Veteran Love qualifies his 23rd US Open

Davis Love III is going back to The Olympic Club for the US Open, this time as the 48-year-old Ryder Cup captain and not the reigning PGA champion.

Even more stunning is that Casey Martin and his cart will be there, too.

A full day of US Open qualifying on Monday ended in Oregon with Martin, now the 40-year-old golf coach at Oregon, making a 5-foot par putt on his last hole to earn a spot next week at Olympic, where in 1998 he tied for 23rd while riding in a cart. Martin has a rare circulatory disorder in his right leg, and he eventually won his lawsuit against the PGA Tour to ride.

"It means a lot," Martin said, who is canceling plans to go to North Carolina on a recruiting trip.

Love qualified for the US Open for the third time in the past six years with a 139 at Scioto Country Club and Ohio State's Scarlet Course.

Love, who finished tied for 16th at the Memorial on Sunday, said it never crossed his mind to just bag it and go home rather than extend an already long week by playing 36 more holes.

"No. Like last year, statistically I hit the ball well enough at the US and the British to win," he said. "I definitely want to play."

Love has won 20 tournaments around the world, including the 1997 PGA Championship. He was among 16 players to qualify from the biggest of the 11 sectional qualifying sites across the country on Monday.

One of them won't even get started until on Tuesday. There was so much rain in Memphis, Tenn., that no one played more than a few minutes. USGA officials hope the course is dry enough to squeeze in 36 holes.

The US Open is June 14-17 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, and the Love will be making his 23rd appearance in his national open. Others who qualified from Scioto and Scarlet included medalist Charlie Wi, Kevin Streelman, D.A. Points, Rod Pampling and Steve Marino, who only last week returned from a four-month break to recover from a bad shoulder.

Love still hasn't forgotten the details from a year ago, however, when he three-putted the last hole he played at Colonial that cost him an automatic spot in the Open at Congressional. He had to go through qualifying to get in the field.

"I seem to play well in the qualifying because I don't have a scoreboard to look at," he said. "You just play."

Love has been in captain mode off and on since being selected for the matches this fall. He has been assessing potential players for the American side and has played with several. One of them, former British Open champ Ben Curtis, was in his threesome on Monday, although Curtis faded on his second 18 and failed to make the Open field.

Perhaps the biggest cheer of the day came as darkness was falling at Scioto Country Club.

On the fourth playoff hole to decide the last qualifiers, 42-year-old Youngstown, Ohio, teaching pro Dennis Miller's 20-foot putt from the fringe stopped on the lip of the cup. After the gallery of a few hundred groaned and Miller slowly started to walk to his ball, it fell - touching off a huge celebration.

Now Miller, a third alternate whose name did not even appear on the tee sheet, will be playing in his first US Open - and will likely have to get someone to fill in for him back at the course at Mill Creek Metroparks in Youngstown.

"I can't believe what just happened," Miller said. "That was pretty incredible."

Most of the rest of the field in the qualifier in suburban Columbus, Ohio, was filled with touring pros who had just competed in the nearby Memorial.

(China Daily 06/06/2012 page23)