Sam Stevens, Luke Gannon are first Wichita golfers to qualify for US Open since 1997
It’s been a quarter of a century since the last time a Wichita men’s golfer qualified for the U.S. Open.
Now there will be a pair of Wichita natives in the major championship field when the U.S. Open begins next Thursday at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
Sam Stevens, a 2014 Kapaun Mt. Carmel graduate, and Luke Gannon, a 2015 Heights graduate, both earned spots in the field through Monday’s Final Qualifying, where nine regional tournaments were played across the country with 49 invitations to the U.S. Open up for grabs.
Stevens fired a 4-under, 36-hole total of 136 in Springfield, Ohio to grab one of eight spots in the 77-player field, while Gannon shot a 6-under, 36-hole score of 136 in San Francisco to snag one of five spots in the 90-player field.
They are the first Wichita natives to qualify for the U.S. Open since Slade Adams, a Kapaun graduate, and Greg Towne, a Southeast graduate, played in the 1997 U.S. Open and both made the cut.
“It’s definitely going to cool to represent Wichita at the U.S. Open,” Stevens told The Eagle. “It’s going to be awesome to have Luke there too. He’s been playing pretty well and I’m so happy for him. We talked on the phone a little (Monday night) and it’s so cool both coming from Wichita and making it through. It was a good day for Wichita golf.”
Monday qualifiers have been good to Stevens this year. Back in February, Stevens won a Monday qualifier to play in the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic and then made the cut, finishing in a tie for 55th place.
The Oklahoma State graduate also earned exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he has made the last five cuts and notched six top-25 finishes this year.
Adding to the significance of the achievement for Stevens was the fact that his grandfather, Johnny, played in the 1969 U.S. Open.
Since a successful collegiate career at Southern Illinois that ended in 2019, Gannon joined PGA Tour Canada in 2022 and played in his first tournament this past weekend.
After missing the cut by five strokes at the Royal Beach Victoria Open on Friday, Gannon traveled across the border — Victoria is located near Seattle — to San Francisco for the Monday qualifier where he played his best 36-hole stretch of the year.
Stevens and Gannon won’t be the only Kansas natives in the field: they will be joined by PGA Tour regular Gary Woodland, a 38-year-old Topeka native, and Topeka native Andrew Beckler, a 2015 Washburn Rural graduate.
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 1:22 PM.
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