ELMSFORD, N.Y. (May 25, 2012)– On Monday, June 4, the Metropolitan Golf Association returns for the third consecutive year to Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., for 36-hole U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying, the final test before the 112th U.S. Open Championship at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif. The field of 73 golfers, made up of 50 professionals and 23 amateurs, will be contending for four coveted spots as they hope to join the world’s best players in the year’s second major championship. The qualifier will take place on the outstanding North and South Courses at Canoe Brook.

Headlining the field are current PGA Tour professionals Marc Turnesa of Jupiter, Fla., Daniel Chopra of Windermere, Fla., Jim Herman of Palm City, Fla., Parker McLachlin of Paradise Valley, Ariz., and Alexandre Rocha ofSao Paulo, Brazil. Turnesa, 34, is a Long Island native and 1994 Met Junior champion. He collected his first PGA Tour victory at the 2008 Justin Timerberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open in Las Vegas and competed in last year’s U.S. Open at Congressional.

Chopra, a 38-year-old native of Sweden, is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, capturing the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic and the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship. Herman, 34, is a former assistant pro at Trump National-Bedminster in New Jersey and qualified at Canoe Brook for the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Herman, who won on the Nationwide Tour in 2010, had his best career PGA Tour finish earlier this year when he placed T14 at the Shell Houston Open. McLachlin, who won the 2008 Reno-Tahoe Open, is making his second consecutive appearance at Canoe Brook, as is Rocha, who was one of four players to qualify here last year for the U.S. Open at Congressional.

Another former PGA Tour winner, 56-year-old Bill Britton of Rumson, N.J., will be in the field after shooting a 71 in local qualifying at Pine Barrens Golf Club. The head pro at Trump National-Colts Neck was the oldest player nationally to make it through local qualifying and appeared in nine U.S. Opens between 1982 and 1995. He is the second-oldest player with a shot to join the field at Olympic, after Tom Kite, who was exempt through local qualifying.

Current Nationwide Tour players in the field include Andrew Svoboda of Orlando, Fla., Luke List of Purcellville, Va., and Chris Nallen of Tuscon, Ariz. Svoboda, a former Met Amateur and Met Open champion, grew up in Westchester County and is enjoying a successful season on the Nationwide Tour, with three top-10 finishes in nine events played so far. He also shot a 64 to earn medalist honors at his U.S. Open local qualifying round in Port St. Lucie, Fla. List is currently the Nationwide Tour’s money leader, having collected just under $224,000 in only nine events. Nallen returns to his home state of New Jersey and will be competing at Canoe Brook for a second consecutive year. He qualified at Canoe Brook in 2005 and 2006 for the U.S. Open.

Longtime Met Area pros Frank Bensel of Jupiter Fla., Greg Bisconti of South Salem, N.Y., Rob Labritz of Pound Ridge, N.Y., Craig Thomas of White Plains, N.Y., and Brian Gaffney of Rumson, N.J. also hope to make some noise at Canoe Brook. Bensel, the 2007 Met Open champion, qualified for the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont and made it through local qualifying this year in Darien, Conn., as did Bisconti and Labritz. These accomplished pros are no strangers to major championships, either. Bisconti and Labritz both have three PGA Championship appearances to their credit, and both have earned low club pro honors—Bisconti in 2009 at Hazeltine and Labritz in 2010 at Whistling Straits. Thomas, the head pro at Metropolis Country Club in White Plains, competed in the 2004 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and the 2009 PGA at Hazeltine. Gaffney is the reigning N.J. PGA Player of the Year.

The field also boasts a plethora of big-time amateur talent, highlighted by reigning MGA Player of the Year Mike Miller of Brewster, N.Y. Miller, who was co-medalist alongside Cameron Young of Scarborough, N.Y., at the local qualifier at Trump National-Westchester, won the 2011 Met Amateur and recently returned from a trip to Europe in which he placed T4 in two prestigious amateur championships, the Lytham Trophy and Irish Amateur Open. Young, 15, was the winner of the 2011 MGA Carter Cup and is the second-youngest player nationally in sectional qualifying. Should he make the field at Olympic, he would have a chance to become the youngest player (by three months) to ever qualify for a U.S. Open.

Competing for family bragging rights at sectional is the father/son duo of Mark and Ryan McCormick of Middletown, N.J.  Mark, the head pro at Suburban Golf Club, finished co-medalist at Alpine Country Club, while Ryan, 20, claimed medalist honors at Wheatley Hills Golf Club with a 4-under 68. Pat Wilson of Andover, N.J., and Dylan Crowley of Glen Cove, N.Y., who play with Ryan on the St. John’s University men’s golf team, were right behind with 69s.

Rye, N.Y., native Max Buckley, 22, is in the field and was exempt from local qualifying after he advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2011 U.S. Amateur. Also exempt was 16-year-old Jim Liu of Smithtown, N.Y., who won the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2010, where he beat Tiger Woods’s record as the championship’s youngest winner. Seventeen-year-old Chelso Barrett of Keene, N.H., was exempt due to his runner-up finish in the 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur. Another 17-year-old, Charles Cai of West Windsor, N.J., will be making his first appearance in sectionals after a stellar 2-under 70 in gusty conditions at Pine Barrens Golf Club which gave him co-medalist honors. And returning to the Met Area is Stanford University standout Cameron Wilson of Rowayton, Conn. The 2009 Met Amateur, Carter Cup champion, and MGA Player of the Year posted a 2-under 70 to qualify out of Ruby Hill Golf Club in Pleasanton, Calif.  

Sectional qualifying will take place at 10 other sites across the country on June 4 to decide the final U.S. Open spots. Other players with Met Area ties competing elsewhere include five-time MGA major champion Johnson Wagner, who won his third PGA Tour event earlier this year at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He’ll compete in Columbus, Ohio, while Connecticut native J.J. Henry, who recently tied for third at the HP Byron Nelson Classic, will compete in Memphis, Tenn.

This will conclude Canoe Brook’s three-year rotation as the host of the MGA-conducted U.S. Open sectional qualifier. It will return to Old Oaks Country Club and Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y., in 2013. Live scoring and updates will be available on www.mgagolf.org, the MGA App (My MGA) available for the iPhone, iPad and Android, as well as the MGA Facebook and Twitter pages. For complete information and details on the U.S. Open, June 14-17 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif., visit www.usopen.com.