Tour News
Recap: “Golf’s Longest Day”
Golf is cruel. Anyone who plays the game at any level has felt its brutality.
Even a player seemingly at the top of the world can find himself or herself humbled at the game’s feet. The U.S. Open, held this year at famed Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Penn., is the absolute peak of golf’s brutality.
And yet golfers are a strange breed. Many — especially Americans — revere the U.S. Open above all other golf tournaments. The Masters is incredible, but the field is relatively austere and, therefore, elite. But the U.S. Open is the one anyone can play in. And once they get there, it is a hellishly difficult test, all long rough, fast greens and treacherous hole locations.
Against that backdrop, enter Brandon Matthews, a Temple University freshman who had designs on playing in his first U.S. Open in his college backyard. And when his approach shot settled at the base of a tree on his 36th and final hole of the day in the qualifier held at Old Oaks and Century Country Clubs near Westchester, N.Y., it seemed his chances were dashed.
Needing a par on the last hole to qualify, Matthews took relief and a stroke penalty from the tree and holed out the pitch for par to post two-under par, setting off a wild, leaping reaction. The highest of highs in golf.
Half an hour later, Matthews was crushed to find out that amateur Gavin Hall had birdied his last four holes to post four-under, ousting Matthews down to the first alternate spot.
In a nutshell, that’s golf, and that’s sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open, in recent years branded as “Golf’s Longest Day.”
The other qualifiers from the New York qualifier included Geoffrey Sisk, who will play in his seventh U.S. Open next week — the fifth for which he has qualified at both the local and sectional levels.
Century and Old Oaks hosted one of 11 sectional qualifiers on Monday. They covered a range of field sizes, strengths and locations. The biggest of the bunch took place at two clubs in the Columbus, Ohio area — Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & Country Club — where 15 professionals, all with some sort of status on the PGA Tour, qualified. The last seven spots came from an 11-man playoff, from which the likes of Sang Moon Bae and Aaron Baddeley earned their spots.
Another large group of Tour players competed for nine spots at Colonial Country Club outside Memphis, near the site of this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic. Qualifiers from Colonial included Jerry Kelly, Kevin Sutherland and Joe Ogilvie.
Other qualifiers in California, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, Texas and Washington yielded a number of other pros and amateurs who will tee it up in two Thursdays’ time at Merion.
One qualifier, held at the Ritz-Carlton Members Club in Bradenton, Fla., needed a second day in order to decide its qualifiers. Irish amateur Kevin Phelan and 2011 Kent State University graduate John Hahn got in, but the third qualifying spot had to wait for a Tuesday morning playoff for Trump International Golf Club (Fla.) Head Pro John Nieporte to beat 15-year-old amateur David Snyder.
As much relief is being felt by some players tonight, there is an ocean of disappointment and unrewarded exhaustion and frustration besides. Perhaps the most notable “miss” this year was two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, who played his first 18 holes at the qualifier at Woodmont Country Club in Maryland only to find out that the metal spikes on his golf shoes were not allowed at that particular qualifier, leading to his disqualification. Janzen took responsibility for the error, admitting he glossed over the local rule before taking to the course, but the disqualification has raised concern over the inconsistency of that particular rule at different qualifying sites.
A number of other players will have to watch, rather than play in this year’s U.S. Open. Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, was on the wrong end of a three-for-one playoff at that same Maryland site, where Fred Funk also missed qualifying. Elsewhere, the likes of Jeff Overton, Ryo Ishikawa, Trevor Immelman, Stuart Appelby, Charles Howell III, Ben Curtis, Tommy Gainey all failed to qualify from Columbus, Ohio while Ben Crane, Jeff Maggert, John Merrick, Harris English, David Duval, Stephen Ames and Chris DiMarco could not make it out of the Memphis qualifier.
As exhilarating as this success must be, the prize is the most grueling 72-hole test of golf imaginable. Good luck, gentlemen.
Click here to see all the sectional qualifier results on the USGA’s website.
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News
Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.
From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.
Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.
General Albums
- 2024 Wells Fargo Championship – Monday #1
- 2024 Wells Fargo Championship – Tuesday #1
- 2024 Wells Fargo Championship – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Akshay Bhatia – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Matthieu Pavon – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Keegan Bradley – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Webb Simpson – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Emiliano Grillo – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Taylor Pendrith – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Kevin Tway – WITB – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
Pullout Albums
- New Cobra equipment truck – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Rory McIlroy – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- New Cobra equipment truck – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Eric Cole’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Custom Cameron putter – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Matt Kuchar’s custom Bettinardi – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Justin Thomas – driver change – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Rickie Fowler – putter change – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Rickie Fowler’s new custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Tommy Fleetwood testing a TaylorMade Spider Tour X (with custom neck) – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
- Cobra Darkspeed Volition driver – 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
GolfWRX is on site this week in McKinney, Texas, at the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson (FKA the AT&T Byron Nelson).
Last year at TPC Craig Ranch, Jason Day ended a five-year winless streak. J-Day is in the field again, as are Jordan Spieth, Tom Kim, and Will Zalatoris.
We have our usual assortment of general galleries, WITBs, and pullout albums for your perusal. As always, we’ll continue to add links to additional albums as they make their way to us from the Lone Star State.
Check out links to all our photos below.
General Albums
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Monday #1
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Monday #2
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Tuesday #1
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Tuesday #2
- 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson – Tuesday #3
WITB Albums
- Pierceson Coody – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Kris Kim – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- David Nyfjall – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Adrien Dumont de Chassart – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Jarred Jetter – North Texas PGA Section Champ – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Richy Werenski – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Wesley Bryan – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Parker Coody – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Peter Kuest – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Blaine Hale, Jr. – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Kelly Kraft – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Rico Hoey – WITB – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
Pullout Albums
- Adam Scott’s 2 new custom L.A.B. Golf putters – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Scotty Cameron putters – 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
- Ben Griffin playing Maxfli golf ball
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans
GolfWRX is live on site this week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for the PGA Tour’s one-and-only two-man team event.
As usual, general galleries, WITBs, and pullout albums — including some pretty spicy custom putters and headcovers — await your viewing.
Be sure to check back for more photos from the Big Easy, as we’ll continue to update this page with additional galleries throughout the week.
General Albums
- 2024 Zurich Classic – Monday #1
- 2024 Zurich Classic – Monday #2
- 2024 Zurich Classic – Tuesday #1
- 2024 Zurich Classic – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Alex Fitzpatrick – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Austin Cook – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Alejandro Tosti – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Davis Riley – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- MJ Daffue – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Nate Lashley – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- James Nicholas – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Kevin Streelman – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Rasmus Hojgaard – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Tom Whitney – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- SangMoon Bae – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Daniel Berger – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Rory McIlroy – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Russ Cochrane – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Aldrich Potgieter – WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Steve Stricker WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Drew Brees WITB (Legendary New Orleans Saints QB) – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Derek Carr (New Orleans Saints QB) – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Thriston Lawrence WITB – 2024 Zurich Classic
Pullout Albums
- MJ Daffue’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Cameron putters – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Swag covers ( a few custom for Nick Hardy) – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Custom Bettinardi covers for Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Doug Ghim’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 Zurich Classic
- Patrick Cantlay spotted testing a Scotty Cameron blade putter – 2024 Zurich Classic
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Zak Kozuchowski
Jun 5, 2013 at 12:30 pm
We apologize for the errors, and have corrected them.
– Zak
The Muni Golfer
Jun 5, 2013 at 11:47 am
Brandon Matthews is a freshman at Temple University, not an alumnus. He was second in the A-10 Championship to earn All-Conference honors and was Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. He was also named to the PING All-Northeast Region team.
James
Jun 4, 2013 at 4:20 pm
James Hahn didn’t make it. It was JOHN Hahn who made it out of FL qualifier.