THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio — After playing four difficult days at the Memorial, Davis Love III made it through 36 holes on Monday to qualify for his 18th consecutive trip to the U.S. Open.
Fred Couples and several other PGA Tour players weren’t nearly so fortunate.
Love’s streak of 70 consecutive majors ended when he failed to qualify for the Masters, and there were no guarantees he would play in the next major until he followed a 72 at Brookside with a 5-under 66 at the tougher Ohio State Scarlet Course to become one of 23 players at the sectional qualifier to earn a trip to Torrey Pines.
It was one of 13 qualifiers held Monday in the United States, with another one in Europe.
Most of the PGA Tour players were at the Columbus sectional, having been in town for the Memorial. Love and Couples each played four days at Muirfield Village, then had to get up before the break of dawn to join 144 players.
Couples, who had said this might be the last time he tries to qualify, opened with a 69 at Brookside, but a 72 on the Scarlet kept him out of the playoff by two shots. He didn’t sign his scorecard and was disqualified.
Eleven players were competing for the final seven spots.
Carl Pettersson was the medallist at 131, followed by Bart Bryant at 134. Of those who made it, none was more thrilled than Pat Perez, who said last week he would rather qualify for the U.S. Open than win the Memorial.
Perez grew up around Torrey Pines, worked at the public golf course as a teenager and figures he has played there over 1,000 times.
Others who qualified included Ben Crane, Joe Ogilvie, Nick Watney, Jesper Parnevik and Dean Wilson. Kevin Tway, a former U.S. Junior Amateur champion and son of former PGA champion Bob Tway, also qualified.
Among those sitting out were Jay Haas, who won the Senior PGA Championship a week ago, and Tom Lehman, who once went three straight years playing in the final group at the U.S. Open but never won.
In other qualifiers:
— Former PGA champion Rich Beem has never made the cut at the U.S. Open, but he won’t stop qualifying. He earned one of two spots in Richmond, Texas, sharing medallist honours with Charlie Beljan. Another former PGA champion, Steve Elkington, missed by two shots.
— Jason Bohn, Matt Kuchar and D.J. Trahan qualified at Ansley Golf Club in Roswell, Ga., although Trahan took the third and final spot in a playoff. Ollie Schniederjans, at 14 the youngest of more than 830 players to reach sectional qualifying, shot 72-76 to finish well back.
Billy Andrade failed to qualify.
— In England, Robert Dinwiddie birdied six of his last eight holes, including an 8-footer on the 18th at Walton Heath, to earn one of seven spots. The medallists were Alastair Forsyth and Ross Fisher.
Nearly 20 players withdrew, so the USGA awarded seven spots to European Tour players instead of 10.