HOME & A WAY
DUBLIN, Ohio — Early Monday morning, some 751 hopefuls will play in the grueling 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifiers at 10 different locations — with only a handful of spots available for Erin Hills in Wisconsin in two weeks.
Steve Stricker will be one of them.
Other than two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North, now an ESPN analyst, there may not be a player who has served as a better golf ambassador to golf in Wisconsin than Stricker.
For that, combined with his 12 PGA Tour wins, three Ryder Cup appearances, five Presidents Cups and as the current Presidents Cup captain, Stricker could have been given a special exemption into this U.S. Open.
He wrote a letter to the USGA earlier this year asking for a special exemption, a request that was denied.
Granted, this can be a slippery slope, because every year there will be candidates to be special exemptions.
But a strong case can be made for Stricker being invited to Erin Hills. He was, after all, brought in as a player consultant by the USGA and the Erin Hills owner in the infant stages of the course’s existence.
But, instead of being granted an exemption, Stricker, who turned 50 earlier this year, will be grinding it out with 107 other players at the Germantown Country Club and Ridgeway Country Club in Memphis, Tenn., Monday morning vying for about 10 spots at the U.S. Open.
Ranked 85th in the world entering the Memorial, Stricker, if he does not earn a U.S Open spot at the qualifier, needs to be in the top 60 after this coming week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. Erin Hills is about 75 minutes from Stricker’s home in Madison.
“That’s the only reason that’s driving me, really,’’ Stricker said. “It’s there in my home state. I walked around with the USGA and the original owner Bob Lang when [the course] was built. I was with Mike Davis [the USGA’s executive director] and the owner, and they were talking about the possibility of a U.S. Open there.
“They wanted a player to go around there, and I was in on it from the start kind of. It’s right there in our backyard. The U.S. Open has never been in Wiscon- sin, so I think it’d be really cool to be part of it. And, it’s not like I’m chopping [like a high-handicapper]. I’m still competitive, 85th in the world or whatever.’’
Stricker, tied for seventh last week at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, probably needed to finish among the top three at the Memorial at Muirfield Village to move into the top 60 in the rankings, but he failed to make a big move Sunday, shooting 78.
Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen received an exemption last year to play at Oakmont, the first since Tom Watson and Vijay Singh were invited into the 2010 Open at Pebble Beach. Before that, the last special exemption was Nick Price in 2005 at Pinehurst No. 2.
Stricker, while disappointed, said he figured his request was a long shot.
“I had no hope when I wrote [the letter],’’ Stricker said. “I just looked at the list of exemptions over the years and it’s a ‘who’s who’ of the Golf Hall of Fame. It’s [Arnold] Palmer, [Jack] Nicklaus, [Tom] Watson, [Lee] Trevino. And you go back, [Sam] Snead, [Ben] Hogan. I looked at that and said, ‘There’s no chance.’ But I wrote one anyways. And I was fine with [the decision].
“I’ll just try to play as well as I can and maybe I can sneak in the top 60 [or] maybe I can qualify on Monday,’’ he said.