Springfield was one of 13 qualifying sites Monday, including one in Columbus, as golfers across the country and at two international sites qualified for the Open.
The second-place finisher was Canadian Taylor Pendrith, who played at Kent State, at 10-under par with rounds of 66 and 64. Pendrith turned pro in 2014 and has played in 48 PGA Tour events. Nick Hardy of Illinois earned the third spot at 8-under par with rounds of 71 and 61, the low round of the day. Hardy turned pro in 2018 and earned his first Tour win in April at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
The final two spots came down to a three-man playoff that left Ohio State junior Maxwell Moldovan the odd man out. Moldovan, Alex Schaake of Nebraska and Dylan Wu of Oregon each shot 7under. Moldovan, who shot rounds of 65 and 68 would have been the only amateur to qualify. Schaake turned pro in 2021 and has played in one PGA event. Wu joined the PGA Tour in 2022 and has played in 46 events.
Local players Jordan Gilkison and Dhaivat Pandya competed in their first final qualifier. Gilkison, the 2020 Division I state high school champion from Springboro, shot rounds of 70 and 74 to finish at 4-over par. Gilkison plays at Kent State. Pandya shot rounds of 73 and 72 to finish 5 over. Pandya is a 2018 Centerville graduate and just finished a five-year college career. He started at East Tennessee State before playing three seasons at Maryland and his final one at Kentucky.
Domenic Maricocchi of Cincinnati, and a former University of Dayton player, shot 73 and 70 for 3 over. He made a hole-on-one on No. 3 in his second round.
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