The U.S. Open’s final qualifying turned into a one-day sprint Monday, with players at 10 sites playing 36 holes for places in the 2026 championship at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, N.Y. The route into one of golf’s biggest stages ran through Toronto, Sacramento, Springfield, Ohio, Creswell, Ore., Rockville, Md., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. and Purchase, N.Y.
The scale of the day was the point. Final qualifying is known as golf’s longest day because so much is decided in one stretch, and the broadcast window on Golf Channel ran from noon to 2 p.m. ET and again from 4 p.m. to midnight ET, putting the entire scramble for spots on display as players fought through two rounds in one day.
Toronto drew 61 players, with Max Homa, Rasmus Hojgaard, Ricky Castillo, Beau Hossler, Camillo Villegas and Garrick Higgo among the names in the field. Sacramento had 78 players, including Ricky Barnes, Michael Block, Kevin Na and Geoff Ogilvy, while Springfield, Ohio also had 78 and featured Tony Finau, Brandt Snedeker, Aldrich Potgieter, Billy Horschel and Neal Shipley.
Other sites carried their own mix of established players and lesser-known hopefuls. Creswell, Ore., had 54 players, with Andrew Putnam and Michael Putnam in the field. Rockville, Md., listed 77 players and included Blades Brown and Michael Thorbjornsen. Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., had 78 players and featured Matt Kuchar, Luke Clanton, Matthieu Pavon and Nico Gordic-Ronderos.
Gordic-Ronderos stood out even before a shot was struck. At 14, he was identified as the youngest player in final qualifying, a reminder that the same Monday path can lead both a veteran major winner and a teenager trying to break through. Purchase, N.Y., had the largest listed field at 79 players, adding one more crowded stage to a day built on narrow margins.
The unresolved part is the part that matters most in qualifying: the spots at the listed sites were still TBD. The fields were full of recognizable names, but the outcome had not yet been settled in the moment the competition began, leaving Monday’s 36 holes to sort out who moves on and who goes home. The next fixed date is Thursday, June 18, when the 2026 U.S. Open is scheduled to start at Shinnecock Hills.
