The Sports Inquirer

Release from Kennesaw State Athletics:

Recent Kennesaw State graduate Jimmy Beck will be seeking a berth in the 2015 U.S. Open Championship on Monday (June 8) when he competes in sectional qualifying at Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Ball Ground, Ga.

Beck will be one of 42 players at Hawks Ridge Golf Club attempting to qualify for this year’s U.S. Open that will be held June 15-21 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. The number of spots available will be announced on Monday.

The Ball Ground sectional is one of ten 36-hole qualifiers that will be conducted around the country on Monday. Beck is scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m. (EDT) on the 10th hole and will be grouped with Smylie Kaufman (Vestavia, Ala.) and amateur Stewart Jolly (Birmingham, Ala.).

Two USGA champions are in the field: 2012 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion T.J. Vogel and recently crowned U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champion Todd White, who teamed with four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur winner Nathan Smith to take the inaugural event at The Olympic Club in San Francisco in early May. White, a high school history teacher from Spartanburg, S.C., also was a member of the victorious 2013 USA Walker Cup Team.

Other notables in the field include recent Web.com Tour winner Smylie Kaufman, PGA Tour winners Matt Bettencourt, Jason Bohn and Ryuji Imada, and highly ranked amateur Lee McCoy of the University of Georgia golf team.

The 2015 Kennesaw State graduate made his professional debut two weeks ago and tied for eighth at the eGolf Gateway Tour’s Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC Open at The Sound Golf Links at Albemarle Plantation in Hertford, N.C.