DUBLIN, Ohio — Luke List was sitting at 9-under par and in second place when he stood at the 17th tee box Saturday.
At No. 61 in the world entering the 2022 Memorial Tournament, List needed to move up just one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking to qualify for the U.S. Open. Finishing in the top-five or even top-10 would likely do that for him.
He sent his tee shot well left and out of bounds. His drop was hit in the water. He finished the par-4 hole with a triple bogey and dropped to a tie for seventh, making the possibility of playing in a 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier the day after finishing a 72-hole tournament at one of the Tour’s more demanding courses more likely.
List was 5 over on Sunday and finished tied for 26th, but moved up two spots to 59th to qualify.
Most guys on tour have done it before. They much rather avoid it.
“I dread playing it,” Brendan Steele said. “It’s one of the worst days of the year, for sure.”
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Steele knew coming into Muirfield Village at the beginning of the week that he wouldn’t be done with Central Ohio once he played the 18th hole Sunday. Like he did last year, Steele will stick around to play 36 holes at Kinsale and Wedgewood country clubs.
Steele finished tied for 10th at 4-under. At No. 119 in the world golf rankings and not falling under any of the 22 different categories that grant players an exemption into the U.S. Open field, even winning the Memorial would have likely not been enough for Steele to make the top-60. He moved up to 110th.
Matt Kuchar, ranked No. 83, had a realistic chance of jumping into the top-60 with his second win at the Memorial. But he finished 3-over with a 74 on Sunday, and he won’t be playing in the U.S. Open after trying to qualify for the field following the PGA Championship two weeks ago. Like Steele, making the U.S. Open field through the Memorial wasn’t on his mind.
“I’ve never been one that looked at rankings, looked at points, looked at any of this stuff,” Kuchar said. “If a guy is (ranked) 70th this week and needs a top-five, does he play any differently than he would if he just was already in the top-50? I don’t know how that helps you play better if you know you have to get a top-five.”
Keegan Bradley is already in the U.S. Open field this year, but he went from a 23rd-place finish at the Memorial to a U.S. Open qualifier at Brookside Country Club & Lakes Country Club in 2018.
Bradley said some players are well aware of possibly playing well at the Memorial and having not to worry about playing a 36-hole qualifier on practically an empty tank.
“It’s brutal,” he said. “You’re so mentally drained because this course is so hard and then you got to go do that, and it’s just a long grind the whole day.”
It’s not unlikely that a player will make a massive jump in the rankings after one week. By finishing in third place at the PGA Championship, for instance, Mito Pereira went from No. 100 to No. 49 and qualified for the U.S. Open.
Steele said Muirfield Village is about as difficult as a PGA Tour event course can get, so it’s refreshing to see a much easier course for a qualifier. But the grind and the pressure — which Steele thinks doesn’t need to exist — still make the qualifier anything but a wind-down from a hyper-competitive weekend at the Memorial.
“I think for most guys, way too much is made about the importance of the U.S. Open and qualifying for the U.S. Open,” he said. “I think for myself, this is a huge event and my focus is here. Then that’s a 36-hole crapshoot. Different thing. I’ve accepted the fact that it may or may not happen.”
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