Courses
The best courses used for U.S. Open qualifying in 2024
David Cannon
The U.S. Open is considered the most democratic championship in America, if not the world. Any professional golfer can apply for entry, as can an amateur with a Handicap Index of 0.4 or lower. Granted, the number of golfers who fit into those categories is small compared to the overall population who play the game, but the fact that the only restriction for getting into the national championship (besides paying the $200 entry fee) involves merely identifying if you have the proper skill level makes the event worthy of the label.
Of course, to tee it up in the championship proper requires a tad bit more effort. The vast majority of the 10,000-plus applicants the USGA got this year for the 2024 U.S. Open must prove themselves further by actually playing their way into the major championship at Pinehurst. That begins with Local Qualifying, with the USGA conducting 18-hole local events at more than 100 courses in 44 states and Canada. This year they’re being played from April 22 to May 20; you can see here the results of those that have already taken place as well as the schedule for the remaining qualifiers.
The top players at each Local Qualifying site then move on to 12 Final Qualifying events, playing 36 more holes for the right to compete in the actual U.S. Open. This year, Final Qualifying events will be played at 10 U.S. sites as well as in Japan, England and Canada.
With only 156 players in the field at Pinehurst, nearly everybody who applies to play in the U.S. Open will fall short. The solace? Saying you competed in Local and/or Final Qualifying is an accomplishment on its own. Plus, the USGA holds qualifiers at some of the top courses in the country.
Indeed, for all those who tried and failed, it’s likely that they got to play a standout course for their troubles. Here’s a list of all the courses that hosted or are hosting Local and Final Qualifying events this year. To save you some time, however, we curated some of the best venues into the list you see below. Our criteria for inclusion was a course’s ranking by Golf Digest’s Course Rating panel with a few “wildcard picks” based off of notable facts about the courses. TPC River Highlands, for instance, made our list given it's not every day you're playing a PGA Tour venue in USGA local qualifying.
Scroll through this selection of best "U.S. Open qualifying courses," and be sure to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography and reviews from our course panelists. We also encourage you to leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … so you can make your case for why each course deserves, or doesn't deserve, more notoriety.
LOCAL QUALIFYING
FINAL QUALIFYING
From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:
The Bear’s Club marked a transition point in Jack Nicklaus’ design outlook when it opened in 1999. His architecture had typically been analytical and, while still lovely, oriented toward factoring how players might break down the features tactically. That strategic backbone is present in The Bear’s Club, but the team approached the design more holistically than they had previously, factoring in aesthetics to an unprecedented degree. Instead of building holes on a golf site, Jack and his associates created a golf environment, expanding and enhancing a dune ridge running through the low pine and palmetto scrub and anchoring large, sensuous bunkers into the native vegetation.
The course is part of an upscale residential development near the Intracoastal Waterway, but it blends so well you wouldn’t know it. The change in perspective that Nicklaus Design developed at The Bear’s Club pushed the firm toward similar successes in the 2000s like Sebonack (with Tom Doak), The Concession and Mayacama.
• • •
Explore Golf Digest's new Course Reviews section where you can submit a star rating and evaluation on all the courses you’ve played. We've collected tens of thousands of reviews from our course-ranking panelists to deliver a premium experience, which includes course rankings, experts' opinions, bonus course photography, videos and much more. Check it out here!