U.S. Open berth a bonus for Palm Desert's Charlie Reiter as he eyes future in golf
Charlie Reiter admits there was no jumping up and down or screaming when he realized he had qualified for the U.S. Open, his first major professional golf tournament. That didn’t mean he wasn’t excited.
“It’s awesome. Words can’t describe it,” said Reiter, the former Palm Desert High School and University of San Diego golfer who earned the U.S. Open berth Monday in sectional qualifying at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Reiter finished second in the 88-player field with a 36-hole total of 7-under 135, putting him in the field of this week's 122nd Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
With a plan to play big amateur tournaments throughout the summer before turning professional in the fall, the U.S. Open berth is a bonus for the 22-year-old Reiter, who graduated from Palm Desert in 2018 after leading the team to the CIF state tournament twice. The Open actually means he won’t be able to play in two amateur events he had on his schedule in the coming weeks.
“Which is okay,” he laughed. “I’m not worried about it. I’m playing in the U.S. Open, which is a little better.”
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To reach the Open, Reiter had to navigate both local and sectional qualifying. He fired a 4-under 68 at the local qualifying event at Bermuda Dunes Country Club, taking second in that field of 90 golfers to earn one of five sectional berths. On Monday at The Olympic Club, Reiter started slowly with a 2-over 38 on his opening nine holes of the 36-hole day.
Of the 8,880 entrants who started their Open dreams in local qualifying, Reiter is one of only 16 to make the Open field. Two of those golfers played in the Bermuda Dunes qualifier, with Brady Calkins of Scottsdale, Ariz., joining Reiter in advancing to the Open.
On Monday at The Olympic Club, Reiter started slowly with a 2-over 38 on his opening nine holes of the 36-hole day. Then came the back nine of the morning round at the par-71 Ocean Course, when Reiter fired a torrid 7-under 28 featuring seven birdies and two pars. The lowest nine-hole score Reiter has ever shot pushed him from the middle of the pack to a tie for first with the 5-under 66.
“Nothing really changed,” Reiter said of the 10-shot difference in the front and back nine. “I wasn’t scared or nervous. I just kind of stuck with my game plan and then I finally figured out the greens and started making my putts and hitting it close, getting lucky breaks. And it just kind of happened.”
As the afternoon 18 holes progressed, Reiter started to understand he had a good chance of making the Open field.
“I kind of knew where I was going into the last nine holes. There was a huge wait through the nine, I think there were three groups (on some tees), so I just kind of looked at the scores just to see where I was,” he said. “I just knew that I needed a nice solid back nine, kind of similar to my front nine, and that would get the job done. Lucky enough for me, it did.”
Next step in the journey
The afternoon 2-under 69 with five birdies and three bogeys made Reiter one of two amateurs in the San Francisco sectional to make the U.S. Open, the other being sectional medalist William Mouw of Pepperdine University. The second-place performance also came with Reiter’s father, Mike, caddying for his son 35 years after the father caddied in the 1987 U.S. Open played at the Lake Course at The Olympic Club for a pro named Mike Miles.
“I caddied at Bermuda Dunes (qualifier), too, and that was the first time in about eight years or so,” said the elder Reiter. “It was fun to watch.”
This year is not the first time Reiter has gone through Open qualifying. In 2019, Reiter suffered a heartbreaking end to his second round in a Newport Beach sectional, making a double bogey on the final hole of his day to drop out of an automatic Open berth and finish as second alternate, a status that didn’t get him in the Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“I wouldn’t say (past years) had a lot to do with, but just being so close multiple times, I knew that I could do it.” Reiter said. “And my chance this week, with my new swing feeling really good, it just kind of showed up on the golf course and just worked out.”
Reiter says he has confidence in his game as he heads to the Open because of changes in his swing that began in the spring at USD. The changes, which had taken a while to take effect, aren’t in Reiter’s grip or his mechanics, but in the motion of his swing.
“Just different feelings with my body. It’s almost like more effortless now,” said Reiter, always known for his power off the tee and the ease with which he hits 300-yard drives. “It’s how I rotate my body through and clear my action. It’s just gotten a lot straighter, and it’s easier to work the ball, which I want.”
The Open berth has double importance for Reiter, whose main goal this summer was to qualify for the U.S. Amateur. Making the Open field automatically puts him in the Amateur field in August in Paramus, N.J.
“It was more the U.S. Am I really wanted to go through, because it would be my last amateur event,” Reiter said. “But then I noticed that if I made the U.S. Open I would qualify for the U.S. Am. Oh, well, now I can do both of these.”
“I was laughing that he qualified and both tournaments are across the country, as far as they can get,” Mike Reiter said.
Reiter, who plans to enter PGA Tour qualifying tournaments this fall, has starts in professional tournaments already on his resume, with three appearances in The American Express in La Quinta on sponsor’s exemptions and making the cut in the 2018 Australian Open when he was still in high school. He has also played practice rounds with professionals, including defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert.
Reiter has never been to The Country Club, the home of the Open this week and one of the fabled courses in the United States. The course has been the site of six U.S. Amateurs, three U.S. Women’s Amateurs, the 1999 Ryder Club and three U.S. Opens.
One of those Opens, the 1913 championship won by AmerBican amateur Francis Ouimet over English stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, is considered a starting point for American golf. Reiter hopes The Country Club will provide him with his own starting point in the game.
“This is just the beginning,” he said.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support Local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: U.S. Open: Charlie Reiter heads to biggest golf tournament of career
