US Am, State Am, any stories about qualifying for big events?

[augafan48]

I've always been fascinated by the US Open, US Am, State Ams, and any other open competition anyone can sign up for and try to qualify for, and I was wondering if anyone had any stories about trying to qualify or qualifying for them. Like what's the environment like, how good are the players, the course, etc. I'd love to hear from some of the great golfers I know we have on here! :)

[DavidFehertysBike]

What does certainly happen is that you loose your fascination with ballstriking. When you throw out a bunch of players who all hit it well - you discover how foolish it is thinking you're good just because you hit a ball better than a average handicapper. I played the first two rounds in the 08 state am with one of the better ams in the state, if not the country. He didn't really hit the ball much different than i did, but he was certainly a better player. Matter of fact, i was slightly longer than he was. But he always got up and down, and only 3 putted one or two times. When he missed, he was always in a place where he could recover from it. He never compounded his mistakes. I didn't make the cut in that event (the only state am ive qualified for so far) but i came away from the tourney more confident for the experience, and thinking i could play with anyone as long as i kept my head on.

[Jay-Bird]

I failed to qualify for my state Am this year. I shot 82 in the qualifier. A 15 year old kid shot 64. It was quite humbling. (I shot 69 on the same course yesterday, but that's the way it goes.)

[shades9323]

I've always been fascinated by the US Open, US Am, State Ams, and any other open competition anyone can sign up for and try to qualify for, and I was wondering if anyone had any stories about trying to qualify or qualifying for them. Like what's the environment like, how good are the players, the course, etc. I'd love to hear from some of the great golfers I know we have on here! :)

Not just anybody can sign up for these. For instance the Michigan amature you must have better than a 5.4 hc. In order to play in qualifying in the U.S. open you can have a max HC of 1.4. U.S. am puplic links is 4.4 max, U.S. am is 2.4, U.S. mid am is 3.4. All info is taken from Gam.org and usga.org.

[augafan48]

I understand not just anyone can qualify, you have to be a great player to even begin to think about it, but I just wanna know what the experience is like, hoping I can get there someday. This could include monday qualifiers for prop events too, anything like that.

[enis750]

never tried to qualify, but watched a Canadian Tour Event a few weeks ago
pretty boring but amazing golf

those guys can hit the ball...long, straight and PURE
nothing but fwy's, greens and putts
out of the threesome i followed, there were only 2 missed fwy's - IN TOTAL
and 4 missed greens - IN TOTAL

quite a thing to watch

the winner scores -26 after 4 days

[ElWagonne]

This topic interests me as well. I've set a goal to try to qualify for the TX Pub Links or Mid-Am in the next 2 yrs.

[TN94z]

I tried my first one last year. Like DavidFehertysBike stated, I was not really impressed with any of their ball striking. They hit the ball pretty much the same as me, they just made a lot less mistakes. I had some bad luck for it being my first time trying. It was a course that I had never played. We played from the tips which made it around 7100 yards and then it came a monsoon the day before and steady rained the entire tournament which made it play that much longer. It was quite a bit longer than the qualifier I originally wanted to play in (missed the registration deadline). I felt the pressure for sure with it being my first one. I started off very well making par on the first several holes but then just lost it. But I took away a lot of confidence as well. I now know what to expect and I know that minimizing the mistakes is the most important thing I saw. I felt as if I could strike the ball as well as anyone out there....with the excpetion of the couple really great golfers that are in it.