[Photo: Getty Images]
We’ve known unofficially for several weeks now, but overnight it became rubber-stamped by the United States Golf Association: Adam Scott is officially part of the 2026 US Open field and will therefore tee it up in his 100th consecutive major championship from June 18-21.
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With the passing of the USGA’s May 18 date for automatic entry into the US Open via the Official World Golf Ranking, anyone ranked inside the current top 60 gained a start. The same world-ranking mechanism will be re-applied the week before and the week of the championship at New York’s revered Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.
Scott’s tie for fourth place at the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship earlier this month pushed him from 54th in the world ranking to 43rd, effectively sealing his start. Talk was that the USGA would probably have granted him a rare special exemption anyway, but Scott’s result in Miami made it moot. The Queenslander now sits 49th after missing the cut at the PGA Championship this past week.
Joining Scott in the field at Shinnecock Hills will be countrymen Min Woo Lee, Jason Day and Lucas Herbert, who were also among the 35 players added to the field as various exemption categories closed.
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Lee and Day gained entry by virtue of their world ranking, while Herbert booked his tee-time at the year’s third major when he claimed the LIV Golf Virginia event eight days ago, that result propelling him inside the top three of the current LIV Golf League individual standings, which was added as a US Open entry category last year.
Scott’s remarkable participation streak at the game’s biggest events began at the 2001 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, where he shared 47th place (he did compete in the 2000 Open at St Andrews, but was not eligible for that year’s PGA Championship nor the 2001 Masters or US Open).
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With one victory and 20 top-10 finishes to his credit, capped by his 2013 Masters victory, Scott’s 25-year majors odyssey is a tale of incredible longevity, and one macabre piece of luck. He avoided serious injury and ailment along the way and even contested the 2008 US Open while recovering from a freak injury caused when a friend accidentally shut a car door on his hand in London, breaking a bone in Scott’s little finger.
Little would the golfer have known 18 years ago that his decision to go ahead and play that week (he finished T-26) would help him reach a milestone managed by only Jack Nicklaus, whose 146 consecutive major starts will surely never be beaten. (Scott, who turns 46 in July, will need to keep playing in all four majors until he’s 57 to beat it.)
His dark stroke of good fortune came just two years ago when Scott needed to go to final qualifying in a bid to keep his streak alive for the US Open at Pinehurst No.2. As fate would have it, Scott wound up in a playoff with fellow Aussie Cam Davis for the remaining spot. He lost to Davis, but gained a place in the eventual field when Grayson Murray’s tragic passing that May saw the USGA award Murray’s place to Scott via their world-ranking alternates list.
Scott’s career record at the four majors. [Courtesy of Wikipedia]
Scott had a golden opportunity to seize his 2026 US Open start a year ago when he played in the final group on Sunday at the same championship. Alas, a poor last-round 79 pushed him outside the top-10 by a single shot, denying him automatic entry this year and subjecting him to an 11-month wait.
Meanwhile, he is set to extend the run to 101 straight majors in July after qualifying for the Open Championship via his Australian Open finish last December. Scott’s place in the fields for this year’s Masters (as a past champion) and PGA Championship (where the world’s top 100 are typically invited) were far less tenuous than for the US Open.
Being a Masters winner also means major No.102 is guaranteed at the tournament next April.
