For US Open qualifiers like Mouw and Cowan, the pressure starts long before Shinnecock Hills

For those like Mouw, 25, that lesson didn't start at Shinnecock Hills. It began with surviving sectional qualifying just to make it there, and he was one of 43 players in the field who earned their way in on June 8. He needed to advance from a playoff in Canada where eight players were competing for three spots.

“I think it would have been obviously nice to not have to qualify, but it gives you an opportunity to compete and gain some momentum and confidence,” Mouw said. “I put up two good scores in Canada and made two very big putts on my 36th hole and the playoff hole to get in. It gave me a lot of confidence and carried it into this week.”

He was tied for 11th and joined by 21-year-old Ryder Cowan, who briefly held the lead in the first round and followed his 2-under 68 with a 72 Friday. Ben James and Max Greyserman, who both made it from the New York qualifier, shot 69s in the first round that had them in the top 10 when they started their second rounds, but they dropped back after James shot 72 and Greyserman 73.

Cowan, who will be a senior at Oklahoma, also had to deal with even more than 36 holes when his qualifier in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, required a three-man playoff for two spots.

“I mean, they call it the ‘Longest Day in Golf’ for a reason. It’s a long day, and you have like a week to prepare for the U.S. Open, maybe one of the most prestigious tournaments in golf," Cowan said. “It’s hard, because you come off of qualifying, you’re tired, you’re exhausted, and you don’t want to play.”

He remained in Florida and did play the next day, then flew home and took a day off to rest and recover.

Mouw missed the cut in his U.S. Open debut in 2022, a year after helping Pepperdine win the NCAA title. He turned pro in 2023 and won his first PGA Tour title last year at the ISCO Championship, when his 9-under 61 in the final round allowed him to make up a seven-shot deficit.

That got him a spot in this year's PGA Championship, where he made the cut, but his ranking wasn't high enough for an automatic entry into the U.S. Open. So he went out and earned one, and certainly showed a major championship mindset when he bounced back from his bad break.

“I would like to be under par, but I’m happy with two pars on the last two holes,” Mouw said. “Golf is a game of inches, and sometimes the breaks fall your way, sometimes they don’t. I’ve accepted that for today. I did get some good breaks today, too, so you can’t just look at the bad breaks. So I just took that.”

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