There are days when major champion Sergio Garcia is no different from Harrison Ott, when two-time PGA Tour winner Kevin Streelman is no different from amateur Jack Schultz. That’s when they all must play their way into a U.S. Open.
Garcia is an alternate for the 122nd U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club from June 13-16 in North Carolina. Streelman, however, missed out at the Dallas Athletic Club qualifier on May 20.
Ott and Schultz, along with Marinette’s Ty Kretz and University of Wisconsin player Coalter Smith, will get their chance to play their way into the U.S. Open on June 3, as they compete for eight spots at the Scarlet Course at the Ohio State University Golf Club.
Madison’s Joe Leonard also will compete June 3, for one of nine spots Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ohio.
The quintet advanced to the doorstep of golf’s national championship through a two-day, 18-hole local qualifier that began May 7 at North Shore Country Club in Mequon and ended on May 8 due to inclement weather.
Ott, a Brookfield native, was the medalist over those days with a 6-under par 66. A Vanderbilt University alumnus, Ott lives full-time in Nashville as he pursues his golf career.
The 2020 and 2021 Wisconsin State Open champion, the 25-year-old Ott had competed in five events on the PGA Tour Americas and made two cuts. The last was at the rain-shortened KIA Open in Ecuador, in which he tied for 47th on May 5.
Some 3,000 miles and over 10 hours of flights later, Ott was back home to give himself a shot at the U.S. Open.
“That rain kind of helped me a little bit, the delay,” he said of the qualifier at North Shore. “I was feeling OK. I felt like my physical game was rounding into really nice form and had been for a while but I was just waiting on a lower score and more putts to fall. So, it was kind of nice to have that patience pay off a little bit with a lower score in the qualifier. But also just to kind of see some putts fall and see a little bit of reward for what I had been feeling physically in my improvement in game. Because it doesn’t always go from physical improvement straight to a difference on scoreboard. It’s not to say I had been playing bad, I just hadn’t been shooting 66s. It was good to see.”
Milwaukee’s Schultz, who won the 2023 Wisconsin State Amateur, shot a 67 to finish runner-up. The 33-year-old has 2017 and 2018 U.S. Amateur trips under his belt, but he recognized his game couldn’t handle those major championship quality golf courses.
But recent life and work changes the last few years have allowed him to improve his game and for the first time he focused on qualifying for a U.S. Open.
“The game itself has changed, but the mental attitude has changed to actually wanting to go out there and play well,” Schultz said. “So that’s probably the biggest issue of me going in here and saying you know, I’ve been doing this work and kind of talking about it some to people and wanting to prove it to myself that wht I’m doing is actually improving the game and how I play out there. It makes golf a lot more enjoyable, too, to go out there and play well. But making it enjoyable and playing well is something I’m definitely working on. That’s been the big change the last few years.”
And though he’s a veteran of nearly a dozen USGA championships, Schultz has never advanced to the doorstep of a U.S. Open.
“For some reason in my career I’ve done really well at USGA, 36-hole, one-day qualifiers,” Schultz said. “I’ve played in 11 so far and some of them are 18 holes but a lot of them are 36 holes and I have a tendency of, I don’t start off too well in a round, but then I figure out my game and when I finish I’m like oh, crap, I wish I could keep going. These 36-hole qualifiers, you have another 18 holes after and I tend to do better. So that’s been the case since I think my first one in 2005, when I was 14. Every time I play in these longer qualifiers I do better. To me, this one might be for the U.S. Open, but I still view it as a 36-hole, one-day, USGA qualifier. So, that’s kind of how I’m feeling about it now.”
Schultz, who will have his brother-in-law Mike Mueller on his bag, will be paired with Kretz for the qualifier.
Ott is in a group with Thomas Longbella, a Chippewa Falls native who happened to win the KIA Open in Ecuador before also jetting back to the States to qualify for the U.S. Open. He advanced to sectional play out of a Florida qualifier.
Ott is hoping for a slightly better result than a year ago, when he missed the U.S. Open by one shot.
“It was truly a moment where it gave me the confidence that OK, I’m doing the right thing, like, I’m capable of playing professional golf at a really high level and I’m capable of playing and beating a lot of guys I did play with,” he said of last year’s near-miss. “It gave me a confidence in my game and what I was doing in general.
“Now, will it change how I feel this year? I hope not. I think the innocence of kind of being there and just trying to shoot a score rather than being there and trying really hard to qualify, I think there is power to that. So, kind of being away for that going in that you know, you can’t go there and say ‘I’m here to qualify.’ Maybe some people can and deep down you do have to have that confidence, I don’t want it to ruin my experiences there or dictate my experience there.”
Smith, who just graduated from Wisconsin with a degree in political science and legal studies and plans to turn pro, is in a group that includes PGA professional Jeff Kellen, who is coming off an appearance in the PGA Championship.
Notable players also competing on the Scarlet Course include two-time major champion Padraig Harrington and PGA Tour winners K.H. Lee, Jhonnattan Vegas, Bo Van Pelt and Brendon Todd.
Leonard will be playing his qualifying round at Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ohio. Notable players in the Springfield Country Club field include major champions Zach Johnson and Adam Scott and PGA Tour winners Troy Merritt, William McGirt and Nick Hardy.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Six Wisconsin golfers play for U.S. Open spots in June 3 qualifiers
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