For Conquistador head professional Micah Rudosky, the summer calendar just got a bit more congested.
Staring down his third straight appearance in the Senior PGA Championships this upcoming weekend, the Cortez native made sure that his final weekend in June would be accounted for as well.
Taking top-two in a star-studded qualifying field at the New Mexico State University Golf Course in Las Cruces, Rudosky landed in his second ever U.S. Senior Open Championship.
Navigating a pressure-cooker 18-hole event with 70 top tier players from across the Southwest, Rudosky fired a 68, good enough to earn him a place in a three-man playoff, with only two spots on offer from the senior circuit’s top major.
In the playoff, Rudosky bested Notah Begay III – a longtime PGA professional and former Stanford University teammate of Tiger Woods’ – to assure himself a spot in the field at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, June 29 through July 2.
In the qualifying event on May 17 at NMSU Golf Course, Rudosky opened with an up-and-down even-par front nine 35 before catching fire on the back nine. The Cortez-native dropped in three birdies down the stretch, playing bogey-free golf on the inward half to climb into the playoff.
This summer will mark the second consecutive year in which Rudosky qualified for both the Senior PGA and U.S. Senior Open. Last year, Rudosky came within one stroke of making the cut at Harbor Shores, Michigan, in the KitchenAid Senior PGA, while also missing the cut at the 2022 U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley, Pennsylvania.
His U.S. Senior Open qualification comes just ahead of Rudosky’s third appearance in the Senior PGA Championship, this year to be hosted by PGA Frisco, Texas, a course that will be hosting its first ever major tournament. The tournament runs from May 24-28, where Rudosky and the 34 other PGA club professional qualifiers will challenge some of the top senior players in the world.
