BETHESDA, June 7, 2011 (AFP) - South Korean golfer Seung Yul Noh played his way into next week's US Open by winning Monday's qualifying event at Springfield, Ohio, as part of a busy final day of booking spots in the Major.
Spain's Sergio Garcia was also among those from 10 other sites who booked their trip to next week's second major tournament of the year at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
Noh fired back-to-back 66s to finish on 132 and lead the field by three strokes for one of two spots on offer to play in the Washington suburbs next week.
Garcia was among four qualifiers from a seven-man playoff for the last spots at Memphis, joining Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson and South Korean Kang Sung-Hoon as non-US players advancing.
Canada's David Hearn and Argentine amateur Emiliano Grillo lost in the Memphis playoff.
In qualifying at Summit, New Jersey, American Geoffrey Sisk set the pace on 137 but England's Matt Richardson, Taiwan amateur Cheng-Tsung Pan and Brazil's Alex Rocha reached the US Open field by each finishing one stroke off the pace.
Canada's Jon Mills finished one stroke back of Kirk Triplett in qualifying at Woodmont Country Club near the US Open course, but made next week's field, as did US veteran Fred Funk, who turns 55 two days before the Open opens.
American Brandt Jobe, Sunday's runner-up by one stroke to Steve Stricker at the $6.2 million US PGA Memorial, matched fellow American Chez Reavie for medalist honors at Columbus, Ohio.
Others who qualified from the shadow of the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event included Australians John Senden, Nick O'Hern, Scott Hend and Marc Leishman.
Aussie Greg Chalmers also made it, beating American Michael Whitehead in a playoff for the last spot available in Dallas while Canadians Adam Hadwin and Wes Heffernan qualified from Bremerton, Washington.
American Gary Woodland withdrew from Columbus after his sixth-place finish in the Memorial boosted him to 41st in the rankings and assured him a place in next week's top 50, also a method of qualifying for the US Open.