Current European Ryder Cup captain, Jose Maria Olazabal and past captain, Colin Montgomerie head the field contesting Monday’s 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier at Walton Heath in Surrey.
Olazabal and Monty are currently among 104 players who will tee-up looking to secure one of a dozen places into the June 14th commencing event at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Double Masters winning Olazabal has failed to qualify at Walton Heath last year as he again seeks to contest the event for an 18th occasion since making his debut at the same Olympic course in 1987.
Monty was runner-up in the U.S. Open on three occasions in 1994 and 1997 to South African Ernie Els, and in 2006 to Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy.
However Monty has failed to qualify through Walton Heath the past two years.
Joining Olazabal and Monty on Monday will be fellow Ryder Cup stars Sweden’s Niclas Fasth, Frenchman Thomas Levet, Italy’s Edoardo Molinari and England’s Ross Fisher.
Also in the Walton Heath field is Italian teenager, Matteo Manassero currently ranked 62 in the world and just two places outside of automatically qualifying.
As well, some 60 European Tour winners will be looking to qualify for the U.S. Open including six winners from this year’s 2012 Race to Dubai – South Africa’s Jbe Kruger (Avantha Masters), Frenchman Julien Quesne (Andalucian Open), Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey (Hassan 11 Trophy), Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (Malaysian Open), Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (Ballantine’s Championship) and Portugal’s Ricardo Santos (Madeira Islands Open).
Some notable withdrawals include triple Ryder Cup winning star Paul McGinley of Ireland and England’s Graeme Storm.
Entries close 12 noon Saturday (UK time).
