5 Things to Know: 2025 U.S. Open Local Qualifying Week 1

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This is the first part in a weekly series on the path to the 125th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club, June 12-15. The two-stage process begins with 18-hole local qualifying, conducted at 110 sites in 43 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico. Those players who advance will join a group of locally exempt players in final qualifying, which will be conducted over 36 holes at 13 sites between May 19 and June 2.

►Innisbrook Golf Resort & Spa’s Copperhead Course will serve as the first U.S. Open local qualifying site on April 16. Copperhead also hosts the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship, which was won in March by Viktor Hovland, the 2018 U.S. Amateur champion and the low amateur in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Gavin Hall, 30, of Pittsford, N.Y., will attempt to return to the U.S. Open following a 12-year absence. The former University of Texas All-American advanced through both stages to Merion Golf Club in 2013. Several young professionals who compete on PGA Tour Americas are in the field. Michael Brennan, 23, of Leesburg, Va., has posted two top-5 finishes this season. A two-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion at Wake Forest University, Brennan played in his first U.S. Open in 2023. Ben Carr, 24, of Columbus, Ga., was the 2022 U.S. Amateur runner-up who went on to make the 36-hole cut in the following year’s U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. Carr earned the Sun Belt Conference’s top golfer award while playing at Georgia Southern University. Derek Hitchner, 25, of Minneapolis, Minn., aims to play in his first U.S. Open. A former Pepperdine University All-American, he was a 2022 U.S. Amateur semifinalist.

►Oakmont Country Club hosted the 2021 U.S. Amateur Championship and 13 of the 16 players who advanced to the Round of 16 in match play filed entries in hopes of returning to the iconic Western Pennsylvania course for this year’s U.S. Open. James Piot rallied from 3 down following 27 holes in the U.S. Amateur championship match nearly four years ago to defeat Austin Greaser, 2 and 1, to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy. The 26-year-old professional from Canton, Mich., who now resides in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., will start his journey in the Sunshine State on April 21 at Cypress Run Golf Club, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. Travis Vick, a 2021 Amateur semifinalist and low amateur in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club, will play in a local qualifier on May 5 in his hometown of Houston, Texas. Quarterfinalists Brian Stark (May 5) and Matthew Sharpstene (April 28) will also attempt to work their way through both qualifying stages. Greaser, Nick Gabrelcik (semifinalist), Davis Chatfield (quarterfinalist) and Ross Steelman (quarterfinalist) earned local exemptions.

►Christopher Crawford has played in three U.S. Opens (2016, 2017, 2021), advancing through both qualifying stages each time. Crawford, 31, of Bensalem, Pa., became the first Drexel University golfer to play in a U.S. Open in 2016 when he sank a 40-foot birdie putt on the final hole at the Summit, N.J., qualifier at Canoe Brook Country Club to earn a place in the 156-player field at Oakmont. He will start a familiar trek in the Tarpon Springs local qualifier on April 21. Cristian DiMarco, the 29-year-old son of PGA Tour winner Chris DiMarco, and Blades Brown, who in 2023 at Cherry Hills Country Club became the youngest U.S. Amateur medalist at age 16 to break Bob Jones’ record, will also tee it up in this Florida qualifier. Currently a high school senior from Nashville, Tenn., Brown eschewed a plethora of college scholarship offers to turn professional this past December. The 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball runner-up has competed in one Korn Ferry Tour and four PGA Tour events this season.

►Drive, Chip & Putt, a nationwide junior development competition that is conducted by the USGA, PGA of America and Augusta National Golf Club, has a group of champions competing in the first week of qualifying. Patrick Welch, 25, of Aliso Vejo, Calif., won the inaugural DCP 14-15 division in 2014. Welch, a four-time honorable mention All-American at the University of Oklahoma who is competing on the Korn Ferry Tour, is in the Duncan, Okla., qualifier on April 21. Jake Sheffield, 16, of Knoxville, Tenn., won the 14-15 division and Leo Saito, 14, of Hilo, Hawaii, captured the 12-13 division in 2023. Sheffield will begin his quest to play at Oakmont at Three Ridges Golf Course in his hometown on April 22. Saito will travel from the Big Island to Maui where he is entered in the April 21st Wailuku, Hawaii, local qualifier. Michael Jorski, 15, of Clarendon Hills, Ill., will be among 78 entrants at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club, in Grayslake, Ill., on April 23. Jorski claimed the 12-13 division in 2022. Current champion Anthony Wu used a hot putter to win this year’s 14-15 division by a single point at Augusta National. Wu, of Mission Viejo, Calif., is entered in U.S. Open local qualifying for the second consecutive year. He begins his trek in Laguna Niguel, Calif., to kick off the second week of first-stage qualifying.

►Hola, Mexico! Local qualifying expands south of the U.S. border in 2025, where the Club de Golf La Hacienda will serve as the host site on April 23. Santiago de la Fuente, the 2024 Latin America Amateur champion, highlights the competitors in the field. De la Fuente carded a final-round 64 to win at Santa Maria Golf Club, in Panama City, Panama, earning a full exemption into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club. An All-American at the University of Houston, the 23-year-old tied for 40th in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in March. Luis Masaveu, 22, of Spain, made a run to the U.S. Amateur semifinals last year at Hazeltine National Golf Club where he lost to eventual champion and fellow countryman Jose Luis Ballester. Masaveu, who is now a professional, was the first Spanish amateur to make the 36-hole cut at The Open Championship in 2024 at Royal Troon.

NOTE: Golf Channel will provide wall-to-wall coverage of Golf’s Longest Day, Monday, June 2. 

Brian DePasquale is the USGA’s senior manager for communications. Email him at bdepasquale@usga.org.