A total of five TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open alums, including three making their debuts, will compete this week at the 121st U.S. Open Championship in San Diego.
Led by 2001 GCRO champ and two-time major winner Zach Johnson, the GCRO five will tee it up in Thursday’s opening round at Torrey Pines South Golf Course.
Chris Baker, the 2013 GCRO champ, along with GCRO veteran Eric Cole and University of Iowa grad Carson Schaake all will be making their first appearance at our national championship.
PGA Tour winner Brian Stuard rounds out GCRO alumni roster.
Johnson, 45, added a second major championship title at the 2015 Open Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, defeating Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen in a three-hole aggregate playoff. Previously, the Drake University alum joined 1955 U.S. Open champion Jack Fleck as the only Iowa natives to win a major when he claimed the 2007 Masters.
Johnson has earned 26 wins since turning professional in 1998, including 12 on the PGA Tour. He has been a member of five USA Ryder Cup teams and four U.S. Presidents Cup teams. His PGA career winnings are over $47 million.
Earning his 18th U.S. Open start, Johnson’s best finishes have come later in his career. Since 2016, Zach has finished 12th or better three times, including T8 in 2016 at Oakmont and T8 last year at Winged Foot. He has not missed the cut in the Open since 2013.
In the final round of the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2, Johnson recorded the 44th known hole-in-one in championship history.
Stuard, 38, continued his success in the Springfield, Ohio, sectional by qualifying for his sixth U.S. Open, all at Springfield Country Club. He shot 5-under 135 to garner one of the seven available spots. Stuard broke through for his first PGA Tour victory at the 2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a playoff over Jamie Lovemark and Byeong-Hun An, the 2009 U.S. Amateur champion. Stuard, who finished fourth in the 2007 GCRO, is a 2005 graduate of Oakland University in Michigan, where he earned a degree in management.
Baker, the former Iowa State standout, qualified for his first U.S. Open in the Rockville, Md., final qualifier at Woodmont Country Club, shooting 5-under-par 139. Baker, from Brownstown, IN., turned professional in 2008. He was one of four qualifiers out of 74 players to advance. He won twice on the then NGA Hooters Tour and added a third professional win on the European Challenge Tour in 2010 (Moroccan Golf Classic). Baker, 35, also lost a playoff to Andrew Putnam in the Nationwide Tour’s 2017 Panama Claro Championship.
The likeable Cole, 33, has played in nine GCROs at Hunters Ridge. His best finish is a tie for seventh back in 2011.
The first-time U.S. Open qualifier comes from a family of accomplished golfers. His mother, Laura Baugh, won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur at 16 years of age and she played on the LPGA tour 25 years. His father, Bobby Cole, a native of South Africa, registered 13 worldwide professional victories, and tied for third in both the PGA Championship and The Open Championship in 1974 and 1975, respectively.
Eric Cole, from Delray Beach, FL., owns 35 wins on the Minor League Golf Tour and has played on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2016. He shot 8-under 134 for third place in the Dallas Athletic Club final qualifier to earn his place at Torrey Pines. He was one of 10 golfers from the field of 115 competitors to advance. He advanced to final qualifying from the Marietta Country Club local qualifier in Kennesaw, GA.
Cole’s other top finishes in the GCRO includes a T11 in 2014 and a T14 in 2012.
Schaake, a University of Iowa graduate, will make his U.S. Open debut after being the medalist at Springfield Country Club, where Stuard qualified out of. Schaake advanced out of his local qualifier in Beatrice, Neb. The Omaha, Neb., resident posted 9-under 131 in Springfield. He and Stuard were among seven golfers out of a field of 77 to advance.
Schaake, 26, has made one PGA Tour start (2015 John Deere Classic) and one Korn Ferry Tour appearance (2020 Pinnacle Bank Championship), missing the cut in both instances.
He is currently a member of the newly created Forme Tour. It is allowing Canadian Tour players displaced due to COVID-19 restrictions north of the border to play a series of U.S.-based events June thru September. Schaake tied for third in the 2017 GCRO. He missed the cut in 2018 and finished T30 in 2019.