Register Now to Compete In US Open at Merion

Player registration for the 2013 US Open at Merion opens today and continues through April 24 at 5 p.m. To be eligible to play in a local qualifier, a player must have a USGA Handicap Index® not exceeding 1.4, or be a professional. Local qualifying, which will be played over 18 holes at 111 sites in the U.S., takes place between May 3-16. If you're in Westchester, you can give it a stab at Willow Ridge in White Plains, NY.

The USGA also released the sectional qualifying sites today. Locally, Old Oaks Country Club and Century Country Club in Purchase, NY, will host the events on June 3. The two clubs have partnered as a sectional site in New York on four occasions since 2003.

The US Open will be held for the fifth time at Merion Golf Club. Olin Dutra (1934), Ben Hogan (1950), Lee Trevino (1971) and David Graham (1981) are past champions at Merion.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf