- 16 players punched their tickets to the US Open via sectional qualifying overseas on Monday. In Japan, Wenchong Liang was the medalist, followed by Masahairo Kawamura, Seuk Hyun Baek, Kurt Barnes, and Hiroyuki Fujita. Liang and Fujita are the experienced ones of the group, having played in majors and won overseas in the past. Fujita won three times last season, and made the cut in the US Open in 2012. Liang was the first Chinese golfer to play in the PGA Championship, and was the first from his country to make the cut in a major championship. Kawamura is an up and coming Japanese player who has played decently well in Asia this season. The Aussie Kurt Barnes has played in two Open Championships, but will be making his US Open debut. Baek is a complete unknown who has never won and has a bunch of missed cuts in Asia and Japan this year.
- The other eleven qualifiers played in England, and the medalist was Alexander Levy, who was the biggest name and highest ranked player among the qualifiers. Other qualifiers include Marcel Siem, 74th ranked player in the world who narrowly missed out on qualifying two years ago. Also qualifying were former PGA Tour pros Garth Mulroy and Tjaart Van Der Walt, two South Africans who play on the European and Sunshine Tours. Van Der Walt is 40, lost his PGA Tour card in '07 and his Web.com Tour card in '10, and has only played in one major in his career. This will be a huge moment in his life, for sure.
- The European Solheim Cup team is being lead by an all star cast of Swedes, as captain Carin Koch and vice captain Annika Sorenstam named Maria McBride and Sophie Gustafson as vice-captains. The strategy worked two years ago, as the captain and vice-captains were all Swedes. The Solheim Cup will take place in Europe, where Team Europe is the two time defending champions, but all of their big name stars have struggled in 2015. There is a long time between then and now, however.
- Anthony Kim is golfing again!...just not on the PGA Tour. The former future number one player in the world was recently an auction item for the Toby Keith Charity Auction. Someone paid $24,500 to play a round of golf with Kim. There is no word yet on whether or not that person was a member of the Ryder Cup Task Force.
- Will Tiger Woods ever pass Jack Nicklaus in career major titles? Not only does Ernie Els not think so, but he thinks Tiger's number will be eclipsed sooner rather than later. Speaking in the pre-tournament press conference in Ireland, Els believes that Rory McIlroy will win at least one major every two years, which puts him right around the 14 mark for his career. Seeing as Rory has already proven to be able to win more than one in a season, I think Els' prediction isn't too crazy.
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