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PSU's Kevin Foley off to a great start at US Open qualifying

Three holes into round two and he's tied for first. More importantly, he's got a couple of shots in hand over 6th place (top six head to Oakmont).
 
Foley will need some help. Was cruising until bogeys at 16 and 17. Now currently tied for 7th and on the outside looking in.
 
Wow, Christopher Crawford from Bensalem birdied 18 and essentially eliminated 4 players including Foley. If Crawford only carded a par on 18 there would have been a 5 way sudden death playoff for one spot.
 
UncleLar said:
Miller is currently in a two way tie for the last playoff spot. Dornes is just a shot back.
Click to expand...

Dornes and Miller wound up tied for 7th just missing out on the five way playoff for the last two spots.

Foley also won a playoff to claim the 1st alternate spot, so he still has a chance of playing in the Open depending on how many qualifiers drop out (and some always do).

It wound up being a good day for Penn State golf, just not the great day that it could have been.
 
UncleLar said:
Foley also won a playoff to claim the 1st alternate spot, so he still has a chance of playing in the Open depending on how many qualifiers drop out (and some always do).
Click to expand...

It even goes beyond guys dropping out. Anyone in the top 60 of the World Rankings after this coming weekend makes it in, and the USGA is always conservative in holding spots for any players that might move up. That should open up a few spots, and based upon the strength of the field in Kevin's qualifying sectional, I'd say there is a >50% chance that he tees off at Oakmont.
 
Relayer said:
Wow, Christopher Crawford from Bensalem birdied 18 and essentially eliminated 4 players including Foley. If Crawford only carded a par on 18 there would have been a 5 way sudden death playoff for one spot.
Click to expand...

The putt that knocked Foley out.

Link
 
Erial_Lion said:
It even goes beyond guys dropping out. Anyone in the top 60 of the World Rankings after this coming weekend makes it in, and the USGA is always conservative in holding spots for any players that might move up. That should open up a few spots, and based upon the strength of the field in Kevin's qualifying sectional, I'd say there is a >50% chance that he tees off at Oakmont.
Click to expand...

Just to follow up with some detail on your comment.

As you said, he top 60 in the World Golf Rankings (that's as of next Monday) get spots in the US Open. Last year, the USGA held 6 spots for last minute movement in the rankings. Two of the spots got used, which meant that four went to alternates. If we use number of spots that were available at each of the qualifiers as a proxy for field quality, then the qualifying sites would be ranked as follows.

Walton Heath Golf Club, Surrey, England (13 spots)
Wedgewood Golf & Country Club, Powell OH (13 spots)
Germantown Country Club/Ridgeway Country Club, Memphis TN (10 spots)
Canoe Brook, Summit NJ (6 spots)
Lake Merced Golf Club/The Olympic Club, Daly City, CA (6 spots)
Higashi-Hirono Golf Club, Hirono. Japan (4 spots)
Timuquana Country Club, Jacksonville, FL (4 spots)
Springfield Country Club, Springfield OH (4 spots)
Ansley Golf Club, Roswell GA (3 spots)
Woodmont Country Club, Rockville MD (3 spots)
Lakeside Country Club, Houston TX (3 spots)
Royal Oaks Country Club, Vancouver WA (3 spots)

If this year plays out similar to last (and if my # of spots proxy is valid), then four spots would become available and that last spot would go to Foley (played at Canoe Brook) or a guy from California. Then it would only take one illness/injury dropout to guarantee Foley that last spot.
 
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After doing some further research, I'm not sure that my quality of the field and/or proxy assumptions are valid. First of all, the overseas sites appear to get left out when alternates are selected (no real surprise there).

In 2014, three alternates got in after the World Golf rankings were established and there didn't appear to be any relationship between the size of the sectional and who got the alternate spots.

IN 2015, three of the four spots went to the larger qualifying spots in the US, but the last one went to a location that only had three qualifiers. Two of the qualifiers were first timers and one was an amateur, so it also doesn't appear that the selection is based in any way on a player's past tournament results.

I am now less confident about Foley getting in.
 
Tiger will drop to add another spot too (assuming that he's still in any counts that you're looking at).
 
Sounds like only one of the 6 spots held for guys moving into the Top 60 will be used (McGirt, who won The Memorial last weekend). Also, Tiger's spot was given to the 1st alternate from Japan (it was announced last week and he was listed on the tee times that came out already). This means that at the moment, there would still be 5 spots left for alternates. One of them will go to the 5th alternate Mike Van Sickles (he's writing articles for Golf.com and has mentioned that he's the 5th alternate, which will be the last spot in the field).

http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/us-open-alternate-mike-van-sickles-day-oakmont

This article below mentions that Ryley Reinerstone is the 1st alternate, but I think that it's most likely just the newspaper not understanding the process and assuming that since he's the 1st alternate from his sectional, that he's the first alternate overall.

http://www.nbcneb.com/content/sport...s-first-alternate-for-US-Open--382145001.html

I assume that Kevin knows at this point if he's in or out, but I can't find anything either way on social media or via google. Guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out.
 
Just noticed that Darren Clarke and Jaidee also withdrew in the past few days. So that opened up spots for two more alternates, Thomas Aiken and J-M Singh (and slid Van Sickles up to the 3rd alternate). Appears that there are 4 spots up for grabs that we don't know about yet, and also means that in all, 8 alternates will get spots in the field (assuming no one else drops).
 
Erial_Lion said:
This link is saying that Kevin made it into the field...

http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2016/6/13/11914512/us-open-field-2016-qualifying-list-entrants-oakmont

And even a more reputable source...

http://www.wtae.com/sports/us-open-...dditional-exemption-for-2016-us-open/40028554

Great to have two Nittany Lions in the field this week.
Click to expand...

The best link confirms it.

Kevin tees off 8:46 am Thursday on the 10th tee. T.J. Howe is in the last foursome going off the 1st at 2:42 pm.
 
This is bizarre. Just saw on Golf Channel that Chris Crawford's caddy slipped into a bunker and broke his ankle today. Jason Day of all people helped him out. Chris should go find Oakmont's finest and get him on the bag.
 
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