then there’s the top 30 in FedEx Cup standings exemption (now Tour Championship field), which began in 2008. It’s too much.
Olin Browne Jr., for his part, didn’t agree. “I think it’s an appropriate amount,” he said of the 89 exempt this year. “I think over the course of the year they earned their spot in the field.”
But as the number of exempt players grows, some of what made the U.S. Open great is lost. David Fay, former executive director of the USGA, shared my view when we talked in 2017. “The thing that separates the U.S. Open from any other championship is it is the most democratic championship in golf,” he said. “I’d like to think the USGA will never let it get so crazy that they are way over the 50-percent mark.”
In 2017, there were 16 exemption categories and 77 exempt players. Blame COVID-19 — the entire 144-man field was exempt in 2020 — for the creation of several new exempt categories, which now should be eliminated. With the OWGR under attack, isn’t now the time to cut back on exempting so many players and see more pros have to earn their spot the way LIV players like Sergio Garcia did this year? While the USGA is at it, how about fixing the process for determining the way alternates are chosen?
And yet an imperfect system keeps bringing the dreamers back for more. Will Browne Jr. or Henson be this year’s Cinderella story?
“Everyone has a chance to get in,” Henson said. “There’s always a story of someone like myself and I think there will be someone here like me that will do that. If it’s me, that would be awesome.”
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