U.S. Open sectional qualifying 2013: Tee times, courses, live results and more

Here’s a rundown of the winners and also-rans (with help from the USGA and Golf Channel, which did a tremendous job with its wall-to-wall coverage of “golf’s longest day”):

Brookside G&CC/The Lakes G&CC, Columbus, Ohio (15 slots)

The sectional qualifiers for the 2013 U.S. Open ended on Tuesday morning when John Nieporte and Zack Fischer won playoffs to earn their spots in the tournament, which is set to begin on June 13 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.

With his victory, Nieporte was able to eliminate 15-year-old David Synder following a lengthy playoff that was postponed due to darkness. On Monday night, the pair tied on back-to-back holes before it became too late to continue, but Nieporte was able to seal the deal with a birdie on the first playoff hole on Tuesday morning.

Monday’s U.S. Open sectional qualifying started with 57 open spots, but “golf’s longest day” wasn’t long enough, as two more slots are still unfilled. The regional sites in Bradenton and Dallas both have unfinished playoffs, as darkness set in before the final spot at each site could be decided. In Florida, 15-year-old David Snyder will try to break his tie with John Nieporte at 8 a.m. ET, while Ryan Palmer, one of the better players on the Tour, will go to a ninth playoff hole with Zack Fischer in Lakewood Country Club.

Palmer and Fischer halved eight straight holes in a playoff that presumably should have ended an hour before darkness hit in North Texas. But the extra holes dragged on and on with both finishing up on the eighth green in near pitch dark conditions. Golf Channel’s George Savaricas was on scene at Lakewood for the interminable playoff:

The U.S. Open sectional qualifying process is referred to as “golf’s longest day” because the 36-hole march at 11 sites across the country goes from sun up to sun down. Several of the 11 sites went to playoff holes, including two in Dallas and Bradenton, Fla. that went deep into the darkness and will have to finish on Tuesday.

In Tampa, 15-year-old amateur David Snyder and John Nierporte will have to resume play on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. ET. Both players are fighting for the third and final spot at the Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club, where the amateur Kevin Phelan captured medalist honors and John Hahn locked up the second spot. While Synder may be older than last year’s 14-year-old Andy Zhang, earning entry with three years of high school still left would be an incredible accomplishment.

Mike Weir navigated his way through an actual traffic jam to motor into the 11-man logjam for the final seven U.S. Open spots up for grabs in the Columbus, Ohio, sectional qualifying only to hit a roadblock on his way to Merion.

Weir, the 2003 Masters champion who has plummeted to 963rd in the world due to injuries, made his way into the playoff by parring his final hole at Brookside Golf & Country Club, some 10 miles from the playoff site at The Lakes Golf & CC. Normally about a 15-minute car ride between the two tracks, an auto accident in the Brookside proximity meant that Weir had to find an alternate route back to The Lakes course.

The Longest Day in Golf has been exactly that for many U.S. Open sectional qualifiers, many of which required extra holes to complete on Monday evening.

In Memphis at the Colonial Country Club qualifier, Alistair Presnell and Andrew Svoboda bettered Scott Stallings to qualify for Merion in a 3-for-2 playoff. The Australian Presnell will be making his second consecutive U.S. Open appearance, having recorded a T-29 finish at the Olympic Club in San Francisco during last year’s tournament. Other notable names qualifying from Memphis include Svoboda (who earned the second playoff spot), Jerry Kelly, Kevin Sutherland and Joe Ogilvie, all players who have had success on the PGA Tour.

“Golf’s longest day” is winding down at some of the East Coast U.S. Open sectional qualifying sites. Four players at at the Purchase, NY site punched their ticket to Merion first, playing through a field of 79 players to grab those four invites to America’s national championship. The biggest story coming out of Century Country Club and Oaks Country Club in New York is 18-year-old Gavin Hall, who birdied his final four holes to get to 4-under and capture a berth.

Hall’s run bumped Brandon Matthews, a Temple product attempting to play in front of the home crowd in two weeks, down to alternate status. Matthews had to take an unplayable lie after his ball landed in the trunk of a greenside tree at the 18th. Undeterred, he sank an incredible chip shot from the right side to provide one of the highlights of the day. A few photos of the celebratory aftermath from the chip-in, courtesy of the Metropolitan Golf Association’s A.J. Voelpel:

Josh Teater has never competed in a major, and now, after qualifying for the British and U.S. Opens in a two-week span, the 34-year-old from Kentucky will contest for both national titles -- and the PGA Championship as well.

Teater, grinding it out against one of Monday’s strongest sectional qualifying fields, at Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & CC, was at 10-under -- good enough to snag one of the 15 slots available at the Columbus, Ohio, site.

Jerry Kelly has been to this rodeo before, so when the nine-time U.S. Open contestant says it’s a real grind trying to qualify for his country’s major championship, you know he speaks from experience.

“Getting old gets old, that’s the bottom line,” Kelly, who fired an opening-round 5-under 67 at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tenn., to tie for second place in the first leg of Marathon Monday, said about what wears on players during golf’s longest day.

Lee Janzen, a two-time U.S. Open winner, lost his chance to make it into next week’s field at Merion after officials disqualified the old-school golfer for wearing metal spikes for his round at Woodmont Country Club.

Turns out Janzen, among the USGA’s “players to watch” on golf’s longest day, will be watching the Open from his couch after he neglected to peruse the conditions of competition for the sectional qualifying taking place at 11 sites across the country on Monday.

By midnight ET on Monday, the 2013 U.S. Open field will nearly double with 56 spots filled at 11 different sectional qualifying locations across the country. The eventual winner at Merion, however, is likely already in the field and not playing on Monday, as 77 of the best players in the world earned exemptions through one of 15 ways prior to “golf’s longest day.”

Many of the 77 players are among the top 50 in the world, and have qualified via multiple exemptions. There are 36 golfers who have qualified in more than one way, and some, such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, can check four of the 15 boxes that allow entry to America’s national championship.

Kyle Stanley and James Driscoll, fresh off successful outings at last week’s Memorial Tournament, will be among several big-name golfers hoping to earn positions at the upcoming U.S. Open by competing at one of 11 sectional qualifying sites across the country.

Stanley, a third-place finisher at Muirfield Village Golf Club, and Driscoll, T13 at Jack’s place, will compete against major winners Vijay Singh (missed the cut at the Memorial) and Mike Weir (53rd), as well as Camilo Villegas (T41) , Ricky Barnes (MC), and a host of other PGA Tour players just down the road from Muirfield at Brookside Golf & Country Club & The Lakes Golf & Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.

Every year, thousands of amateur golfers tee it up across the nation to earn a coveted tournament roster spot for the U.S. Open in June. It is perhaps the one quality that separates golf from other sports: the chance for an amateur player to compete against professionals.

On Monday, June 3, nearly 1000 golfers will face the final obstacle between them and realizing their dream of playing in a major championship. This day has since been deemed The Longest Day in Golf.

The 2013 U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying is already underway, but the United States portion begins on Monday, June 3, spread across 11 sectional sites. Each site hosts a tournament where golfers play 36 holes in competition for a limited number of spots, based on the quantity and quality of the field at a given sectional. Longer and more taxing than an average day in the life of a professional golfer, the events present unique challenges and can see some big surprises come out of the field.

The 17-year-old Beau Hossler is one of the players to watch. The young man led the field during the second round of the 2012 U.S. Open, the second time he had qualified for the event. He’ll be playing in Newport Beach, Calif. The Brookside Golf & Country Club has the most spots on the line, 15, and features a field with 2002 U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes, 2003 Masters winner Mike Weir, and Davis Love III.