Better late than never
U.S. Open 2023: LACC field set as 6 players get last-minute spots
Jonathan Bachman
With their recent play on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour vaulting them into the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking in the last month, Emiliano Grillo, Pablo Lazzarabal and Adam Schenk essentially knew they had spots in the field at this coming week’s U.S. Open despite not being officially part of the guest list until Monday. Now three other golfers—Bastien Amat, Michael Kim and Maxwell Moldovan—are also on their way to Los Angeles Country Club, as the USGA finalized the field for this week’s national championship.
After Final Qualifying finished last Monday, the USGA had filled 150 of the 156 spots, leaving officials some wiggle room in case chaos took place at the RBC Canadian Open. Among the USGA criteria for automate entry into the U.S. Open was being inside the top 60 of the OWGR on June 12 for anyone who wasn’t already qualified; that’s where Grillo (who won the Charles Schwab Challenge to make his move) Lazzarabal (winner at the DP World Tour’s KLM Open last month) and Schenk got their invites, and potentially others might have joined with solid finishes in Toronto.
Meanwhile, the USGA also allows anyone with multiple PGA Tour wins since last year’s U.S. Open a spot, so it had to hold space in case somebody won in Canada who fit that criteria. When nobody did—Nick Taylor was already in the field—the USGA could tap into first alternates from Final Qualifying to get the next spots.
Amat, an amateur from France, comes from the Tacoma FQ location while Kim was first alternate in Dallas. Moldovan, also an amateur who qualified for The Country Club a year ago, was first out of the Springfield, Ohio, qualifier. There are now 19 amateurs in the field.
So who’s now Mr. 157? Well, that depends. If a player in the field now withdraws from the championship before he tees off on Thursday, how that player gained entry into the field determines who gets his spot. If it was a Final Qualifier, the alternate from that specific site receives the empty spot. If it’s an exempt player, the USGA has a ranking of alternates that it pulls from based on the quality of the fields at the Final Qualifiers. It is believed that Lucas Glover out of the Columbus, Ohio qualifier is No. 1 for any exempt player WD.
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