The long road to the US Open

GERMANTOWN, Tennessee (AP) -Paul Goydos milled around the front of the clubhouse, killing time with a few U.S. PGA Tour peers as he waited for more scores to be posted on the white poster board at Germantown Country Club.

He had spent eight hours trudging across the fairways of two golf courses outside Memphis in a 36-hole qualifier for the U.S. Open. One course wouldn't let his caddie walk the course to take down yardages, critical preparation for any golfer. If he wanted a bottle of water, it was going to cost him $4.

Goydos was no longer a U.S. PGA Tour player on this day. He was no different from the teenager in his group, Cameron Peck. Both wanted only a chance to play in the U.S. Open.

"It's pretty cool," Goydos said. "Everyone is starting out the same."

An hour earlier, Goydos hit 3-iron to the edge of the par-5 closing hole at Ridgeway, chipped to about 6 feet and missed his birdie putt. He didn't think much about it until he realised his 4-under 136 total might have a chance to make it.

"I think I'm going to regret not getting up-and-down on the last hole," Goydos said as he headed to the practice range to warm up for a playoff.

When he returned for the playoff, he was among six players trying for the last of 13 spots from the Tennessee qualifier. He didn't make it, but he didn't think his long day was a wasted effort.

"If you play good, you make it," he said. "I love 36 holes of qualifying because there's plenty of spots. We just played a British Open qualifier over here, and eight of us got in. What is there today? Something like 50? More?"

There were 63 spots available at 13 sectional qualifiers across the U.S. There are no leaderboards, no bright lights. Alex Cejka played in the final pairing at The Players Championship with Tiger Woods before thousands of fans, and a month later he was walking the fairways with someone he might never see again.

It will be different next week at Bethpage Black outside New York.

The 156 players who compete in the U.S. Open will drive luxury courtesy cars, walk past thousands of fans wanting their autograph. There were be television cameras, photographers, 50,000 fans framing every fairway.

It's worth remembering that it didn't start out this way.

The U.S. Golf Association said 9,086 golfers signed up for the U.S. Open this year. The process of elimination began in May with a month of 18-hole local qualifying at 112 courses across the country, even one in Alaska.

Woods, the defending champion, was among 75 players who didn't have to qualify because of their performance last year in various categories. That left 870 players to compete for 81 spots (including qualifiers in England and Japan).

The U.S. Open not only considers itself the toughest test in golf, but the major that offers more opportunity than the other three.

"I challenge anyone to say there is a more democratic golf competition," USGA executive director David Fay said.

Ryan Blaum will be playing his first U.S. Open. He is still chasing around on the mini-tours, but chose a qualifying site filled with U.S. PGA Tour players - including major champions and Ryder Cup players - because there were 13 spots available. Some sites offered only one spot.

"The golf course doesn't know who you are," Blaum said.

The majority of the 156-man field has been set aside for qualifiers for years. It matters not that the last U.S. Open champion to make it through local and sectional qualifying was Orville Moody in 1969, or the last U.S. Open winner to go through sectional qualifying in the United States was Steve Jones in 1996.

"Anyone who has the game, they can try," Fay said. "And it's not just the scene you saw in Memphis, but at the local qualifying where you really see players trying to catch magic in the jar."

David Duval earned his way back to the U.S. Open by getting one of the 17 spots in Columbus, Ohio. He has perspective to go along with the privilege of playing golf for a living since 1994.

Who knows how he will fare at Bethpage Black, but he found satisfaction in getting there through 36 holes of qualifying.

"If there's ever a time in golf that you're working, that's it," he said.