How to Enter U.S. Open Qualifying

U.S. Open qualifying is open entry. A player who meets the eligibility line files an entry and plays for a place in the field. This is what the USGA had published for 2027, and what it had not, when we checked on October 11, 2026.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Open, read October 11, 2026.

Last year, for reference (2026, completed). These are the dates the USGA announced and ran for the 2026 U.S. Open. They show the shape of the calendar. They are not the 2027 dates.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2026 U.S. Open, Local, Final Qualifying Sites Announced for 126th U.S. Open (February 9, 2026) and Entries Open for 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (February 18, 2026), read October 11, 2026.

The USGA’s 2027 page puts eligibility in one sentence: “Open to any professional or amateur whose Handicap Index® does not exceed 0.4.” Its announcement for the 2026 championship spelled out the two routes: “To be eligible, one must be an amateur with a Handicap Index® not exceeding 0.4 or be a professional.”

So an amateur needs a Handicap Index of 0.4 or lower, and the limit is the same for 2027 as it was for 2026. If you do not have an index yet, the guide to getting a Handicap Index and a GHIN number covers the steps, which are the same for an adult as for a junior. For what a 0.4 index means beside scratch and plus handicaps, see plus handicaps and scratch golfers explained.

Whether you are an amateur or a professional is decided by the Rules of Amateur Status, and the status you enter and play under matters under those Rules. The Rules of Amateur Status guide covers what an amateur may accept, and testing pro golf without losing amateur status covers entering an event that professionals also play.

Qualifying runs in two stages of different lengths, and the championship is a third stage after them:

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Open and for 2026 U.S. Open, Qualifying, Schedule of Play and Cut, read October 11, 2026.

In 2026 three of the 13 final qualifying sites were outside the United States, in England, Japan and Canada. Nine U.S. sites and the Canadian site played on June 8, the date the USGA’s announcement says is known across the industry as “Golf’s Longest Day”. Players who advanced from local qualifying joined what the same announcement calls “a group of locally exempt competitors” at that stage.

None of the 2027 sites is announced. The USGA’s 2027 page gives the months and the lengths only.

Not everyone in the field plays both stages. The 2026 announcements describe two kinds of exemption, and each is set for the championship year:

• Fully exempt players go straight into the championship. For 2026 the USGA said there were 25 categories of full exemption. The examples it gave were the top 60 point leaders and ties in the Official World Golf Ranking as of May 18, with a second top 60 on June 15, the top 5 players in the 2026 FedExCup standings as of May 18 who were not otherwise exempt, and the top player in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai as of May 18 who was not otherwise exempt.
• Locally exempt players skip local qualifying and start at the 36-hole final stage.

Some exemptions into the 2027 championship are already published. Two of them are for amateurs: the USGA’s 2026 pages say the 2026 U.S. Amateur champion and the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion each receive an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

The 2027 fast facts page lists no exemption categories yet. Everyone who holds no exemption starts at local qualifying, so plan for the full path unless a category published for 2027 names a result of yours.

The USGA takes entries online. Its 2026 announcements gave the address as champs.usga.org, and said the entry application and the list of qualifying sites were both there. For 2027 it has published one thing about timing: entries open in February 2027.

Last year the order was: qualifying sites announced on February 9, 2026, registration open from February 18 to April 8, and local qualifying from April 20. Use that as the shape of the calendar, not as the 2027 dates.

Before February 2027, a checklist:

• If you will enter as an amateur, have a current Handicap Index at or below 0.4.
• Know which status you are entering under, amateur or professional, and read the two status guides above if you are close to the line.
• Check the USGA’s 2027 page again in January for the day entries open, the closing date and the fee. None of the three is published yet.
• When the sites are announced, compare the local qualifying dates and the travel to each before you pick one.
• Read the entry application itself for the full conditions of entry. This page covers only what the USGA’s public pages state.

Local qualifying is one 18-hole round. Final qualifying is 36 holes. The field at both stages can include professionals, because the championship is open to them.

The USGA publishes the scale. It accepted 10,201 entries for the 2026 U.S. Open, for a field of 156. Its February 18, 2026 announcement said that since 2004 an average of 77.9 players in the field, close to half, had come through one or both stages of qualifying, and that 70 of the 156 players in the 2025 championship earned their place that way. Its February 9, 2026 announcement said Ken Venturi in 1964 and Orville Moody in 1969 were the only players to win the U.S. Open after advancing through both stages.

This page gives no score needed to advance, because the USGA pages state none and it depends on the site and the year. To see what it took last year, the USGA’s 2026 qualifying page lists the 13 final qualifying sites with a leaderboard link for each.

Prepare for a qualifier like the tournament it is, with a tournament-prep plan for the week before and the morning of.

An amateur with an index above 0.4 cannot enter U.S. Open qualifying under the published limit. Two other USGA championships are worth knowing about:

• The U.S. Mid-Amateur, for amateurs 25 and older, has a Handicap Index limit of 2.4 for 2027. The mid-amateur guide covers it, along with how to find a state or regional mid-amateur.
• The U.S. Amateur has the same 0.4 limit as the U.S. Open, with two 18-hole qualifying stages. The U.S. Amateur qualifying guide covers it.