The 2026 US Open field of 156 players is made up of approximately 50 players who get into the tournament through sectional qualifying, which finished on June 8. As part of the sectional qualifying process, the USGA also identifies US Open alternates from each of the sites.
The USGA pulled from the US Open alternate list to fill the field of 156 players, with the governing body allocating exempted spots for players who may get into the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking as of June 15, the week of the championship. The USGA left seven spots open for that possibility, which are filled by alternates in the evnet the players in the RBC Canadian Open don't hop into the top 60.
After the RBC Canadian Open, the following players were added to the field: Bud Cauley, J.T. Poston, Harry Higgs, Hennie Du Plessis, Jack Schoenberger, Spencer Tibbits and Bryan Lee. Cauley and Poston, winners the last two weeks on the PGA Tour, got in via the top-60 cutoff for the Official World Golf Ranking.
The field is now full, and the alternate list will pick from the remaining alternates in the event of withdrawals.
Then there are all the players that could potentially withdraw the week of the US Open with injury or other problems.
The USGA doesn't produce a US Open alternate list with a specific priority order in mind. They keep that a secret and contact alternates at their discretion as spots become available. However, here's the top of the list of 2026 US Open alternates from the sectional sites.
2026 US Open alternates
- Matt Jones (Alt 1)
- Harry Higgs (Alt 1) - IN
- Brandt Snedeker (Alt 1)
- Sam Udovich (a) (Alt 1)
- Bryan Lee (a) (Alt 1) - IN
- Matt Wallace (Alt 1)
- Jack Schoenberger (a) (Alt 1) - IN
- Spencer Tibbits (Alt 1) - IN
- Kihei Akina (a) (Alt 1)
- Riki Kawamoto (Alt 1)
- Chandler Phillips (Alt 1)
- Hennie du Plessis (Alt 1) - IN
- Andrew Svoboda (Alt 2)
- Cristobal Del Solar (Alt 2)
- Maxwell Moldovan (Alt 2)
- Braxton Kuntz (Alt 2)
- Blades Brown (Alt 2)
- Adam Svensson (Alt 2)
- Alexander Herrmann (Alt 2)
- TingWei Chang (a) (Alt 2)
- Gabriel Salvanera (Alt 2)
- Taichi Nabetani (Alt 2)
- Henrik Norlander (Alt 2)
- Andrew Wilson (Alt 2)
