“Should you care about U.S. Open qualifying?” he asked, as an opening rhetorical device. The question is not without timely intrigue, the books having just closed on qualifying for the 125th U.S. Open.

In the course of my time in the golf business and golf media space — and I may be now on the inward nine — I’ve seen the judicious capsule keepers and profilers pecking away (tweeting, now, mostly, I guess) every serviceable morsel from Golf’s Longest Day.

…-1 through 14, -2 through 15, T7, -2 through 16…A 7-wood borrowed from a fellow club member at Needlepoint CC in Tan Sperry, Virginia, was key to persevering in the 5-for-2 playoff in local qualifying…

That type of stuff.

And of course, back inside the ropes of reality, we have the profiles and the widely borrowed from reports, such as the UPS driver DQ’d following a heartbreaking mental error at Woodmont Country Club. Also, one of this year’s most incredible stories, that of Dr. Matthew Vogt, a 34-year-old dentist from McCordsville, Indiana, who secured his spot by shooting back-to-back rounds of 68 at the Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington. Originally from the Pittsburgh area, Vogt worked as a caddie at Oakmont during his youth. Following his round, the modern-day Middlecroff said, “You can accomplish awesome things while still having a career… still having a family. It’s never too late to follow your dreams.” How awesome is that?

Returning to the point (yes, there is one): The results of Final Qualifying are largely less than interesting and worthy of your attention, I think. That is, they are less surprising, less satisfying fare than another element. For the leaderboard watcher to expect, say, former GolfWRX Editor-in-Chief Zak Kozuchowski to outlast Erik Van Rooyen, whom he was paired with and who set the pace at their event in Columbus, Ohio, well, that’s rather missing the point.

 

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Instead, pardon the slip into a more familiar idiom, let’s remember that it’s cool as shit that they were grouped together — that they were competing side by side for a spot in the fricking U.S. Open!

Where else does anything like this happen in sports? What analogy can we imagine? Replacement players? A walk-on from the intramural squad making the D1 football team and recording a tackle? A Rudy situation? It’s singular!

“None of the qualifiers, the non-pros, I mean, can make the cut, let alone win,” a 19th hole cynic once said, teetering on a barstool in a wood-paneled bar room in some corner of my brain. I can’t remember where, truly, thanks to far too many nights of far, far too many before the wisdom of sobriety set in. But something like that was said once in my presence.

To both the leaderboard watcher and the overserved cynic: The thing about U.S. Open Qualifying, the essential elements, are the stories. The stories are the thing! Heck, maybe the same is true for all of sports, he typed, massively overshooting the runway in his attempted landing…

Alas, I say from this fiery mess of twisted metal: Enjoy U.S. Open Qualifying as a pre-Open rite. Ask for more stories. More from us. More from our media center cohorts. Maybe even from Good Good or Rick Shiels. Who knows. Everyone who can shine a spotlight on these unique sagas of sport ought to do it, and you ought to invest the time to read ‘em.

To put it another way: TL;DR: Yes, you should.