Dubai-born prodigy Josh Hill has inched closer to his way closer to his Major Championship debut by successfully passing the U.S. Open Local Qualifying round held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Silver Lakes.
The University of Tennessee sophomore shot a four-under-par 68 in Alabama, tying for second place and finishing just one shot behind Steven Diliso’s five-under. Hill secured one of the five spots available in Final Qualifying for the third Major of the year.
This is the second consecutive year that the U.S. Open Final Qualifying will have a former Dubai resident in the field, following on from Toby Bishop teeing it up last year.
Approximately the top 7.5% of participants advance to the U.S. Open, with the exact number of qualifiers from each site determined by the number of entrants and the competition’s strength; in 2023, 64 out of 878 players secured a spot.
Hill, who has been ranked as high as 47th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, has been playing golf in the States for a couple of years now after success in the Middle East.
The youngster teed it up alongside the likes of Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood at the 2022 Dubai Desert Classic and Abu Dhabi Championship – making the cut both times.
Also in Dubai, he set the record as the youngest winner of an Official World Golf Ranking-recognized professional tournament by clinching the 2019 Al Ain Open on the MENA Tour with a final-round 62 at the age of 15 years, six months, and 27 days.
Final Qualifying for the U.S. Open will be contested at 10 sites throughout the United States on May 20 and June 3, with the tournament then set for June 13-16 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in North Carolina.
It will be the fourth time that Pinehurst has hosted the U.S. Open, with the previous winners at the venue being Martin Kaymer (2014), Michael Campbell (2005) and Payne Stewart (1999).
