ROCKVILLE, Mary. — U.S. Open final qualifying is definitionally a test of pain tolerance.
It is supposed to wear down your senses, to provide body blow after body blow, to bludgeon you right down to your last nerve.
The nickname “golf’s longest day“ does not come lightly for those tasked with enduring it. Thirty-six holes, often in the heat, and very often with a field full of competitors looking to tear your guts out: These are the stakes that wean thousands of U.S. Open hopefuls into the final 43 spots of a 156-player field.
They are also the stakes that annually provide some of the best stories in golf — stories of underdogs and new stars; of first-timers and old hats; of nobodies and somebodies battling against an uncaring scorecard.
These are the stories that make me love golf. And on Monday at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, they are the stories that I chased from up close, taking in my first-ever U.S. Open final qualifying day from up close.
Below are some of the best stories I saw, heard and found.
1. Ben Kohles’ marathon
It was not hard to imagine being Ben Kohles just after sundown on Monday at Woodmont Country Club. You could practically see the exhaustion on his face.
On golf’s longest day, Kohles was the golfer who had golf’s longest day. Not by the letter of the law — that honor would belong to Andrew Putnam and Spencer Tibbitts, who played six playoff holes Monday evening before darkness pushed the end of their playoff into Tuesday morning. But certainly by the letter of his frequent flyer miles.
Kohles won the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am Sunday evening in Greenville, S.C. He hopped in the car almost immediately after his trophy photos and narrowly caught his flight from Charlotte to D.C. He arrived exhausted but undaunted in time for his 8:32 a.m. Monday tee time, and then played some of the best golf of his year to advance into the U.S. Open for just the second time in his 15-year pro career.
I found him near scoring shortly after he’d received his medal and invitation from the USGA, the elation still fresh on his face.
“I feel like my head is still spinning,” he said. “It’s easily the craziest 24-hour stretch of my golf life.”
He wandered off into the evening not long after sharing a mile-wide grin with his family on FaceTime. It was only 8 p.m., but it was already time for bed.
2. Logan Reilly’s all-time week
Six days ago, Logan Reilly ended his Auburn Tigers’ 2026 season with a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the NCAA title. On Monday, he ended his U.S. Open qualifying efforts with a par on the last to secure a spot in his first major championship at Shinnecock Hills.
“Yeah, it’s definitely the best week of my life,” Reilly said Monday evening.
And he might not be speaking in hyperbole. Reilly’s family has roots on Long Island, and he attended the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock as a fan. Many of his dad’s friends were already expected in attendance throughout the week for the 2026 national championship — and now they’ll have a hometown hero to support.
3. Jake Sollon’s changed plans
The first hint that Jake Sollon might be the man to beat in a two-for-one playoff for the final qualifying spot at Woodmont arrived before the playoff even started. It was on the 18th hole, Sollon’s 36th of the day, when the 28-year-old pro scared the hole on a 50-footer for birdie that would have won him the spot outright.
The odds of that putt landing were delusionally small, maybe less than half-a-percent, but Sollon seemed pissed when it didn’t fall.
“I wanted that one so badly,” Sollon said with a grin afterward. “I was talking to [fellow pro] Cory Crawford before the round, and he made a 50-footer on the last a few years ago to qualify. We wanted to replicate that.”
Instead, Sollon headed back to the 6th hole for a playoff with Lee. Lee went first on the par-3, hitting a safe approach that just trickled over the spine of the green and left him about 40 feet for birdie. Sollon went second, dropping a dart from 160 yards that landed directly next to the flagstick and stayed there — a near-ace on his first playoff swing.
When Lee’s birdie putt missed, Sollon was left with eight inches for a birdie to win it.
“I’ve never been that scared over an eight-inch putt in my life, but it fell,” he said after.
“I was supposed to fly to Bogota, Colombia for a PGA Tour Americas start,” he said. “”I’ve never been so glad to cancel a flight in my life.”
His playoff victory gave him his first-ever major championship start, and a trip up to Shinnecock to start prepping for next week.
4. Landon O’Hara’s epic entry
It was not hard to spot the youngest player in the field at Maryland’s final qualifying stop. Sixteen-year-old Landon O’Hara looked as if he had stumbled right out of high school and onto the practice range. And as it turned out, he had.
O’Hara is a rising sophomore in high school. This was his first stab a final qualifying. He made it through local qualifying after one of the wilder stories of this U.S. Open season. As O’Hara’s dad told it, his son’s even-par round ended early in the day — so early that Landon decided to head home for a few hours. A normal high school day ensued, including several hours of studying for his AP exams, before O’Hara got the call: his even-par score was holding as one of the best of the day, and it was time to head back to the course in the event of a playoff.
Seven hours after his initial round ended, O’Hara returned back to local qualifying for a one-hole playoff, which he won, earning him a spot at final qualifying.
He failed to make it into the U.S. Open on Monday at Woodmont, but there’s little doubt the experience will serve him well in future years (and maybe also on those exams, too!).
