Lower Saucon’s Steel Club hosting 2021 local qualifier

On May 12, the Steel Club in Lower Saucon Township is hosting a local qualifier for the 2021 U.S. Open.

It is open to professionals and amateurs with a Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4.

Those who advance through local qualifying will move on to final qualifying, which will be contested over 36 holes at nine U.S. sites.

Online entry applications are available at champs. usga.org through April 21.

Local 18-hole qualifying, at 109 sites in 43 states and Canada, will take place between April 26-May 18.

The 121st U.S. Open is June 17-20, at Torrey Pines’ South Course in San Diego. It is the second time it has hosted the USGA event.

The return to qualifying comes after an unprecedented year in which the signature play-in opportunities were canceled due to COVID-19 health and safety concerns.

Ken Venturi (1964) and Orville Moody (1969) are the only players to win the U.S. Open after qualifying through local and regional qualifying.

Gene Littler (1961), Julius Boros (1963), Jerry Pate (1976), Steve Jones (1996), Michael Campbell (2005) and Lucas Glover (2009) won after advancing through final qualifying.

The USGA record for entries is 10,127 entries in 2014 for Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2.

Players who advance from local qualifying will join a group of locally exempt players in final qualifying of 36 holes.

The 2020 U.S. Open event was an all-exempt field because of COVID-19.

In 2019, 17 players advanced through local and final qualifying to the 156-player U.S. Open Championship field at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links. Four made the 36-hole cut.

There are 14 local qualifying sites this year in California, most of any state. Florida has 13 local qualifiers, followed by Texas (six), New York (five) and Pennsylvania (five): Butler Country Club (May 5), Indian Valley CC, Telford (May 10), Country Club of York (May 13) and Elmhurst CC (May 17) are the others.

The Steel Club was bought in February 2018, by David Spirk, president of the commercial construction company Spirk Brothers.

One of the last courses designed by famed Scottish architect Donald Ross opened in 1948. Its name changed to Silver Creek in 1986.