COLUMBINE VALLEY -- You have to have a lot of heart to qualify for the U.S. Open in the first place, but that’s even more true in the case of Brian Kortan.
The former PGA Tour player, who has made a habit of excelling in the Colorado Open over the years, earned a trip to the U.S. Open for the first time in his life Monday at age 37.
Making it more significant is the fact that Kortan accomplished the feat less than two years after nearly dying of a heart attack.
“It feels great; it‘s been a long couple of years,” the Albuquerque resident said. “I feel a pretty big sense of accomplishment. It‘s going to be fun.”
In fact, Monday’s sectional qualifying at Columbine Country Club was a big day all around for former University of New Mexico golfers. The second and final U.S. Open qualifier from Columbine was an ex-Lobo, like Kortan.
Kortan shot rounds of 70-68 for a 6-under-par 138 total. Jay Choi, a native of Korea who now lives in Murrieta, Calif., won a playoff for the second spot after making birdies on his final three holes of regulation, then another on the second playoff hole. He posted rounds of 69-71.
Both Kortan and Choi will make their U.S. Open debuts June 12-15 at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
Choi, 24, defeated Pueblo West’s Dustin White, a 2006 U.S. Open qualifier, in the two-hole playoff. After both players parred the first extra hole, Choi 2-putted from the fringe on the par-5 second, holing a 4-foot birdie putt. White, who bogeyed his final three holes of regulation immediately after making four straight birdies, failed to convert his 10-foot birdie attempt on the second playoff hole.
“I can’t believe I’m playing in the U.S. Open,” Choi said. “It seems everything gets brighter after the dark times.”
In Choi’s case, the dark times were getting disillusioned after failing to qualify for the PGA Tour and taking nine months off from competition, mostly in 2007. During that time, he went from weighing 220 to 153 pounds, earned his college degree and gradually built a hunger to compete again.
“It was a stressful nine months,” said Choi, who regained his form after three more months and has been playing the Gateway Tour ever since.
But Choi’s problems were nothing compared to those of Kortan, who was at a tournament in South Dakota in August 2006 when one night he suffered a heart attack. Just two years after being a regular on the PGA Tour, he nearly died and was in the hospital for eight days. He now wears a defibrillator to keep his heart rate regulated.
“It was a pretty tough deal,” he said.
The left-hander is no stranger to success in Colorado, which is why he chose to compete in the state’s sectional qualifying. He’s finished in the top three at the Colorado Open four times since 1992, including thirds each of the last two years. He was runner-up in 1992 as an amateur and lost in a playoff to current PGA Tour player Kevin Stadler in 2002.
