Jim Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, and past U.S. Amateur champions Matthew Fitzpatrick and Byeong Hun An are among the 26 additional golfers who have earned full exemptions into the 2019 U.S. Open Championship, to be played June 13-16 at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links. These exemptions bring the number of fully exempt players to 76.
All 26 exemptions were awarded to players who earned a place in the top 60 of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) as of May 19. Furyk, who won the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club by three strokes over Stephen Leaney, is No. 51 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He ended the 2018 season at No. 223 but vaulted up the rankings thanks to a runner-up finish in The Players Championship in March. Furyk, who also has been runner-up three times (2006, 2007, 2016), will compete in his 25th U.S. Open.
Fitzpatrick, the 2013 U.S. Amateur champion who is competing in his fifth U.S. Open, is No. 33 in the OWGR, while An, the 2009 U.S. Amateur champion, is No. 57. He will be playing in his sixth U.S. Open.
The other players who earned full exemptions through the current Official World Golf Ranking are (in alphabetical order): Abraham Ancer, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Lucas Bjerregaard, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Branden Grace, Justin Harding, J.B. Holmes, Charles Howell III, Kevin Kisner, Haotong Li, Luke List, Shane Lowry, Keith Mitchell, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Louis Oosthuizen, Cheng Tsung Pan, Eddie Pepperell, Ian Poulter, Chez Reavie, Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker and Matt Wallace.
Reavie (2001) and Snedeker (2003) are past U.S. Amateur Public Links champions.
At No. 20, Oosthuizen is the highest-ranked player in the current OWGR who was not previously exempt into the U.S. Open. Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, will compete in his 10th U.S. Open. He was the runner-up with Dustin Johnson to Jordan Spieth in 2015 at Chambers Bay, shooting a championship-record 199 over his final 54 holes.
List moved up 18 spots from his previous world ranking to No. 58 after finishing sixth in this past weekend’s PGA Championship, his fourth top-10 result in 2019. The 2004 U.S. Amateur runner-up will be making his fifth U.S. Open appearance. In 2018, he lost in a sudden-death playoff to Justin Thomas at the Honda Classic.
Players not currently in the field can still become fully exempt by being a multiple winner of a PGA Tour event that awards a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship or by being in the top 60 of the OWGR as of Monday, June 10.
The first of nine U.S. sectional qualifiers for the 2019 U.S. Open was conducted on May 20, in Dallas, Texas, where 10 spots in the 156-player field were allotted. Japan (Kuwana Country Club) and England (Walton Heath Golf Club) will host international sectional qualifying on May 27 and June 3, respectively. A sectional qualifier will be contested for the first time in Canada (RattleSnake Point Golf Club) on June 3. Those players who qualify are in addition to the 76 fully exempt players listed below.
Sectional qualifying in the United States, at 36 holes, will take place at eight sites on Monday, June 3. The sites are: Big Canyon Country Club & Newport Beach Country Club, Newport Beach, Calif.; Streamsong Resort (Black Course), Bowling Green, Fla.; Hawks Ridge Golf Club, Ball Ground, Ga.; Woodmont Country Club (North Course), Rockville, Md.; Century Country Club & Old Oaks Country Club, Purchase, N.Y.; Brookside Golf & Country Club & Scioto Country Club, Columbus, Ohio; Springfield (Ohio) Country Club; and Wine Valley Golf Club, Walla Walla, Wash.
Pebble Beach Golf Links has hosted the U.S. Open in five consecutive decades and the 119th edition will be the 13th USGA championship to be conducted at the resort. In 1972, Jack Nicklaus won the third of his record-tying four U.S. Opens. Tom Watson and Tom Kite claimed their lone U.S. Open titles in 1982 and 1992, respectively. In 2000, Tiger Woods won the first of his three U.S. Opens with a historic 15-stroke triumph, and Graeme McDowell became the first European in 40 years to win the U.S. Open in 2010. Woods, who also won the 2002 and 2008 U.S. Opens, and McDowell are exempt into the 2019 championship.
To see the full list of 76 golfers fully exempt into the 2019 U.S. Open as of May 20 (not including the sectional qualifiers from Texas), go to this link: https://www.usopen.com/content/us-open/2019/articles/the-119th-u-s--open--who-s-exempt.html