Derek Barron of Tacoma, Wash. shot rounds of 66-69 to claim medalist honors in Sectional qualifying to earn a spot in the 2017 U.S. Open. The Sectional qualifier was held at Tacoma Country and Golf Club in Lakewood, Wash.
The other three players to advance from this qualifier are Jordan Niebrugge of Mequon, Wisc., Max Greyserman of Boca Raton, Fla., and Daniel Miernicki of Portland, Ore.
Niebrugge and Greyserman each finished five shots behind Barron, while Miernicki survived a four-man playoff for the final available spot.
The four players will go on to compete in the 117th U.S. Open Championship, which will be held June 15-18 at Erin Hills in Erin, Wisc.
The 36-hole qualifier is the final stage for those vying to play in the national championship. Sectional qualifiers were held at 10 sites around the U.S., all being held today.
The Washington State Golf Association (WSGA) is the local representative of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and conducted this Sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open Championship.
Click here for final hole-by-hole scores of all players.
Barron is a member at Tacoma, and was born and raised in nearby Puyallup.
“On the first day I get to Erin Hills I’m just going to soak it in,” Barron said. “And feel like I belong. This is the greatest feeling. I had a lot of support today, and I feel like I earned this. I’m sure I’ll be overwhelmed at the Open, but I also know that I played my way in, nobody gave it to me.”
Barron, 32, didn’t play golf in college. In fact, he didn’t go to college at all. Instead, he worked for his grandfather running a hydraulics company, and later became a construction foreman where he managed a crew of 15.
He has won the 2014 Oregon Open and 2015 Northwest Open, and was named the 2015 Western Washington Chapter PGA Player of the Year.
Jordan Niebrugge of Mequon, Wis. won the silver medal as the low amateur (tie, 6th) in the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews. Niebrugge, who has played in three U.S. Amateurs, was a member of the 2013 and 2015 USA Walker Cup Teams.
Greyserman just graduated from Duke University, and will be playing in his first U.S. Open. Miernicki is a 2012 graduate of the University of Oregon.
Overall, the USGA accepted a total of 9,485 entries for the 2017 U.S. Open Championship. The number of entries is fifth-highest, behind the record of 10,127 accepted for the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2. The entries came from golfers in all 50 states, including 150 from Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and 66 foreign countries.
The U.S. Open is one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the USGA, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.
Founded in 1894, Tacoma C&GC is the oldest club west of the Mississippi, and is one of the six original founding clubs of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association, which was organized in 1899.
Founded in 1922, the WSGA is a 501c4 non-profit, amateur golf association governed by men and women volunteers. Serving over 68,000 individual members at more than 550 member golf clubs and 270 golf courses throughout the state of Washington and Northern Idaho, the WSGA works to continually expand the game of golf to people of all backgrounds.
The WSGA also serves as a statewide representative of the USGA and works closely with a number of allied associations within the golf industry for the betterment of the game.
