The are 156 players lining up at Pinehurst No.2 for the 154th US Open Championship this week – but that’s just a fraction of the number who entered.
As for just the third time in tournament history, the number of players who entered the US Open eclipsed the 10,000 mark.
A total of 10,052 players entered the 2024 US Open, which is only slightly down from the 10,127 entrants for the 2014 US Open which was also held at the famous Pinehurst No.2 course.
Those two years come in second and third for the volume of US Open entrants, but still behind the record 10,187 players that entered for the chance of qualifying for last year’s event at Los Angeles Country Club.
With it being an “Open” the tournament is just that – it’s open for any professional or amateur golfer with a Handicap Index of 0.4 or better to enter.
Of course, that means the United States Golf Association (USGA) which runs the tournament is inundated with thousands of hopefuls all dreaming of making it into that final field.
Those 10,000-odd have to be whittled down to 156 somehow, but with this year’s US Open being the 1000th championship the USGA has organised they’re well on top of things.
There are two stages of qualifying for those hoping to make it into the US Open field, Local Qualifying and Final Qualifying.
Local Qualifying is an 18-hole shootout that was this year played at 109 different courses where 530 players made it through into the tough Final Qualifying events.
Lucas Glover won the 2009 US Open as a qualifier
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It’s much more of a slog in the big ones, with 13 golf courses playing host to Final Qualifying events this year – which are gruelling 36-hole contests played on just one day.
Here is where you can get some huge names who have failed to get in by other methods trying their hand at qualifying for the US Open – this year with Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott the headlines as they both lost out in playoffs.
Both Scott and Garcia did finally find their way into the field though, but from Final Qualifying around 65 spots are usually booked for the final US Open field.
And these aren’t just events for players who just want to make the third Major of the season – as Lucas Glover came through Final Qualifying to win the 2008 US Open at Bethpage Black to prove it can be done.
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