The scene at Woodmont Country Club last Monday night was as far away as you can get from the chaos forming 15 miles away around the Stanley Cup Final. As thousands in the D.C. area migrated downtown to party and watch the Capitals move to the precipice of the city’s first championship in 26 years, I strolled over to the Maryland golf course with a few dozens (maybe?) to watch a bunch of fringe dreamers try and qualify for the U.S. Open. It was mostly friends and family of a few locals, silently walking around outside watching some golf shots.
The best part of the U.S. Open may be how impossible it is to get there
The variance of players at U.S. Open sectional qualifying demonstrates why the game is so great, even with the odds overwhelmingly against them.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The most enjoyable finds are ones that most of the rest of the world does not care about or even know exists. The golf nuts know sectionals exist and how they work, but here’s the summation: the U.S. Open is truly an open and if you can play some extremely good golf, you might make it into the field alongside Tiger Woods. It starts at local qualifying, where, if you’re not a pro, you need a handicap of 1.4 or lower and a $200 entry fee. There were 8,537 entries this year.
Local qualifying whittled those 8,537 entries down to 860 competing at Monday’s sectional qualifying sites (10 across the U.S., one in Japan, one in England). The USGA likes to shoot for half of its 156-man field to be open qualifiers. Of those 860 at sectionals, about 75-80 would get through to the national championship at Shinnecock Hills. So, yeah, that’s 8,537 down to about 75, many of whom are PGA Tour pros that do this for living as well as anyone in the world. The odds are not in your favor if you are able to get your handicap right and go for it.
The Woodmont sectional had 53 players for four spots. Woodmont is only 10 minutes from my house, but despite preaching that sectional qualifying is one of the best days of the year, I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never attended in the many years they have hosted. I intended to stop by on my way home for about 90 minutes, but ended up staying for more than five hours and missing the start of the Caps’ game. Going to party and watching your team take a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Final is way more fun and memorable. But this was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve had watching golf, and here are a few notes why.
- It is an extremely casual atmosphere, aside from the world-class talents with frayed nerves grinding their ass off to play in a major championship. You can roam freely in the fairways, around the greens, and generally get up-close with the players and hear everything they’re saying. It helped that, after days of rain, it was a perfect evening here to walk around outside. If you’re within reasonable driving distance of a sectional, it is my official recommendation that you try and go to one. Even if you know nothing about golf, or hate golf, it’s a pleasant, and even entertaining, way to spend a few hours.
- There are a few categories of players at these sectionals. There are PGA Tour pros not high enough in the world rankings to get an auto-bid. There are the Web Tour pros, elite players on the doorstep of the most competitive Tour in the world. There are the college players. There are the mid-ams, the older guys who can light it up but aren’t out here trying to make a living playing golf. And there are the over-the-hill pros trying not to wash out just yet. The variety is a cool aspect of these sectionals as they all work for a spot in a U.S. Open they probably have no chance of winning.
The unknown college kid
- The fourth and final qualifier for Shinnecock was an amateur named Mickey DeMorat, who beat Billy Hurley III and Chase Wright in a 3-for-1 playoff. Hurley is a veteran pro that’s won on the PGA Tour. Wright is Web Tour pro having a strong season. DeMorat is a recent college grad with no caddie, nudging his own clubs down the fairway on a push cart. There were several push carts out there, but aside from DeMorat, I only saw caddies pushing them and not the player. DeMorat was on his own, an amateur finding sprinkler heads and pacing off his own yardages against these two pros with caddies and years of experience.
- DeMorat is an example of just how razor thin the margins are at the highest levels — from PGA Tour vs. Web Tour and down to some highly-touted prospect vs. a solid college player. Over multiple seasons and years, those margins widen, but during a week or a day, it can be nothing. His qualification came as a surprise, even to him. “I didn’t think this would happen, honestly,” he told me. “This is my fourth time playing sectionals but I have only been kind of close one other time before...I haven’t won any big amateur tournaments or anything like that, no college tournaments.”
- DeMorat has never been to Shinnecock and did not plan to go there before Monday of U.S. Open week. As he filled out his bio information for the U.S. Open program, he asked nearby USGA officials about the place like a first grader asks his parents about DisneyWorld before a family trip.
- His birthday will now be spent playing the first round of the U.S. Open and he’ll likely use his dad as his caddie. He said he was planning to turn pro in the intervening week. Then it dawned on him, an incredulous smirk came across his face, and he said, “So yeah, I guess my first event as a professional golfer will be the U.S. Open.”
- The evening was also a reminder of just how many world-class golfers will have the crowning achievement of their competitive lives happen with almost no fanfare or attention. DeMorat was a nervous wreck and a three-foot putt had to feel like a 15 footer. But he poured it in, exhaled, and just made the damn U.S. Open. It’s an incredible, against-the-odds accomplishment. A few people clapped off to the side gently and I half-expected Jeb Bush to jump out of the bushes yelling at people to “Please clap!” It was so far from whatever he had churning inside as he went from nervous wreck to the greatest achievement of his golfing life.
The All-American trying to get it back
- When I arrived, I knew I wanted to find and follow the other African-American Stanford product with a history of career-threatening back problems. Joseph Bramlett, once a GolfWorld cover boy (autograph copy on sale here for $10!), is having a strong season on the Web.com Tour after sitting out two years with lateral spine dysfunction. He qualified for the U.S. Am at 14, was a college All-American, and in 2011 became the first African-American golfer to graduate from Q-school to the PGA Tour in 26 years. But he has only played in one major championship, the 2010 U.S. Open. These are the stories you run into and get up close with at sectionals.
- Bramlett still has back pain, but he’s playing regularly again and competing well enough to have a great shot at another PGA Tour card in a few months. He started the final nine of his 36 holes at 2-under. A 3-under total would have put him in the playoff for the final spot. He played the final 9 in one-over, the shot at getting in the playoff officially ending when he couldn’t hole-out from the fairway on his final hole of the day. Bramlett felt close, grinding until the last hole. He burned the edge on half the holes I watched.
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images for HSBC
- When Golf Channel used to cover this from sun-up to sun-down, sectional qualifying became known as and promoted as “golf’s longest day.” Bramlett played a full 36 and was at Woodmont all day but after missing out, he then went to the range and putting green to work with his coach for at least another hour. As you might expect, no one else was on the range after a mentally exhausting 36 holes and it wasn’t like Bramlett had the luxury of checking out at some point in his second round. He was technically in it until his final hole of the day. But it was 8:30, the lights were on across the clubhouse and parking lot, most of the USGA officials had packed up and left, and Bramlett was still on the range hitting balls when I walked to my car.
The veteran still grasping for another shot
- Brian Davis, one of those veterans trying to not fully wash out just yet, played with Bramlett and was extremely fun to follow up-close. You may remember Davis as the guy who called a penalty on himself on the final hole at Harbour Town that cost him a great shot at a PGA Tour win. He’s not played in the U.S. Open in eight years and has not played in a major since 2013.
- The Englishman did not play well on Monday and could be heard a few times letting out a string of expletives at himself following some underwhelming wipe. Then he’d go back to laughing, vacillating between gregarious and cynical about the state of his game. It seemed he let go of the club on the follow through almost as much as he held onto it during the nine holes I watched.
- Davis shot 77 in the morning round and did not really have a chance, but he still played through the full 36, cursing and giggling throughout.
- I’d guess the median age of the rules officials was, um, seasoned. And that’s just fine. But the most amusing moment of the day was when one barreled his cart over a curb, slammed onto a path, ran into a stone wall twice trying to reverse and correct, and then told Davis and Bramlett’s group they were now on the clock. They had only 2.5 holes to play. I enjoyed the gumption of the official even if his cart took a beating.
- When the official told them they were on the clock, Davis was about 100 yards away and yelled “What?!” When his playing partner shouted the news, he screamed back at the official “Awesome!” and gave a sardonic thumbs up and smile before turning away to walk up to the green. It felt like he was channeling the Chotchkie’s waiter from Office Space. He was miles from qualifying, playing poorly, and now he was on the clock. He was going to greet this with some forced and sarcastic enthusiasm. I was enjoying myself.
I know I am already a convert. I am a golf nut. I remember getting that GolfWorld in the mail with Bramlett on the cover and I remember Davis calling the penalty at Harbour Town (I can say I’d never heard of Mickey). But even if you don’t know any of their names, I still think you will find entertainment walking fairways with a bunch of golfers going for a longshot spot in the national championship.
The U.S. Open, however, is a championship and a process that expands so far beyond four rounds and the 156 players that actually make it. These are more words than I ever thought I would about Mickey DeMorat, Joseph Bramlett, and Brian Davis. One is a complete unknown college player going to the U.S. Open. One is a former All-American stud prospect trying to get it back after injuries derailed a career making millions. And the third is a veteran with $17,373,858 in on-course earnings still trying to compete at the highest level. None of them had or have a chance of winning the U.S. Open, but I’d argue sectionals are really not even about that. Sectionals display the variance, just within the highest levels, of what makes the game great.
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