U.S. ALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Kyle Mueller Again Pulls Off Local-Final Double
Kyle Mueller Again Pulls Off Local-Final Double
Among the 156 players in the U.S. Open field are 20 who ran the daunting gauntlet of local and final qualifying. This year’s championship attracted the highest number of entries ever, a total of 10,187 hopefuls, the vast majority of whose quests began – and ended – at one of the 109 local qualifiers conducted around the country between April 17 and May 22. A little over 5 percent of that contingent (530 out of 9,693) moved on to join those exempt into final qualifying. At that stage, the odds slightly improved, with about 7½ percent getting to LACC (67 of 878, at 13 sites). Kyle Mueller, 27, of Athens, Ga., who was an All-America player at the University of Michigan, is one of those 20 players who pulled off the impressive double, advancing through local in Sylvania, Ohio, and through final qualifying on June 5 at Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Ball Ground, Ga. It’s the second time Mueller has beaten the long odds, having done so in 2016 to compete at Oakmont. He will attempt to improve on his finish there, having shot 77-73 to miss the 36-hole cut by four strokes.
