The United States Open Championship is the most open event of all the PGA Tour Major Championships. Anyone with a handicap of 1.4 or below can try to qualify to play. It consists of a local and a sectional qualifying to earn a spot in the Championship. Over 10,000 people applied to play in this years US Open. There were many different local qualifying sites with spots up for grabs in the sectional qualifying. There are 12 sectional qualifying sites around the country with 2 of those being over seas. I played my local qualifying at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, OK. This was the site of the 2001 US Open Championship won by Retief Goosen and the 2007 PGA Championship won by Tiger Woods. There were 96 players in the field and they had 5 spots available and 2 alternate positions. I finished 2nd with a 2 over par 72. It was a good 2 days of golf as we were supposed to finish on Monday, but the weather didn't cooperate and I only got 5 holes in Monday. The remaining field had to come back Tuesday morning and complete our rounds. The golf course was playing very difficult and extremely long. That definitely played into my type of golf. I really enjoy, and usually play better, very difficult and long courses. My sectional qualifying will be held at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, TN on June 2nd. I have never had a chance to play this course yet but I am heading down there this coming week to play both courses. I'm really looking forward to this event as it is the same week as the FedEx St. Jude Championship on the PGA Tour so quite a few tour players will be in the field. This is a great test and should also help me in preparing for the National Club Pro Championship in Myrtle Beach at the end of June. Thanks for all the support. Brian Bennett
