Simon Khan, the recently crowned BMW PGA Champion, has accepted a spot in the 2010 US Open Championship, to be played from June 17-20 at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The place became available because the winner of the US PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament last week, Justin Rose, had not won a PGA Tour co-sponsored event during the previous 12-month period.
Two places in the US Open field were held open for any player who won multiple PGA Tour co-sponsored events between June 21, 2009 and June 13, 2010. One of these spots remains open, should the winner of this week’s St. Jude Classic have multiple victories during this same time period.
Khan shot rounds of 67-70 in the sectional qualifier at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey on May 24 – the day after he triumphed at Wentworth Club - to finish as first alternate.
The inclusion in one of the year’s finest fields represents a huge swing in fortunes for Khan, who lost his European Tour card last season but earned it back by winning the Qualifying School – Final Stage in December.
The Englishman admits at times he has felt desperately low about his golf, but all that changed when he holed a birdie putt on the 18th green at Wentworth which proved decisive.
Speaking of when he found out at last year’s UBS Hong Kong Open that it was mathematically impossible for him to keep his card for 2010, Khan said: “When it hit in Hong Kong, that's the lowest I've ever, ever felt. Not that I took playing out here for granted but I definitely took my eye off the ball from, say, the middle of 2008 until towards the end of last year and mentally just switched off a little bit.
“If you stop doing the habits and the sort of rocks that get you success, then it can easily just slip away. The main thing I got out of Wentworth was I managed to play a final round in a massive tournament like that without any expectations and I think that was the key to me winning.
“When I went to pick the trophy up on the 18th green, that moment had been in my mind so often, and maybe it is that you've got to believe it before you actually do it.
“It's quite nice to look at the schedule now. Tournaments like Ireland, Scotland, France, Barclays and the French Open, I was struggling to get in those. They are huge tournaments for me, and tournaments I've done quite well in in the past. The Barclays Scottish Open is a massive event and so are obviously The Open Championship and the WGCs. It's fantastic to look forward to those events.”
Khan can now also look forward to lining up alongside the world’s finest at Pebble Beach, too, despite not coming through qualifying at Walton Heath.
He was involved in a six-way play-off for five spots but was the man to miss out among Grégory Havret, Miko Ilonen, Rikard Karlberg, Jean-François Lucquin and Pablo Martin.
“I felt fine and played well in the morning,” Khan reflected, having had to curtail Sunday night’s celebrations. “The afternoon was almost as good. It was just a shame it didn't work out in the end.
“By the time the playoff came around, I really was dead on my feet after waiting an hour and a half, and I had a couple of things to do on the phone and I sort of got a little bit switched off. It was a bit unfortunate for me that the guys all made birdie on the short par four.”
He need not have worried, however, as now he will be among the Englishmen challenging to win the year’s second Major. That really would be the icing on the cake for the 37 year old.
