Category: Idaho Golf Spotlight

An eagle on a par four and an albatross on a par five! An amazing accomplishment in any round but absolutely remarkable in a U.S. Open Qualifier, where with only 18-holes to determine the best players, conditions and pin placements are known for being very difficult. Tyler Aldridge pulled off the feat of an eagle 2 on the par 4 5th hole and albatross 2 on the par 5 12th hole in the U.S. Open Local Qualifier played on Tuesday, May 13 at TimberStone Golf Course in Caldwell, Idaho. Aldridge rode his incredible highlights to a round of 69 at Local Qualifying earning him co-medalist honors and one step closer to the 2024 U.S. Open.

Tyler Aldridge of Nampa, Idaho is a past winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, then known as the Web.com Tour, lifting the title at the 2015 Greater Dallas Open. Aldridge now works in real estate but clearly has kept his game sharp. His round of 69 tied him for first place in the qualifier along with amateur Ashton McArthur of Rexburg, Idaho and professional Grayson Huff of Eagle, Idaho.

Aldridge’s scorecard from the TimberStone qualifier consisted of 1 albatross, 1 eagle, 3 birdies, and 5 bogeys! NW Golf Report’s Sean Packer sought out Tyler Aldridge and learned of all the details from Holes 5 and 12 at TimberStone:

“On hole 5, I feathered a little driver to the back portion of the green. The pin was located in the front. I had about a 60 foot put to make. It broke a couple feet from right to left with perfect speed and dribbled right in the center of the hole for Eagle.”

“Hole number 12, I destroyed a tee shot 345 yards. I hit it so far that it went through the fairway and barely into the rough. I walked up to the ball and the lie was so perfect, it was like somebody had placed it on a tee for me. I had 260 yards for my second shot, the wind was 5-8 mph from left to right. I aimed at a spot just beyond the green that was 15 yards left of the flag with my 3-hybrid. As soon as I hit it, it felt like a marshmallow. It started exactly where my target was and the wind drifted it slightly to the right and landed in the perfect spot on the front 3rd of the green. I yelled “go in!” numerous times. Pin location was in the back right and I couldn’t tell how close it was going to be to the hole but the ball never left the flagstick. As we approached the green, we couldn’t see the ball anywhere. I knew it didn’t go over the green and the only place it could have been was right in the hole!”

USGA qualifiers are notoriously difficult to advance out of and even with the fireworks in Aldridge’s round he still needed to make a clutch birdie on the final hole to avoid a playoff. With his -3 round of 69, Aldridge advances to U.S. Open Final Qualifying known as “golf’s longest day” featuring 36 holes of play on June 3rd. Many of the players advancing from PNW local qualifiers will play Final Qualifying at Pronghorn GC in Bend, Oregon. The 2024 U.S Open is June 13-16 at Pinehurst No. 2 in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

This week featured 3 U.S. Open Local Qualifiers in the PNW, check out recaps and photos of the players advancing at Through the Pines: Weekly News.

Link to live scoring and full results of all featured tournaments played this week (in addition to 3 U.S. Open Local Qualifiers, there are 2 U.S. Senior Open Qualifiers and NCAA Men’s Regionals) at Leaderboard Links.

Check out the dates and venues for every USGA qualifier staged in the PNW in 2024 here.