OPEN QUALIFYING MONDAY--A SPORTS MERITOCRACY

Today is one of my favorite days in sports, U.S. Open Qualifying Monday. The USGA doesn't care where you play, what your gender is, how old you are, whether you are an amateur or professional or what your national origin is. All that matters is: Can you shoot a number low enough to enable you to compete for the National Championship of the USA.

It's tremendously stressful but it always yields good stories, like High School Players and low impact amateurs having that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play for the US Open Championship. In the best sense, it is still an "Open" championship.

This year, the process is devalued a bit because of the Michelle Wie effort. 16 year old millionaires tend to bore me. I'm more interested in the forty year old car dealer from New Jersey or the 16 year old High School Junior with the Vietnamese name from Valencia, California who break through.

Of course keep in mind that these folks are playing for the right to face a golf course that eats people two weeks from now.