Love qualifies for his 23rd US Open

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio - The Associated Press

Davis Love. AFP photo

U.S. captain Davis Love III won’t have to watch potential Ryder Cup players on television at the U.S. Open on television. He’ll be playing alongside them.

Love qualified for the U.S. Open for the third time in the last six years with a 2-under 139 at Scioto Country Club and Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.

Even more stunning is that Casey Martin and his cart will be there, too. A full day of U.S. Open qualifying on June 4 ended in Oregon with Martin, now the 40-year-old golf coach at Oregon University, 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.

Love, who finished tied for 16th at the Memorial on Sunday, said it never crossed his mind to 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 U.S. and the British to win,” he said. “I definitely want to play.” The 48-year-old Love has won 20 tournaments around the world, including the 1997

PGA Championship. He continues to play well, despite fighting off injuries, family obligations
and an entire generation of younger players.

He was among 16 players to qualify from the biggest of the 11 sectional qualifying sites across the country on Monday.

Wi, Streelman also in the list

The U.S. Open is June 14-17 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, and the 48-year-old 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 recovery 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.”