2014 U.S. Open field: Tiger Woods is gone, but 74 safely exempt without qualifying for Pinehurst

There’s just one more stop on the PGA Tour until it’s U.S. Open week, and with the season’s second major rapidly approaching, the field is starting to take shape for Pinehurst. Of course, a huge chunk of the entrants list won’t be determined until Monday evening, when sectional qualifying fills out the second half of the field.

As of Sunday afternoon, 74 players are confirmed for the 2014 U.S. Open. The field is 156 players deep, a dramatic change from the season’s first major, where the green jackets at Augusta start to panic if the number approaches the century mark. At the U.S. Open, we get groups of three off split tees for sun-up to sun-down golf the first two days. It’s a logistical challenge, and we saw inclement weather signifcantly disrupt the schedulding last year at Merion, where it took two days to catch up. The Open Championship and PGA Championship have comparably sized fields as well, but the ample hours of sunlight in Britian in July provide a bit more cushion.

There will be 769 players teeing it up at 10 U.S. sectional qualifying sites on Monday. That number was whittled from the 10,127 players who signed up for local qualifying held throughout the month of May. The number of spots up for grabs is still to be determined -- last year, 57 players made it through via sectionals but it looks like that number will be larger this season. Aside from playing your way in through qualifying, there are two ways to earn an exemption in the run-up to the U.S. Open. The first is by slotting inside the top 60 in the Official World Golf Rankings on May 24, last Monday, and the second is by slotting into the top 60 on June 9 following the conclusion of next week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. A final way is a special exemption handed out by the USGA, but they haven’t used any of those yet and likely won’t until all qualifiers and alternates are determined.

There were 25 players who were added on Monday, via that top 60 exemption, but as expected, we also obviously lost one very big name this week too. We’ll have a complete breakdown of how every player got into the field next week, but here’s the group who doesn’t need to grind it out on Monday at sectionals and is safely set for Pinehurst. These are the first 13 exemptions, and there’s obviously a lot of overlap (e.g. Phil Mickelson is exempt in five different ways) so a player is listed under the first available exemption as set by the USGA.