The funnel has reached its final stage. Of the 5,111 players who entered the 126th U.S. Amateur, roughly 1,500 are still alive — and beginning today, they get exactly 18 holes to finish the job. Final Qualifying runs July 13–22 at 19 sites from Fairfield to Pleasanton, and this hub tracks every one of them on the last road to Merion.
Local Qualifying was the wide end of the funnel: 48 sites across June, fields of 80 to 130, survival for the few. This is the narrow end. Over the next ten days, 19 Final Qualifying sites will decide roughly 210 of the 312 places in the field at Merion Golf Club, August 10–16 — about 10 to 12 spots per venue, awarded to nobody but the lowest scores. There is no second round, no chance to climb back tomorrow. Since the USGA moved to the two-stage, 18-hole format in 2024, Final Qualifying has become the most unforgiving day in amateur golf: one hot putter and you are headed to a U.S. Amateur at one of the game's cathedrals; one loose swing and the summer ends in a parking lot.
⛳ Day 1: Five Doors Open Today
Fittingly for a championship headed to Bobby Jones country, opening day stretches coast to coast. Five sites are on the tee Monday:
| Today's Sites — July 13 | Location | The Short Story |
|---|---|---|
| Brooklawn Country Club | Fairfield, CT | A.W. Tillinghast's old-school test opens the window in the East |
| Ruby Hill Golf Club | Pleasanton, CA | Nicklaus design in Livermore wine country, back for a second straight year |
| Mission Viejo Country Club | Mission Viejo, CA | It took a 63 to medal here last summer — bring birdies |
| The Country Club | Salt Lake City, UT | Utah's century-old club, thin air and fast greens at altitude |
| Dacotah Ridge Golf Club | Morton, MN | Rees Jones on the Minnesota prairie, where the wind sets the number |
Click any venue for the field and live scoring as it posts.
Two of Monday's stops already know what a qualifying shootout looks like. At Mission Viejo, a repeat host, last year's medalist needed a 63 to lead the way — a reminder that in Southern California, even par is a spectator score. Ruby Hill and Salt Lake City's The Country Club also return from the 2025 rotation, while Brooklawn, the Tillinghast design in Fairfield, gives the Northeast its first crack at Merion tickets. And out at Dacotah Ridge, two hours southwest of the Twin Cities, the field will find the quietest venue of the day and possibly the hardest one to score on if the prairie wind gets up.
📅 The Full Schedule: All 19 Sites
Every Final Qualifying site, in order of play. Statuses are updated as results become official — qualifier counts and medalists will be added to each line as the sheets post.
| Qualifying Site | Location | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklawn Country Club | Fairfield, CT | Jul 13 | In play |
| Ruby Hill Golf Club | Pleasanton, CA | Jul 13 | In play |
| Mission Viejo Country Club | Mission Viejo, CA | Jul 13 | In play |
| The Country Club | Salt Lake City, UT | Jul 13 | In play |
| Dacotah Ridge Golf Club | Morton, MN | Jul 13 | In play |
| Emerald Valley Golf Club | Creswell, OR | Jul 14 | Upcoming |
| Ohio State University GC (Scarlet) | Columbus, OH | Jul 15 | Upcoming |
| Old Hickory Golf Club | St. Louis, MO | Jul 15 | Upcoming |
| Moon Valley Country Club | Phoenix, AZ | Jul 16 | Upcoming |
| Boston Golf Club | Hingham, MA | Jul 20 | Upcoming |
| Country Club of Landfall | Wilmington, NC | Jul 20 | Upcoming |
| Llanerch Country Club | Havertown, PA | Jul 20 | Upcoming |
| Rivermont Golf Club | Johns Creek, GA | Jul 20 | Upcoming |
| Sara Bay Country Club | Sarasota, FL | Jul 20 | Upcoming |
| Dallas National Golf Club | Dallas, TX | Jul 21 | Upcoming |
| Aurora Country Club | Aurora, IL | Jul 22 | Upcoming |
| Columbine Country Club | Columbine Valley, CO | Jul 22 | Upcoming |
| Dutchman's Pipe Club | West Palm Beach, FL | Jul 22 | Upcoming |
| The Clubs of Kingwood | Kingwood, TX | Jul 22 | Upcoming |
19 Final Qualifying sites, July 13–22. Sites and dates per the USGA and our event pages; spot allocations are set by the USGA relative to field size.
🗺️ The Week Ahead: Ghosts and Home Games
After Monday's five-pack, the window narrows to single sites with serious pedigree. Tuesday belongs to the Pacific Northwest and Emerald Valley, the Creswell, Oregon course long associated with Ducks golf just south of Eugene — expect a heavy college flavor to the field.
Wednesday brings the round of the week for history hunters: the Scarlet Course at Ohio State, the Alister MacKenzie design where Jack Nicklaus played his college golf — and where he sharpened the game that would win him U.S. Amateurs in 1959 and 1961. Columbus hosted this stage a year ago and it was a bloodbath of red numbers: 73 players, 11 spots, co-medalists at 65, and a playoff just to sneak in at 2 under. The same day, Old Hickory outside St. Louis gives the Midwest a second door.
Thursday's stop is pure golf trivia gold: Moon Valley in Phoenix, the course where Annika Sorenstam shot her famous 59 in 2001. In July in the desert, the ball flies and the greens cook — somebody will chase a number here, because at Moon Valley the number can be gotten.
🔥 July 20: The Biggest Monday in Amateur Golf
Five sites go off on Monday the 20th, and one of them sits practically in Merion's shadow. Llanerch Country Club in Havertown — host of the 1958 PGA Championship, the first ever played at stroke play — is roughly five miles from Merion's front gate. The players who qualify there could very nearly walk to the championship. For Philadelphia-area players who came through local qualifying, this is the home game of a lifetime.
The rest of the Monday card is just as strong: Boston Golf Club, Gil Hanse's brooding, hand-built gem in Hingham; Country Club of Landfall on the North Carolina coast; Rivermont north of Atlanta; and Sara Bay in Sarasota, the 1926 Donald Ross design that hosted Walter Hagen's famous demolition of Bobby Jones in their 72-hole "Match of the Century" that same year. Jones' ghost, you will notice, is all over this qualifying season — and his championship, the one he completed the Grand Slam by winning at Merion in 1930, is what everyone is playing for.
🏁 The Closers: July 21–22
Tuesday the 21st is a single-site day at Dallas National, Tom Fazio's exclusive Texas heavyweight. Then the window slams shut on Wednesday the 22nd with four sites: Aurora Country Club outside Chicago; Columbine in Denver, the 1967 PGA Championship host making its second straight appearance in this rotation; Dutchman's Pipe, the ambitious new club in West Palm Beach; and The Clubs of Kingwood in Houston. By sundown on the 22nd, the Merion field will be effectively complete — and somewhere, a last man in will have survived a playoff to get there.
📊 What One Round Is Worth
| Detail | 2026 Final Qualifying |
|---|---|
| Format | 18 holes, stroke play — one round, no safety net |
| Window | July 13–22 at 19 sites |
| Who's playing | Local Qualifying survivors plus players exempt into this stage — fields generally in the high 70s to mid 80s |
| What's at stake | Roughly 210 of the 312 places at Merion — about 10–12 per site, scaled to field size |
| The benchmark | At Columbus in 2025: 11 spots from 73 players, medalists at 65, playoff at 2 under |
| Ties | Playoff for the final spot; next scores become alternates |
| The odds so far | 5,111 entered · 48 local sites in June · ~1 in 24 will tee it up at Merion |
About 100 players — defending champion Mason Howell, the top of the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Walker Cuppers and winners of allied championships among them — are already exempt into the field. Everyone else is out here, where the math is brutal and beautifully simple: post a number in the top ten or so at your site, or watch the 126th U.S. Amateur on television.
🏆 The Prize: Merion, Where the Slam Was Sealed
What waits on the other side is worth every white knuckle. Merion Golf Club's East Course hosts its seventh U.S. Amateur, and the championship's history there reads like scripture: Bobby Jones won the 1930 U.S. Amateur at Merion to complete the Grand Slam, on the same ground where Ben Hogan hit his 1-iron in 1950 and Justin Rose won the 2013 U.S. Open. The par-70 East Course — wicker baskets, "white faces" bunkering, greens like glass — will co-host 36 holes of stroke play with Philadelphia Country Club on August 10–11 before the low 64 advance to match play and the 36-hole final on August 16. For a couple hundred players scattered across 19 first tees over the next ten days, that is the picture to hold over the last putt.
🔗 Keep Reading: U.S. Amateur Coverage
- U.S. Amateur Final Qualifying — the evergreen guide to this stage: format, history and how to advance.
- 2026 U.S. Amateur Qualifying: Complete Guide — every Local and Final site from the full season.
- U.S. Amateur Qualifying — how the two-stage road to Merion works.
- U.S. Amateur Championship Hub — history, past champions, and Merion 2026.
- USGA: Official 2026 Qualifying Page — the governing body's site list and results.
amateurgolf.com is tracking all 19 Final Qualifying sites through July 22. Click any venue above for live scoring, and check back as we flip each site to Complete with its qualifiers and medalists on the road to Merion.