It's Open week

    Sean O'Hair capped a fairly disastrous first half of 2011 by failing to qualify for this week's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.
   O'Hair was among a large group of touring pros who went from the Memorial to the sectional qualfier at Brookside Country Club and The Lakes Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. There were 16 spots available, but the 120-player field was probably more competitive than any of the other sectionals.
   After an opening-round 68, O'Hair fell back to a 72 and missed qualifying by three shots.
   O'Hair, who lives outside of West Chester, is a favorite son in Delco ever since marrying Jackie Lucas, herself a pretty darn good player at Sun Valley. O'Hair fired his caddy and his swing coach and has his father-in-law Steve, who has an insurance company in Aston, back on the bag. Steve, a pretty good athlete in his younger says, has always been a calming influence on his son-in-law when he's been on the bag.
   Much has been made about the "incident" between O'Hair and Rory Sabbatini at the tour stop in New Orleans. Although the PGA Tour doesn't announce suspensions, Sabbatini's absence from the tour in recent weeks has led many to believe he was indeed suspended.
   O'Hair still has plenty of time to turn this year around and he'll certainly have a ton of supporters in his corner in three weeks at the AT&T National at Aronimink, one of his home courses (along with Concord) in the county.
    In my Golf Notebook in Saturday's Daily Times, I  mentioned that Michael Kania, the two-time Haverfod School All-Delco who is coming off a solid sophomore season at Villanova, also failed to make it to the Open with a rounds of 74 and 78 at Woodmont C.C. in Rockville, Md. He'll take a shot at the Golf Association of Philadelphia's Amateur Championship when he tees off in qualifying Monday at Manufacturers G.&C.C. and North Hills C.C. Kania reached the final in the chase for the J. Wood Platt Trophy a year ago only to fall to Justin Martinson.
   Billy Stewart, who was a Llanerch C.C. member when he won the Philly Amateur championship a couple of weeks after graduating from Malvern Prep, teed it up in the U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook C.C. in Summit, N.J. He had rounds of 74 and 71, his 145 total missing the qualifying cut by seven shots.
   When Tiger Woods announced he would not be healthy enough in time to tee it up at Congressional, it meant that this will be the first U.S. Open Woods will not play in since the 1994 Open at Oakmont.
    That '94 Open also marked the start of a streak of major championships by Vijay Singh. When the three-time major champion decided not to give it a go at the sectional qualifying last week, it meant the longest major streak was coming to an end.
  Want to know how long ago that '94 Open was? Well, I was at Oakmont that Open Friday. It was ridiculously hot and it was Arnold Palmer's final competitive U.S. Open round, making it a pretty emotional day in his native western Pennsylvania. Oh yeah, and there was a lot of buzz about a certain former football star wanted in the murder of his ex-wife riding around the freeways of Los Angeles in a white Bronco.
Off the mark
   In my post on the LPGA last week, I indicated that Yani Tseng had pulled out of the ShopRite Classic. Well, that was apparently news to the No. 1 player in the world, who blistered the classic Seaview Bay Course layout with a final-round 65 to finish in a tie for seventh.
   The point, though, remains the same. The paucity of events on the LPGA Tour means that when there is a tournament, just about all the top players are going to be in the field.