2016 U.S. Open field: Jordan Spieth headlines 156 qualifiers at Oakmont

An old cliche about the United States Open Championship is that it is the “most democratic major championship in golf.” The Open Championship, or British Open, is also democratic in a way but no major opens its doors as wide to the greater golf populace than the U.S. Open. More than half the field is usually made up of qualifiers, a group of 75 to 85 players whittled down from some 10,000 who make long shot attempts to play their way into the championship.

Any player with a handicap index of 1.4 or lower and $175 for the entry fee can try to qualify. About 10,000 show up at local sites all across the country throughout the spring, then that group is cut down to 12 sectional qualifying sites the Monday before U.S. Open week. This year, 80 of the 156 players will get into the field via “open” qualifying. All the alternates come from the qualifying sites, filling in the gaps to get to the full 156 as players withdraw. Compare that to the Masters, which starts panicking if its field gets near 100 and is by invitation only.

There have been three early withdrawals this year. One was expected but still headlining news: Tiger Woods announced last week that he would not make his return this year at the U.S. Open, and given the way the course looks, that’s a wise decision. Tiger is going to take his time -- maybe all year even -- and coming back to this brutal kind of test without any other competitive events would be madness, even for one of the greatest of all time. The other WDs were Darren Clarke and Thongchai Jaidee.

While there is that “democratic” aspect to the makeup of the field, the USGA also ensures the top guns in the game will always have a spot. There are 15 different exemptions a player can earn to avoid going through qualifying and they’re the usual ones we see at the other majors. A winner of the U.S. Open gets a 10-year exemption, which is one area where this championship differs from the other majors. The Masters and PGA winners get lifetime invites while the British Open champ has a spot until he is 60 years old.

There are 76 players in the field this year who earned spots without going through qualifying. They are the usual mix of top players in the world rankings, major winners and a few amateurs. Bryson DeChambeau got his spot last summer by winning the U.S. Amateur, but forfeited that exemption when he turned pro right after the Masters. DeChambeau, however, got back in the field at sectional qualifying in Columbus last week.

Here’s the first half of the field that earned berths via exemption and did not have to go through qualifying. They appear in order of the first exemption listed by the USGA and not duplicated thereafter -- e.g. Rory McIlroy qualified in six different ways but is listed first and only under past U.S. Open champions.