U.S. Open Final Qualifying Brings Chaos to Shinnecock Hills

U.S. Open Final Qualifying is where golf gets ruthless, and the road to Shinnecock Hills is about to deliver another dose of beautiful chaos.

The 126th U.S. Open will be played June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, but before the national championship can fully take shape, dozens of hopefuls still have to survive 36 holes of pressure.

This is the part of the process that makes the U.S. Open different. It’s not just stars, exemptions and rankings.

It’s a doorway anyone good enough can try to kick open.

Any professional or amateur with a handicap index of 0.4 or lower can enter, creating one of the wildest paths in major championship golf.

Local Qualifying began with 18-hole events from April 20-May 14, and the survivors now move into Final Qualifying.

The biggest wave comes June 8, better known as “Golf’s Longest Day,” with sites stretching from Sacramento, California, to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

One of the loudest early storylines came out of the New York qualifier at Century Country Club and Golf Club of Purchase.

Kevin Roy led the way at 8 under, while Max Greyserman, Ben James and James Nicholas also punched tickets to Shinnecock. James is especially intriguing.

The top-ranked player from the PGA TOUR U Class of 2026 is set to make his pro debut at the RBC Canadian Open, and now he’s also headed to the U.S. Open.

The Dallas qualifier already produced a strong group, with Peter Uihlein, Tom Kim, Cooper Dossey, Manav Shah, Jimmy Stanger, Graeme McDowell, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, T.K. Kim and Caleb Surratt advancing.

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International qualifiers have added more flavor. Nathan Kimsey, Rocco Repetto Taylor and Filippo Celli were among those to advance at Walton Heath, while Ryuichi Oiwa, Kaito Onishi and Taihei Sato moved through in Japan.

Shinnecock is waiting.

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