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The US Open gives players the opportunity to qualify for the third men’s Major of the year and, with local qualification underway across the USA, we have already heard a number of different stories, one of which involves a flooded green and over 100 pars!
Now, you may be confused as to what we are on about but, put simply, on Tuesday night, an irrigation pipe burst on the par 5 seventh hole which led to the putting surface being completely unplayable. Problem was, the US Open qualifier was being played on Thursday, with 108 golfers making their way to Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield.
Matt Fitzpatrick will defend his US Open title at Los Angeles Country Club in June
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Obviously action was needed from the organisers and, in a note that was originally posted on gapgolf.org (opens in new tab), it read: “Competitors only played a 17-hole course. An irrigation pipe underneath the seventh green (par 5, 515 yards) burst on Tuesday night, leaving the putting surface unplayable. GAP’s tournament staff talked with USGA officials and it was recommended to have players skip the hole and award a par to all competitors for scoring purposes to have an 18-hole event.”
To add to the statement further, Director of Competitions consulted with the USGA and, given the two-tee start and the field size, it was deemed that giving pars to all the players was the fairest way of doing it, with all 108 being handed pars for their rounds.
Following the initial debacle, play eventually got underway and, after it concluded, it was Korn Ferry Tour player Patrick Cover, and Griffin Mitchell who finished top, with Michael Chanaud, Zac Oakley, Chris Crawford and Matthew Bastian Jr securing the six qualifying spots.
It’s not the first slightly bizarre story that we have heard from the qualifiers. Tommy Kuhl, a fifth-year senior at the University of Illinois, had just shot 62 at Illini Country Club in Springfield, Illinois to make it through at the US Open qualifier when he realised that he had to DQ himself.
Out watching his teammate, Adrien Dumont De Chassart, in a playoff for the final spot, his teammate made a comment about the aerated greens. That’s when he realised that he wasn’t allowed to repair the aeration marks, with Kuhl stating that: “I felt sick to my stomach. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t tell the rules official.”
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