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One day after Scottie Scheffler captured his third major at the PGA Championship, the 156-man field for the U.S. Open began to take shape Monday with 27 players added through the world ranking and qualifiers being held on three continents.
Among the 36 players now exempt from qualifying are Davis Riley and Joe Highsmith, both doing well enough in the final round of the PGA Championship to move into the top 60 in the world ranking.
The U.S. Open is June 12-15 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where Dustin Johnson won his first major. Johnson played a practice round that week with Scheffler, who was 19 and making his U.S. Open debut. Scheffler opened with 69, then shot 78 and missed the cut.
LIV Golf added four more of its players to the field when Jinichiro Kozuma was among three players who made it through the Japan qualifier. Joaquin Niemann was added as the leading player on LIV points, while the top 60 in the world added Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Reed.
Sergio Garcia and Abraham Ancer were among players playing in the 36-hole qualifier in Dallas. Most of the final qualifying is scheduled for June 2 across the U.S. and in Canada.
The field of exempt players -- not including the qualifying sites -- was 85 players, a little higher than normal for a U.S. Open that strives to have about half the field (78 players) qualify.
Riley, Highsmith, Jhonattan Vegas and Si Woo Kim each moved into the top 60 in the world in the final week. Riley was in contention when he took a triple bogey on the seventh hole.
He was 4 over for his round at that point, but played bogey-free the rest of the way to tie for second.
That was enough to move him from No. 100 into the top 60 at 53rd in the world. Ditto for Highsmith, who played bogey-free with three birdies over the final 12 holes to move up nine spots to No. 60.
That bumped Laurie Canter, though he became exempt for being the highest-ranked player on the European tour points list not already eligible.
The only other exempt spot available is the NCAA men's individual champion, which will be decided May 26 at La Costa Resort in California.
NCAA champions
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Arkansas sophomore Maria Jose Marin kept her poise down the stretch and closed with a birdie for a 3-under 69 for a two-shot victory Monday in the NCAA Women's Golf Championship at La Costa.
Jose Marin became the third woman from Arkansas to win the NCAA title, joining Stacy Lewis (2007) and Maria Fassi (2019).
"I have mixed emotions and the strongest is I'm super happy right now," Jose Marin said. "I trust my game on every single shot. I knew I was capable of a great round, and it was."
Arkansas also is among eight teams advancing to the match play for the NCAA team title over the next two days. Stanford overwhelmed the field and will be the No. 1 seed for the fifth consecutive year. Stanford has won two of the last three years.
Virginia took the No. 8 seed when Arizona State and South Carolina faded late. Other teams advancing were Oregon, Northwestern, Florida State, Southern Cal and Texas.
Jose Marin seized control with a 65 in the third round of the 72-hole individual championship, and she stayed in front until Kelly Xu of Stanford and Florida State's Mirabel Ting made a charge.
Jose Marin made her lone bogey with a three-putt from 35 feet on the 13th hole, and Xu holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 11th to pull within one shot. On her next hole, the Arkansas sophomore ran her birdie putt some 5 feet by and holed that for par.
Xu fell back going long of the par-3 12th, chipping to 6 feet and making bogey. But then it was Ting, running off four birdies in six holes on the back nine to get within two shots. Jose Marin didn't blink, however, and sealed it with a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-5 closing hole.
She finished at 12-under 276 and earns a spot in the U.S. Women's Open next week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin.
Ting also made birdie for a 68 to finish second. Moments after Jose Marin made her final birdie, Xu hit her tee shot on the par-3 16th into the middle of the pond short of the green and took double bogey. She birdied the final hole for a 71 to finish third.