The odds are still long, but at least four local golfers are a step closer to playing in next month's U.S. Open golf tournament at Shinnecock Hills, N.Y.
Randy McCracken, Ryan Rhees, Brad Sutterfield and Jim Nelford were the four survivors among 36 hopefuls at Monday's U.S. Open local qualifying at Ogden Golf and Country Club.McCracken, a 24-year-old pro from Idaho Falls, was the low qualifier with a 67 followed by Rhees, a former BYU golfer and current assistant at Payson's Gladstan Golf Course, who shot a 69.
Nelford, an ex-PGA Tour regular who lives in Utah County, and Sutterfield, a former State Am champ and BYU star, had to survive a five-way playoff among the golfers who finished at 70.
Those four golfers will head to four different locations next month where they'll have about a one in 10 chance at sectional qualifyings to move on to the big one in New York June 15-18.
Of the four, only Nelford has the experience of playing in a U.S. Open, competing in a half dozen in the late '70s and early '80s.
Nelford has chosen to play in the June 6 sectional in Rockville, Md., where the majority of the non-exempt PGA Tour pros will try to qualify before they play in the Kemper Open that week. Nelford, a TV commentator for the Golf Channel, will be in the area doing a Nike Tour event the previous weekend.
McCracken is a former University of Oregon golfer, who elected to come to Ogden, rather than Boise to try to qualify. He reeled off seven birdies before finally bogeying No. 17. By that point he said, "I figured I was going to make it."
Rhees made it out of the local qualifying for the second straight year in just his second U.S. Open try. He got off to a slow start with birdies at 1 and 3, before making a bunch of birdies on the back side at 11, 13, 15 and 16. He needed to sink a 5-foot par putt at the final hole to avoid the playoff.
Sutterfield, who has been playing the "Hooters" Tour in the South qualified for the first time in just his first try.
The three players who lost in the playoff, Eaglewood assistant Brad Hansen, Golf In The Round's Peter Carsbo and BYU golfer Todd Pence, were also trying to make it out of the U.S. Open local qualifying for the first time.
Pence had the saddest story to tell after hitting one out of bounds at No. 12 and three-putting the final hole. He was literally on his way back to Spokane, Wash., for the summer with a packed car in the parking lot.
While Nelford goes to Maryland to try to qualify, Rhess is headed to Valencia, Calif., Sutterfield to Redmond, Wash., and McCracken to Littleton, Colo.