UW's Calkins Competes at U.S. Open Final Qualifying Round

* University of Wyoming press release

LARAMIE -- University of Wyoming sophomore golfer Jaren Calkins was one of 120 golfers who earned a spot in Monday’s 2023 U.S. Open Final Qualifying Round played in Dallas, Texas.

The field included numerous current professional golfers, including 2017 Masters Champion Sergio Garcia of Spain and 2010 U.S. Open Champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland. Only the Top-8 finishers out of the 120-man field at the Dallas Final Qualifying Tournament earned spots into the 123rd U.S. Open Championship.

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The cutoff for the Top-8 finishers on Monday evening was 133 (-8). Calkins finished Monday’s 36-hole event with a score of 146 (+5). All eight qualifiers were professional golfers, with Carson Young of Anderson, S.C., winning medalist honors with a final score of 125 (-16) to win by five strokes. Young is a current PGA Tour professional who played his collegiate golf at Clemson.

Each competitor at the Dallas Final Qualifier played one round on the Northwood Club course and one round on the Bent Tree Country Club course.

The Dallas Final Qualifier was one of 13 U.S. Open Final Qualifying Tournaments to be played between May 16 and June 5. The final U.S. Open field is limited to 156 players. The 123rd U.S. Open Championship will be played Thursday-Sunday, June 15-18, 2023, at The Los Angeles Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif.

Calkins won the local qualifier at the Riverton Country Club in Riverton, Wyo.,on Wednesday, May 10, earning him his spot in the U.S. Open Final Qualifying Round in Dallas. He fired a 63 (-9) to win by three strokes over Keanu Akina, a current member of the BYU men’s golf team who shot a 66 (-6) to earn the other qualifying spot.

The Riverton U.S. Open Qualifier was allotted two qualifying spots.

Wyoming junior Jimmy Dales is the second Cowboy who will compete in a U.S. Open Final Qualifying Tournament this spring. Dales shot a 68 (-4) at the Walnut Creek Local Qualifier in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Colo., to win by five strokes over Matthew Spaulding of Spring, Texas, and John Sand of Hoquiam, Wash., who both shot 73 (+1). Spaulding is a current member of the University of Denver golf team. Sand completed his college golf career, also at the University of Denver, in the 2021-22 season. Five qualifying spots were allotted from the Walnut Creek Local Qualifier.

Dales will play in the Final Qualifying Tournament at Lakes Golf and Country Club and Brookside Golf and C.C. in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, June 5.

Calkins and and Dales became the first Wyoming Cowboy golfers to move on to the U.S. Open Final Qualifying Round since Kirby Coe-Kirkham and John Murdock did in 2021.

In the 2023 Local Qualifying rounds there were 9,693 individuals who competed for 530 spots. Those 530 then advanced to one of the 13 Final Qualifying Tournaments. Only 156 players earn their way into the U.S. Open.