Rules Corner

Welcome To The Rules Corner

Welcome to the Rules Corner for the U.S. Senior Open. Let’s take a look at this championship and why it’s unique.

First of all, this is an "Open." This means that the championship is open to both professionals and amateur players. The USGA runs three national championships that include golf professionals and all three of those are our Open Championships (U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open).

Of course, being the Senior Open, it comes with its own regulations. We define this by stating the following in our entry application: the competitor "must be 50 on or before July 31." The USGA uses 50 as a cutoff so it is in line with the requirements of the Champions Tour. You’ll notice that we actually change the age requirement in our U.S. Senior Amateur Championship to 55.

Finally, we set a USGA Handicap Index limitation in the entry. We state that Amateurs must have an up-to-date men’s USGA Index not exceeding 3.4. Note that the USGA Handicap Index requirement does not apply to professional golfers.

In the end, 2,810 entries were accepted this year. Only 156 will be teeing it up at The Broadmoor. Seventy-four of those players were exempt into the field and the rest played their way in through the qualifying process.

This is where dreams of competing against the best can come true by going through the process of qualifying. Just look at Rocco Mediate and how he did at the U.S. Open after going through qualifying.

Stay tuned to the Rules Corner as we cover many Rules-related items throughout the championship week.

Wendy Uzelac, Director of Regional Affairs, Midwest