About half the field each year consists of players who are fully exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open. The players who have qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open are listed below. Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses. The qualification categories changed substantially in 2012. Seven categories (9 and 11 to 16, from
2011) were eliminated. These categories exempted top finishers on the money lists of various tours and multiple PGA Tour winners. Three categories were added (3, 4, and 9 below), for the winners of
The Amateur Championship, the
Mark H. McCormack Medal, and the
BMW PGA Championship. Two categories were expanded (13 and 14 below), to include the top 60 instead of the top 50 in the
Official World Golf Ranking. 1. Last 10
U.S. Open Champions •
Ángel Cabrera (5) •
Michael Campbell •
Jim Furyk (13,14) •
Lucas Glover •
Retief Goosen •
Graeme McDowell (13,14) •
Rory McIlroy (11,13,14) •
Geoff Ogilvy (12,13,14) •
Tiger Woods (7,13,14) 2. Top two finishers in the 2011
U.S. Amateur •
Patrick Cantlay (a,4) •
Kelly Kraft forfeited his invitation by turning pro in April 2012. 3. Winner of the 2011
British Amateur •
Bryden Macpherson forfeited his invitation by turning pro in April 2012. 4. Winner of the 2011
Mark H. McCormack Medal 5. Last five
Masters Champions •
Trevor Immelman •
Phil Mickelson (12,13,14) •
Charl Schwartzel (11,13,14) •
Bubba Watson (12,13,14) 6. Last five
British Open Champions •
Stewart Cink •
Pádraig Harrington (7) •
Louis Oosthuizen (11,13,14) •
Darren Clarke withdrew after a groin injury. 7. Last five
PGA Champions •
Keegan Bradley (12,13,14) •
Martin Kaymer (13,14) •
Yang Yong-eun (11,12) 8. Last three
Players Champions •
K. J. Choi (12,13,14) •
Tim Clark •
Matt Kuchar (12,13,14) 9. Winner of the 2012
BMW PGA Championship •
Luke Donald (12,13,14) 10. The
U.S. Senior Open Champion •
Olin Browne 11. Top 10 finishers and ties in the
2011 U.S. Open •
Kevin Chappell •
Jason Day (12,13,14) •
Sergio García (13,14) •
Robert Garrigus •
Peter Hanson (13,14) •
Lee Westwood (13,14) 12. All players qualifying for the 2011 edition of
The Tour Championship •
Aaron Baddeley (13,14) •
Jonathan Byrd (13,14) •
Jason Dufner (13,14) •
Bill Haas (13,14) •
Charles Howell III •
Freddie Jacobson (13,14) •
Dustin Johnson (13,14) •
Hunter Mahan (13,14) •
Chez Reavie •
Justin Rose (13,14) •
Adam Scott (13,14) •
John Senden (13,14) •
Webb Simpson (13,14) •
Vijay Singh •
Steve Stricker (13,14) •
David Toms (13,14) •
Bo Van Pelt (13,14) •
Nick Watney (13,14) •
Mark Wilson (13,14) •
Gary Woodland •
Brandt Snedeker (13,14) withdrew with a rib injury. 13. Top 60 on the
Official World Golf Ranking list as of May 21, 2012 •
Bae Sang-moon (14) •
Thomas Bjørn (14) •
Rafa Cabrera-Bello (14) •
Nicolas Colsaerts (14) •
Ben Crane (14) •
Simon Dyson (14) •
Ernie Els (14) •
Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (14) •
Rickie Fowler (14) •
Anders Hansen (14) •
Ryo Ishikawa •
Miguel Ángel Jiménez •
Zach Johnson (14) •
Robert Karlsson (14) •
Kim Kyung-tae (14) •
Martin Laird (14) •
Francesco Molinari (14) •
Kevin Na (14) •
Carl Pettersson (14) •
Ian Poulter (14) •
Álvaro Quirós (14) •
Robert Rock (14) •
Kyle Stanley (14) •
Paul Lawrie decided not to play. •
Paul Casey withdrew after a shoulder injury. 14. Top 60 on the
Official World Golf Ranking list as of June 11, 2012 •
Branden Grace •
Spencer Levin 15. Special exemptions selected by the
USGA •
None Qualifiers Source: • Japan:
Hiroyuki Fujita,
Brendan Jones,
Lee Dong-hwan,
Park Jae-bum,
Tadahiro Takayama,
Toru Taniguchi • England:
Matthew Baldwin,
Grégory Bourdy,
George Coetzee,
Mikko Ilonen,
Raphaël Jacquelin,
Søren Kjeldsen,
Peter Lawrie,
Matteo Manassero,
Alex Norén,
Lee Slattery,
Marc Warren • United States :*Daly City, California:
Michael Allen,
Matt Bettencourt,
Alex Čejka,
James Hahn,
Beau Hossler (a),
Alberto Sanchez (a),
Scott Smith (L) :*Lecanto, Florida:
Brooks Koepka (a),
Scott Langley (L),
Sam Osborne (L) :*Suwanee, Georgia:
Jason Bohn,
Tim Weinhart,
Casey Wittenberg :*Glen Ellyn, Illinois:
Tim Herron,
Anthony Summers :*Rockville, Maryland:
Shane Bertsch,
Paul Claxton,
Jeff Curl (L),
Cole Howard,
Darron Stiles,
Michael Thompson,
Nicholas Thompson (L) :*Summit, New Jersey:
Brian Gaffney (L),
Jim Herman (L),
Mark McCormick (L),
Cameron Wilson (a) :*Columbus, Ohio:
Blake Adams,
Martin Flores,
Brian Harman,
Morgan Hoffmann (L),
Steve LeBrun (L),
Edward Loar,
Davis Love III,
Steve Marino,
David Mathis,
Dennis Miller,
Jesse Mueller (L),
Rod Pampling,
Scott Piercy,
D. A. Points,
Kevin Streelman,
Charlie Wi :*Springfield, Ohio:
Brice Garnett,
John Peterson (L) :*Creswell, Oregon:
Casey Martin,
Nick Sherwood (a) :*Memphis, Tennessee:
Stephen Ames,
Tommy Biershenk,
Roberto Castro,
Joe Durant,
Hunter Haas,
Hunter Hamrick (L),
Bill Lunde,
Joe Ogilvie,
Aaron Watkins :*Houston, Texas:
Bob Estes,
Alistair Presnell,
Brian Rowell Alternates who gained entry: •
Justin Hicks (Columbus) – claimed spot held for category 14 •
Colt Knost (Columbus) – claimed spot held for category 14 •
Kyle Thompson (Memphis) – claimed spot held for category 14 •
Jordan Spieth (a, Houston) – replaced
Brandt Snedeker •
Andy Zhang (a,L, Lecanto) – replaced
Paul Casey. At 14, Zhang became the youngest golfer to compete in the U.S. Open since at least World War II. (a) denotes amateur (L) denotes player advanced through local qualifying ==Round summaries==