Goosen Must Likely Qualify To Return To Shinnecock For Open

Retief Goosen

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (Doug Ferguson/AP) — Retief Goosen one-putted the last six holes to win his second U.S. Open title at Shinnecock Hills in 2004. He has not been back to the storied club on Long Island since that day, and he probably won’t go back unless he qualifies.

Goosen received a special exemption in 2016 for Oakmont. Chances of another one for this year’s major are slim.

“We’re begging them,” the 49-year-old South African said with a soft laugh.

The U.S. Open historically is not overly generous with U.S. Open exemptions since 2000 when it gave one to 19-year-old Aaron Baddeley.

Besides, Goosen received one already, and compared with other two-time U.S. Open champions, that was enough. Curtis Strange, the last back-to-back U.S. Open champion, received only one exemption, to Pebble Beach in 2000 the year after his 10-year exemption ran out.

Lee Janzen won at Baltusrol in 1993 and Olympic Club in 1998. His next U.S. Open exemption will be his first.

Janzen, an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour asked the USGA for one when the Open returned to Olympic Club in 2012. He still has the voicemail turning him down on one of his cellphones, though he can’t figure out how to charge it if he wants to listen for posterity.

“They said it had been too long,” Janzen said. “If I was ever going to get one, Olympic Club would have been reasonable. Since then, I figured I wasn’t going to get one.”

Janzen was 50 when he qualified for the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in 2015. He missed by four shots a year later, but he had such a negative experience at Chambers Bay he didn’t bother going through qualifying for Erin Hills last year.

It could be worse. Consider the plight of two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North, who won his second U.S. Open in 1985 at Oakland Hills. The Open was supposed to go back to Oakland Hills in the final year of his 10-year exemption until it was moved to Shinnecock Hills for the 100-year anniversary of the USGA.

Oakland Hills was pushed one year. North asked for an exemption to the site of his second U.S. Open and never got one.

Ben Hogan received the first special exemption in 1966 to Olympic Club, where he lost an 18-hole playoff. Jack Nicklaus received eight U.S. Open exemptions; Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson each received five. Hale Irwin remains the only exemption to win the U.S. Open in 1990.

Ernie Els, is not exempt for the U.S. Open for the first time since 1992. He’s due for one as a two-time U.S. Open winner, four-time major champion and already in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

As for Goosen, he says he’ll go back to qualifying. He missed by one shot last year. That figures to be the only way he’ll see Shinnecock Hills again.