The U.S. Open puts 156 professional golfers through a challenging 4 round tournament. This years field is as amazing as ever with the worlds best competing for the title. Amungst this years field is Andy Zhang, at age 14 is the youngest player ever to play in the U.S. Open. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut, however several other amateurs are still in the running.
Have you ever wondered how players qualify for the U.S. Open? Let take a look at what it takes to get selected to play in the U.S. Open...
- The U.S. Open champions from the past 10 years: Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Glover, Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk.
- The U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up: Patrick Cantlay
- The Masters champions from the past 5 years: Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Trevor Immelman.
- The British Open champions from the past 5 years: Louis Oosthuizen, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington.
- The PGA Championship winners from the past 5 years: Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Y.E. Yang.
- The Players Championship winner from the past 3 years: Matt Kuchar, K.J. Choi, Tim Clark.
- The BMW PGA Championship winner: Luke Donald.
- The U.S. Senior Open champion: Olin Browne.
- The top 10 and ties from 2011 U.S. Open: Jason Day, Kevin Chappell, Robert Garrigus, Lee Westwood, Peter Hanson, Sergio Garcia.
- 2011 Tour Championship field: Bill Haas, Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan, Brandt Snedeker, Nick Watney, Chez Reavie, John Senden, Aaron Baddeley, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland, Steve Stricker, Charles Howell III, David Toms, Mark Wilson, Bo Van Pelt, Jason Dufner, Jonathan Byrd, Vijay Singh, Fredrik Jacobson.
- Top 60 from the world ranking on May 21: Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Ian Poulter, Martin Laird, Nicolas Colsaerts, Francesco Molinari, Carl Pettersson, Thomas Bjorn, Bae Sang-moon, Alvaro Quiros, Simon Dyson, Ernie Els, Robert Karlsson, Anders Hansen, Kevin Na, Ben Crane, Kyle Stanley, Paul Casey, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, K.T. Kim, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Robert Rock, Ryo Ishikawa, Miguel Angel Jimenez.
- Top 60 from the world ranking on June 11: Spencer Levin, Branden Grace.
- Sectional qualifying (36 holes): Brendan Jones, Toru Taniguchi, J.B. Park, Hiroyuki Fujita, Dong-Hwan Lee, Tadahiro Takayama, Alex Noren, Marc Warren, Gregory Bourdy, Raphael Jacquelin, Lee Slattery, Matthew Baldwin, Matteo Manassero, Soren Kjeldsen, Mikko Ilonen, George Coetzee, Peter Lawrie, Anthony Summers, Tim Herron, Shane Bertsch, Michael Thompson, Will Claxton, Darron Stiles, a-Brooks Koepka, Jason Bohn, Casey Wittenberg, Bob Estes, Alistair Presnell, Charlie Wi, Blake Adams, Kevin Streelman, Brian Harman, D.A. Points, David Mathis, Davis Love III, Steve Marino, Edward Loar, Rod Pampling, Martin Flores, Scott Piercy, Alex Cejka, Michael Allen, Matt Bettencourt, Tommy Biershenk, Aaron Watkins, Joe Ogilvie, Joe Durant, Stephen Ames, Bill Lunde, Hunter Haas, Robert Castro.
- Local (18 holes) and sectional qualifying: a-Cameron Wilson, Jim Herman, Brian Gaffney, Mark McCormick, Brice Garnett, John Peterson, Cole Howard, Nicholas Thompson, Jeff Curl, Scott Langley, Samuel Osborne, Tim Weinhart, Brian Rowell, Jesse Mueller, Steve Lebrun, Morgan Hoffmann, Dennis Miller, James Hahn, a-Beau Hossler, Scott Smith, a-Alberto Sanchez, Casey Martin, a-Nick Sherwood, a-Hunter Hamrick.
- Alternates getting in because field wasn't completely filled via all the categories listed above: Justin Hicks, Kyle Thompson, Colt Knost.
