Summerhays, Hoffman move on in a playoff

LOS ANGELES ❯❯ The Longest Day wasn't enough.

They needed 12 more minutes and one more hole to sort it out.

And now it's settled: After a three-players-fortwo-spots playoff Tuesday morning at Hillcrest Country Club, four-time PGA Tour winner Charley Hoffman and Arizona State star junior Preston Summerhays played just one extra hole to make it through at U.S. Open Final Qualifying action.

They both earned a spot among the 156 players who will tee it up in the 123rd U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club from June 15-18.

Murrieta's Josh Anderson, a 34-year-old who recently has been doing more caddying than playing, will be an alternate after he hit his tee shot on the par-4 10th hole right and into a deep bunker along the fairway. He sprayed his second shot in front of the fairway and then left his chip short of the green, setting up a bogey at best.

Hoffman and Summerhays both hit their drives cleanly straight onto the fairway, and then onto the green, and both two-putted for par.

All three players finished Monday's 36 holes of qualifying tied for fourth at 9-under par.

“Obviously you don't want to see someone make a mistake, but an easy par always makes the heart rate go down a little bit,” said the 46-year-old Hoffman, a San Diego native whose best U.S. Open finish was eighth in 2017 in Erin, Wisconsin.

He said he circled this year's U.S. Open when he heard it was going to be in L.A.

“I knew it was going to be a hard one to get into,” he added. “But I think LACC is probably gonna hold one of the best Opens you'll ever see.”

Summerhays, just 20, will be making a return trip to the U.S. Open too. The golfer from Scottsdale, Ariz., gained entry to the tournament at Winged Foot in 2020 (he shot 9 over and missed the cut) on the basis of his U.S. Junior Amateur victory.

He stayed solid Tuesday to earn a return trip: “I'm a good match play player, so you kind of take this as a match play format. And once he was in the bunker — and I don't really know his game or know him that much — I knew that statistically you have the advantage.”

Still, Summerhays said, even with two putts to make par, he was plenty nervous with 30 feet between him and the hole. He gave himself a tapin to get in again.

Anderson meanwhile, will just have to wait and hope — again. He also missed qualifying for the 2015 U.S. Open after losing a playoff.

“I'm playing well, so it's bittersweet,” Anderson said. “Hopefully. You never know.”