Jun 4, 2016 3 min read

For Steve Wheatcroft, the road to the U.S. Open runs through Rockville, Md.

Again.

That’s where the 38-year-old Trinity High School graduate will try to qualify for the Open, which will be held at Oakmont Country Club June 16-19.

Oakmont holds a special place in Wheatcroft’s heart. He worked there as an assistant to head pro Bob Ford for three years. He’s had opportunities to play the short but treacherous course, maneuver along fairways guarded by the tangled rough and dissect the lightning-fast greens with pins set in difficult locations.

To get back, Wheatcroft will participate in one of the many U.S. Open qualifiers, this one at Rockville’s Woodmont Country Club. He tees off Monday.

“It’s my dream, my No. 1 goal this year – to get back to the U.S. Open,” Wheatcroft told Jim McCabe of Golf Week. “If I qualify for the Open this year, I won’t be able to pull the club back on (the first tee). I’ll be beyond nervous the night before the qualifier.”

Wheatcroft qualified for the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach the same way he hopes to do it tis year, through the section qualifier. In 2010, he won a four-way playoff in Rockville, then actually held the lead for a brief time in the first round on the way to a 3-over-par 74. He finished at 16-over and tied for 63rd.

Wheatcroft has had some outstanding rounds at Oakmont, including a 65 and a few others at 66. But those rounds came without the thousands of fans lining the course, the presence of the greatest golfers in the game competing against him or in front of the unblinking eye of television cameras.

Oakmont would present different challenges than Pebble Beach.

“Once you get to know the golf course, it’s a lot more fun and you know how to play the shots, how to play the greens,” he said. “(But) if you go there for the first time, you’re going to get beat up, because you don’t know where to putt it, where to leave it to get it up-and-down.”

Wheatcroft has made 11 cuts in 18 tournaments this year and has earnings of $186,675. His best finish is a tie for 36th at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in early May. He needs a strong effort in the coming months to make sure he keeps his PGA tour card, so why not at Oakmont?

“It’s such a great golf course; so hard, but it has an aura about it,” Wheatcroft said. “I get as nervous when I go back there for a fun round of golf as I do playing in a (PGA Tour) tournament. I’m so fired-up to get there.”