WESTMINSTER -- James Watterson made Wakefield Valley Golf Club a stopping-off point between a professional United States Golf Tour event in Rocky Mount, N.C., and his home in Pittsburgh, and made it pay off yesterday.

Watterson, 27, shot 68-76144, to win the medal in local qualifying for the U.S. Open championship.

His morning round of 4-under-par 68 left him two shots clear of the field and he got to 6-under with an eagle-3 at the 519-yard White-7, before "three-putting my way home," as he described it.

Jack Skilling felt his game was suited to the harder Wakefield Valley course (as opposed to Mount Vernon CC, the local Washington area site), and he said "placement and concentration" were the chief reasons he was able to return 73-73146.

Two veteran survivors of local qualifying, John McNaney (four times) and Gary Marlowe (13 times), followed at 147, and former Maryland State Amateur champion Kirk Lombardi and Wayne DeFrancesco, first-year assistant pro at Woodholme CC, completed the qualifiers with 148s.