Cameron Young bests Max Homa, Rickie Fowler in U.S. Open qualifying playoff

Cameron Young made a birdie putt to win a five-for-one playoff at his U.S. Open final qualifying site Monday — and all but ensured that Max Homa and Rickie Fowler would not qualify for the major.

The playoff at the star-studded Columbus, Ohio, qualifying site was the highlight of a busy Monday billed as the longest day in golf.

Golfers who advanced through local qualifying gathered at 10 final qualifying sites across North America to play 36 holes and contend for 47 spots in the U.S. Open field. The available spots at each site were determined by the size and strength of each field.

The field at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club in Columbus was filled with PGA Tour players who competed at the Memorial Tournament over the weekend. South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen ran away with medalist honors at Kinsale, shooting 13-under-par 131.

Bud Cauley, Lanto Griffin, Justin Lower and Korn Ferry Tour player Harrison Ott rounded out the top five at Kinsale, but the sixth and final opening had to be determined by a five-man playoff of players tied at 5 under: Young, Homa, Fowler, Chase Johnson and Eric Cole.

Homa and Fowler — two of the most established and popular players to be competing Monday — were the only two to find the fairway off the tee of the first playoff hole, but Young hit out of the rough to 10 feet of the pin, while Homa was 15 feet away and Fowler missed the green entirely.

Fowler ended up bogeying and being the first fully eliminated. Homa joined Cole and Johnson for a second playoff hole to determine two alternate positions, and Homa was the odd man out — four-putting for bogey to miss in dubious fashion.

A six-time PGA Tour winner, Homa had played in the last five U.S. Opens. He has fallen to No. 90 in the world rankings, and the only way he could sneak in is if he makes the top 60 in the world on June 9. Homa is entered in this week’s RBC Canadian Open.

Fowler has fallen even further, to No. 101 in the world. Also a six-time winner on tour, Fowler failed to qualify for the 2021 and 2022 U.S. Opens before returning for the most recent two.

Young has yet to win on tour but garnered five top-10 finishes at majors from 2022-24. He has played in each of the past four U.S. Opens.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, 53, finished just one shot out of qualifying for the Columbus playoff. Other PGA Tour players who failed to move out of the Kinsale site included Chez Reavie, Swede Alexander Noren and Canadian Adam Hadwin.

One of the largest qualifiers Monday was at Duke University Golf Club in Durham, N.C., where PGA Tour veteran Webb Simpson fell one shot shy of a potential spot. A playoff determined Simpson would be the second alternate from the site, behind amateur Miles Russell.

The seven spots available at Duke went to Zach Bauchou, Alistair Docherty, the Mexican pair of Alvaro Ortiz and Emilio Gonzalez, Trent Phillips, George Kneiser and Chandler Blanchet.

At Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., Bryan Lee and Australian Marc Leishman advanced in a 3-for-2 playoff and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz was relegated to first-alternate status. Lee and Leishman joined Ryan McCormick and Trevor Cone for the site’s four spots.

Leishman and Munoz are members of LIV Golf, and they were joined by many of their peers ahead of the league’s event outside Washington, D.C., later this week. Brendan Steele and India’s Anirban Lahiri were among the LIV golfers who failed to qualify. A host of others, notably Bubba Watson and England’s Lee Westwood, were registered but decided to withdraw.

Matt Vogt, a dentist and amateur golfer, grabbed the top qualifying place at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Wash.: Brady Calkins got the second and final U.S. Open berth from the site.

Other qualifying results (amateur designated by ‘a’):

–Canoe Brook Country Club, Summit, N.J.: James Nicholas, Chris Gotterup, Mexico’s Roberto Diaz, Benjamin James (a)

–Lambton Golf & Country Club, York, Ontario: Kevin Velo, Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard, Matt Wallace, Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, Mark Hubbard, France’s Victor Perez, Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo

–Piedmont Driving Club, Atlanta: Mason Howell (a), Jackson Buchanan, Englishman Tyler Weaver (a), Jackson Koivun (a), Will Chandler

–Springfield Country Club, Springfield, Ohio: Grant Haefner, George Duangmanee, Maxwell Moldovan, Zac Blair (Blair wins 4-for-1 playoff)

Still to come:

–Emerald Dunes Golf Club, West Palm Beach, Fla.

–Valencia Country Club, Valencia, Calif.

–Field Level Media