DUPONT — Qualifying for the U.S. Open is not exactly an impossible dream — the name itself implies accessibility — but making it all the way to Chambers Bay for the 115th edition of the national championship is an arduous task.
Two Sequim golf professionals are planning to take a shot at the U.S. Open in local qualifying today at the par-72, 7,352-yard Home Course.
Bill Shea, the PGA Director of Golf and General Manager of Cedars at Dungeness and Tyler Sweet, the General Manager of SunLand Golf & Country Club, are each attempting to do the improbable.
Just seven of the 120 golfers competing at the Home Course, all with handicap indexes of 1.4 or less, will advance to sectional qualifying on June 8 at Suncadia Resort near Cle Elum.
Sectional qualifying will be played over 36 holes at 12 sites worldwide, and less than 80 golfers out of 9,882 who were accepted for local qualifying will make the U.S. Open.
Both Shea and Sweet have tried to qualify in the past, neither making it over the first hurdle.
“It’s probably been 15 years since I tried,” Shea said.
“I was playing a lot back then and my kids were really young.
“This time I figured, you know, why not. The Open is being held so close and I had my career-best round about nine months ago, so I thought I’d try to have a special day and see what happens.
Shea shot a 9-under-par 63 with nine birdies, two off former pro Jeff Lindsey’s Cedars course record of 61.
“I haven’t tried to qualify for about four years,” Sweet said.
“With it being held here in the Northwest, it would be ideal if we could have a local from Washington, a PGA club pro like myself or Bill make it,” Sweet said.
“I made sure it fit my schedule this year, especially with it occurring at Chambers Bay.”
Shea went down and played the course last week while Sweet has been occupied with his SunLand duties, including training a new course superintendent and food and beverage manager, and hasn’t had a chance to play there recently.
“It’s playing 7,400 yards, so its like adding 80 yards to each hole at Cedars,” Shea said.
“We are going to be hitting a lot of long irons and hybrids into the holes.”
From his past experiences, Sweet knows the setup will be tough.
“They will stick the pins in the most difficult and demanding spots on the greens,” Sweet said.
“They really want the best players to get through.”
It’s hard to compare any course to the unique landscaping and design found at Chambers Bay, but Shea feels the USGA did a good job in finding two courses that can attempt to recreate the championship course.
“The Home Course is a beautiful layout,” Shea said.
It’s super dry and a good representation of . . . sometimes the qualifiers don’t match the course you are going to play the championship on and I think they did a good job picking the Home course and [Walla Walla’s] Wine Valley for the east side.
Sweet will have SunLand member Jay Tomlin caddying for him, while Shea will use his pull cart.
“I was thinking about having Jack [his son] on the bag, but he has the Olympic League Championship on Tuesday, so I didn’t want it to be a distraction for him,” Shea said.
The competition at the Home Course will be stiff
Some participants looking to make it into the national championship’s 156-player field include Cheng-Tsun Pan, a qualifier for the 2013 U.S. Open and former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world who recently graduated from the University of Washington; James Lepp, a British Columbia native, and another former Huskies golfer and former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world who was featured in two seasons of Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series; Tim Feenstra, a PGA golf pro at Seattle’s Broadmoor Golf Club who is a two-time Washington Open champion; and Cameron Peck of Olympia, who was the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and also winner of both the Pacific Northwest Amateur Championship and Washington State Amateur Championship in 2013.
“I think probably [a round of] 70 is about the highest you can shoot [to advance],” Shea said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 69 or lower.”
Is a Cinderella story out of reach?
“I figured anybody can get hot for one day,” Shea said.
“That’s the beauty of the Open, the field is limited to a pretty solid group.
“If I didn’t think I had a chance I wouldn’t tee it up.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
