PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – For the first time in his career, Chip McDaniel will start a U.S. Open. McDaniel will join fellow former Kentucky men’s golfer, J.B. Holmes, at Pebble Beach Golf Links for the 119th edition of America’s golf national championship.
Holmes will tee off Thursday at 10:40 a.m. ET on the first hole while McDaniel will start play on the 10th hole at 3:52 p.m. Television coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1 and will switch over to Fox at 7:30 p.m. ET.
McDaniel will make his first U.S. Open start after qualifying by way of the Springfield (Ohio) Country Club sectional where he shared medalist honors with a 6-under 134. He made his way to Springfield after surviving the local qualifying in Lexington.
McDaniel has played on the PGA Tour this season back in March, tying for fifth at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship. His final-round 63 propelled him up the leaderboard and into the top five.
After missing the U.S. Open last year, Holmes returns to the championship looking to replicate his fantastic play from 2017, when he placed 12th at Erin Hills. Holmes qualified this year due to climbing back into the top 60 of the Official World Golf Ranking after winning the Genesis Open at The Riviera Country Club in February. This is Holmes’ eighth start in a U.S. Open.
Eighteen holes of stroke play are scheduled each day from June 13 through June 16. Pebble Beach Golf Links will be set up at 7,075 yards and will play to a par of 35-36 – 71. The yardage for each round of the championship will vary due to course setup and conditions. After 36 holes, the starting field of 156 golfers will be cut to the low 60 scorers (and ties).
The 2019 edition of the U.S. Open Championship marks the 119th time the competition has been played since 1895. It was not contested for two years (1917-1918) during World War I and for four years (1942-45) during World War II. Pebble Beach Golf Links will host the U.S. Open for the sixth time and in the fifth consecutive decade.
Pebble Beach Golf Links is part of the famous 17-Mile Drive, which was originally designed as a local excursion route for visitors to the Del Monte to take in the historic sights of Monterey and Pacific Grove and the scenery of what would become Pebble Beach. The course was designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant and opened on Feb. 22, 1919. Neville’s objective was to place as many of the holes as possible along the Monterey coastline, and he accomplished this by using a “figure 8” layout.
The first professional tournament held at Pebble Beach was the 1926 Monterey Peninsula Open. In 1929, the course hosted the U.S. Amateur Championship for the first time. In 1947, Pebble Beach became one of the host courses for the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, which is currently known as the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Pebble Beach has hosted 12 USGA championships, including five U.S. Opens and five U.S. Amateurs, and was the site of the 1977 PGA Championship.
