3 days ago
Forget Q-School; U-Va. golfers will bring Hoo School to the U.S. Open
As a member of the Virginia men's golf team, Bryan Lee spent nearly a month on the road during the program's record-setting run through the postseason this spring. The junior barely was able to catch his breath when he got back to Charlottesville following the Cavaliers' first appearance in the NCAA championship match May 28 in Carlsbad, California.
That's because Lee, a native of Fairfax, Virginia, needed to prepare for a U.S. Open final qualifier several days later at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, where he was in a field of mostly professionals.
Facing 36 holes June 2 for one of four spots among more than 60 entrants while still somewhat gassed from the grind of the long college season, Lee arrived at Woodmont with reduced expectations. By the end of 'Golf's Longest Day,' during which qualifying took place at 13 sites, Lee had punched his ticket to Oakmont, perhaps the most unforgiving of all the courses to have hosted the event.
Making the occasion that much more special was learning a pair of Cavaliers teammates, one current and another recently former, made it through final qualifying as well to secure spots at the U.S. Open, which begins Thursday.
Ben James, also a junior, qualified at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey, carding two birdies down the stretch to claim the fourth and final berth. Also qualifying was Fairfax's George Duangmanee, who graduated from Virginia last year and since has been playing professionally. Duangmanee is making his first U.S. Open start after qualifying out of Springfield (Ohio) Country Club, earning one of four spots by shooting 5-under-par 135.
Lee fired a 3-under 139 and won a three-for-two playoff at Woodmont, outlasting LIV Golf member Sebastián Munoz. Another LIV player, Peter Uihlein, finished a shot behind.
'It's kind of hard to put into words,' Lee said Friday. 'It hasn't quite settled in, if I'm being honest. It's just like, gosh, because I have had so many things happen in the past week, obviously with the team and then coming back home. It all happened so fast, and then suddenly I was in contention and then the playoff. I feel like it was so much at once. I think overwhelmed, and knowing now, it's an overwhelming, nerve-racking feeling for sure.'
James, the first Virginia golfer to become a three-time first-team all-American, will be making his second U.S. Open start after playing last year at Pinehurst No. 2.
A member of the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team in 2023, James also gets the opportunity to connect at Oakmont with the namesake of an award he won in the same year. The Phil Mickelson Award is presented annually to the top freshman in the country, and the six-time major champion is exempt into this year's field in what he said in 'high likelihood' would be his final U.S. Open.
'It was kind of a whirlwind from San Diego for those guys,' said Cavaliers golf coach Bowen Sargent, named East Region coach of the year for the first time in a Virginia career spanning more than two decades. 'I can't believe they had the energy and the stamina to get through a 36-hole day like that, but they're young, so obviously we pulled for them and sat there and watched it all day long.'
The trio of Cavaliers have received support from the PGA Tour's Denny McCarthy, the most decorated of all University of Virginia golfers. McCarthy, born in Rockville, turned pro in 2015, joined the PGA Tour in the 2018 season and has won more than $20 million in prize money, with two runner-up finishes.
The graduate of Georgetown Prep is making his sixth U.S. Open start, with his best showing a 2022 tie for seventh at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. McCarthy's second U.S. Open start came at Oakmont in 2016, the last time the venue in the Pittsburgh suburbs hosted.
The plan, according to Lee, is for the threesome of Cavaliers teammates to try to play a practice round with McCarthy, given his institutional knowledge of Oakmont, where Dustin Johnson won in 2016 at 4-under 276. Only three other players finished below par that year, underscoring Oakmont's treacherous layout.
In the previous U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2007, the winning score was 5-over 285 by Ángel Cabrera. Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods finished tied for second place at 6 over.
'Obviously no matter where it's at, it's the U.S. Open, so it's going to be really, really hard. But I mean, if there's one that's harder than the others, it's probably Oakmont,' said Lee, who will have younger brother Michael, a Cavaliers commit, on his bag. 'I put my expectations really, really high as to how difficult it's going to be.'
