ELMSFORD, N.Y. (June 7, 2011)–Although no Met Area players advanced from the MGA’s U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., on June 6,  two former MGA champions did advance out of their respective sectional sites.

Long Island native Marc Turnesa, the 1994 Met Junior champion who now plays on the PGA Tour, advanced out of the Columbus, Ohio, qualifier with a 36-hole score of 136. It will be the first U.S. Open appearance for Turnesa, 33, who currently resides in Jupiter, Fla., and won the 2008 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on the PGA Tour. He has been competing this season on a major medical exemption and needs to earn $776,818 in 21 starts in 2011 to retain his PGA Tour card. The chance to tee it up in a major championship could go a long way to reaching that target.

After recently turning professional, 2006 Carter Cup champion and University of Illinois graduate Chris DeForest of Cottekill, N.Y., advanced out of the St. Charles, Illinois sectional in dramatic fashion. DeForest, 22, eagled the second playoff hole to secure his spot at Congressional and beat out Blake Biddle of St. Charles, Illinois, for the final coveted spot. After a steady first round of 71, DeForest put his game in overdrive for his final 18 holes, as he recorded the low round of the day with his afternoon 65 for a 136 total. That landed him in a three-man playoff for two spots alongside Biddle and Brad Benjamin of Rockford, Illinois. After Benjamin birdied the first playoff hole to earn his Open berth, DeForest and Biddle moved on to second playoff hole, a par five. Following a long drive, DeForest stuck his second shot to two feet and sank the eagle putt that has him now preparing for the biggest tournament of his life alongside the elite players in the game. 

DeForest and Turnesa will compete in the 111th U.S. Open Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., June 16-19. The MGA will cover their progress on www.mgagolf.org, and for more information on the U.S. Open, visit www.usopen.com.

In other U.S. Open sectional qualifying, Connecticut native and former Met Amateur and Ike runner-up J.J. Henry emerged from a playoff in Columbus as the first alternate from that sectional qualifier. He will have to wait for a withdrawl in order to make it into the field at Congressional. Also in Columbus, five-time MGA major champion Johnson Wagner and St. John’s University alumnus Keegan Bradley failed to advance to the U.S. Open. In Dallas, 2005 Carter Cup champion and 2008 Ike runner-up Morgan Hoffmann also failed to qualify.