Ohio State’s Maxwell Moldovan is heading to the U.S. Open

The sophomore golfer used a brilliant 36 holes to qualify out of one of the toughest spots

When it comes to the Monday after the Memorial Tournament, that day is known as one thing in the world of golf: Golf’s Longest Day.

It is the day where amateur golfers and professional golfers alike try to qualify for the U.S. Open through various qualifying sites. The golfers play 36 holes on the day, and take their cumulative score of their two rounds. The field can range as wide as Brandt Snedeker, who has won close to 50 million dollars on tour as a PGA golfer, to Danny Woodhead, former NFL running back turned golfer.

In this year’s field, Ohio State sophomore Maxwell Moldovan teed it up at Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ohio. 77 golfers competed for eight spots in the 2022 U.S. Open field, which will take place at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. In the end, Moldovan finished in a tie for third place at 5-under par, and earned his invitation to The Country Club next week.

Moldovan got off to an incredible start, with birdies on four of his first six holes to propel himself to the top of the leaderboard early. He got all the way out to 6-under par through 11 holes. He was able to stay there for the majority of the day, not bogeying a hole until the 13^th. He then bogeyed the 15^th hole to fall back to 4-under par for the day. He finished his first 18 holes with a 66 round.

In his second round, the pressure was on to match his first round and finish the job of qualifying. He started off hot again, with birdies on his first two holes. However, through 10 holes, he was 1-over par for the second round, and had fallen out of the automatic qualifying spots and into the alternate positions.

Moldovan grinded it out and finished strong, as he birdied his 12^th hole and his 18^th hole — his final of the day — to finish with a cumulative score of 135 with a 69 in his second round. This put him at 5-under par for the day.

As mentioned, when it was all said and done, 5-under par did the trick, and Moldovan finished in a tie for third place. He also finished as the top amateur in the field.

Moldovan took on numerous PGA tour pros, including Brandt Snedeker, Jim Herman, Scott Piercy, Doc Redman, Rob Streb, Cameron Davis, Nick Hardy, Ryan Brehm, Sam Ryder, Michael Thompson and Sahith Theegala.

In total, 871 golfers attempted to qualify from 11 different locations, and only 65 golfers earned their final qualification. On May 23, Japan and Texas hosted their qualifiers, and on June 6, Ontario, California, Ohio (Columbus and Springfield), Oregon, Maryland, Florida, New York and Georgia all hosted their qualifiers.

In the Springfield regional, Matthys Daffue and Brian Stuard shared co-medalist honors after finishing in first place at 7-under par. Beau Hossler joined Moldovan in third place at 5-under par and at 4-under par was Troy Merritt, Sam Stevens, Adrien Dumont De Chassart and Bo Hoag — who all earned the final qualifying spots. Hoag is a graduate of the Ohio State University as well.

Due to his amateur world ranking, Moldovan was exempt from the first local qualifying site and went straight to Springfield. Moldovan earned PING All-Midwest Region honors for the second straight year at Ohio State after winning three times this season. His scoring average of 71.03 was the lowest in the program since 1980. Moldovan also earned Academic All-Big Ten.

The 122^nd U.S. Open will take place from June 16-June 19 in Brookline Massachusetts at The Country Club.