Englishman Nathan Kimsey ran away with medalist honours at Walton Heath on Monday, signing for a second-round 62 to lock up a place in the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. Six more players punched their tickets behind him in a 36-hole grind that featured 89 starters and only seven spots — Europe’s lone slice of “Golf’s Longest Day” in a U.S. Open final qualifying schedule that stretches from 18 May to 8 June.
What Happened
Walton Heath’s Old and New courses hosted the only final-qualifier outside the United States on 18 May (a Japanese site follows on 25 May, with the bulk of the U.S. sites bunched on 8 June). Kimsey was the headline. After an opening 68 on the Old Course he flipped a switch in round two, going out in 31 and torching the New for a 62 — 14 under par for 36 holes, two clear of the field at 130.
Behind him, Rocco Repetto Taylor grabbed the second exempt place at 132. The third-place tie at 11-under 133 produced a four-man pile-up of Filippo Celli, Matthew Jordan, Angel Hidalgo and Niklas Nørgaard, each of whom claimed an outright qualifying spot. That left one ticket to settle in sudden death — and Ugo Coussaud (134) eventually beat Thomas Detry, Hennie du Plessis and Andrew Wilson to take the seventh and final invitation.
Why It Matters
The U.S. Open is the only major where the field still includes a meaningful slug of qualifiers — currently around half the championship’s 156-man field. That’s by design. The USGA has held to the “open” in U.S. Open even as the other majors have drifted toward higher-pedigree entry lists, and Walton Heath’s 36-hole sprint is the brutal proof: 89 men with full DP World Tour cards, Challenge Tour graduates, and a smattering of amateurs and PGA pros all chasing the same seven envelopes.
For Kimsey, a 32-year-old with one DP World Tour win on his CV (the 2024 Dimension Data Pro-Am), it’s a first major appearance and the kind of season-altering result the qualifier was built to produce. Matthew Jordan now makes a third U.S. Open in a row, a quiet streak that should feature in a few more Sunday-night highlight reels at Shinnecock. Nørgaard, whose 65 in round one signalled he’d be in the mix, qualifies for his third major of 2026 after appearances at the Masters and PGA Championship — a major-championship trajectory that hasn’t yet translated into a top-10 but looks one solid week away.
The seven names join a Shinnecock field that already includes Aaron Rai, fresh off his first major win at Aronimink, and Lucas Herbert, who booked his own Shinnecock spot by winning LIV Golf Virginia. They’ll be joined by a further 99 final-qualifier graduates from the U.S. sites between 25 May and 8 June.
What This Means For You
Walton Heath is, in a club-golfer sense, a recognisable course — heathland, firm, breeze-exposed, with bouncy fairways and run-offs that punish mid-iron miscues. The leaderboard tells you something useful about what’s about to translate to Shinnecock: compressed wedge play and a confident putter beat raw distance over short, firm, wind-affected lines. Kimsey’s medalist round didn’t come from one bomber number — it came from converting 14- and 18-footers on bumpy heather-board greens.
If you want to start tracking these seven for U.S. Open weekend, here’s what to watch:
- Nathan Kimsey — short-iron precision and a putter that runs hot when momentum builds. Live with the cold weeks, ride the warm ones.
- Matthew Jordan — pound-for-pound the most disciplined ball-striker of the seven. A natural Shinnecock fit if the wind blows.
- Niklas Nørgaard — long off the tee and getting comfortable on majors stages. His weakness is the medium-length lag putt; Shinnecock’s tilted greens will test that quickly.
- Angel Hidalgo — flashy ball-striker, streaky putter; a top-30 candidate on his good days.
- Filippo Celli — the Italian who won the Silver Medal as low amateur at the 2022 Open Championship; this is his first U.S. Open as a pro.
- Rocco Repetto Taylor — Challenge Tour graduate making his major debut; outsider but the field’s most aggressive driver.
- Ugo Coussaud — the playoff survivor; the type of player whose game can go anywhere when the heat is on, for better or worse.
A Lesson For Weekend Players
Final qualifying is where you watch shot-shaping under pressure at its most honest. There’s no LIV-style staggered scoring, no leaderboard cushion — 36 holes, no cut, seven spots. The players who advance tend to share three habits the rest of us can borrow:
- They commit to a number, not a swing. Watch Kimsey’s wedge pre-shot — the rehearsal is a yardage check, not a swing thought.
- They miss to the right side. On firm heathland (and on Shinnecock’s crowned greens), the better miss is short-of-pin and long of trouble. None of the seven qualifiers were short-siding themselves on Sunday’s pin sheet.
- They prepare to hit one-handed bunker shots. If you’ve ever wondered why pro short-game looks so unhurried, it’s because firm-and-fast lies favour the players who’ve practised getting up-and-down from awkward greenside lies. Our guide to escaping Oakmont’s Church Pews covers the same fundamentals you’ll see at Shinnecock.
For more on what’s coming at Shinnecock, our Shinnecock Hills wind-play strategy guide walks through the four directional patterns and the holes that flip when the wind changes.
Key Takeaways
- Seven players qualified for the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock from Walton Heath’s final qualifier on 18 May 2026.
- Nathan Kimsey (130) took medalist honours by two with a second-round 62; Repetto Taylor, Celli, Jordan, Hidalgo, Nørgaard and playoff winner Ugo Coussaud round out the qualifying group.
- U.S. Open final qualifying continues on 25 May (Japan) and 8 June (“Golf’s Longest Day,” 10 U.S. sites) before the championship runs 18–21 June at Shinnecock Hills.
- Watch Kimsey’s putter and Jordan’s discipline as bellwethers for whether this European contingent translates to a Shinnecock contender.
Source: U.S. Open Final Qualifying — Walton Heath, 18 May 2026. Reporting via Golf Channel, Golf Monthly and DP World Tour official results.
