Reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Jazz Janewattananond will fly the Asian Tour flag when he tees up at the rescheduled U.S. Open, played at Winged Foot Golf Club from September 17-20.
Jazz, who is currently ranked 42nd on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), will be part of the 144-player field which comprises entirely of exempt players due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Open will see Jazz make this debut although the 24-year-old has already made three Major appearances at The Open (2018, 2019) and the PGA Championship last year. The Thai will be relishing his first appearance at the U.S. Open, having missed out on a spot at the sectional qualifiers last year.
Jazz rose to global prominence at the PGA Championship last year with a commendable tied-14th finish he entered the final round in tied-second. It remains the best finish by a Thai in the PGA Championship and second-best in a Major behind Thongchai Jaidee’s 13th place finish at The Open in 2009.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the USGA to conduct the championship without any qualifying and the field is now determined by a number of exemption categories. Among those categories were the top 70 on the OWGR as of March 15 and Jazz was ranked 39th at the time.
The traditional U.S. Open sectional qualifying events were cancelled this season following the upheaval in the global golf calendar due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Full list of exemption categories for the 120th U.S. Open can be found here.
Source: Asian Tour Release, June 26, 2020
