After a harrowing car accident last month, Korn Ferry Tour veteran Alistair Docherty felt “just lucky to be alive.”

That gratitude has been taken up a notch this week. Docherty is competing in his first major championship, the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Docherty, 31, qualified for the U.S. Open via 36-hole Final Qualifying on June 2 in Durham, North Carolina, less than two weeks after being injured in a car accident following a practice round at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open. He withdrew from the event as a result and returned for the following week’s UNC Health Championship presented by STITCH, which led to an unlikely triumph (considering his health scare) on "Golf’s longest day."

“I was coming back from a practice round in Knoxville on Tuesday and made a left-hand turn and got T-boned,” Docherty said of his accident. “Was covered in glass, blood everywhere, and went to the hospital for eight, nine hours, making sure no broken bones, no bad injuries, CT scans taken. Just lucky to be alive.”

It’s not far-fetched to create an alternate reality where Docherty is a PGA TOUR player. Last fall, he fell one stroke shy of a TOUR card twice within three months, via the Korn Ferry Tour season-long standings and at PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. It was a cruel finish to his season that would be impossible for anyone to wipe clean from the memory bank. But perspective carries ample weight in golf – and life – and Docherty has plenty.

“I’ve battled adversity almost my whole life,” Docherty said last week. “I’m trying to just deal with it and say that it’s just another bump in the road, but there is nothing that’s going to stop me from getting a PGA TOUR card, and to go to my first major after such crazy events that have happened over the last year or two years, especially the last two weeks, shows that I’m very mentally tough.”

Docherty is one of 11 Korn Ferry Tour members in the field at Oakmont for the 125th U.S. Open. The robust contingent includes 2024 Baylor grad Johnny Keefer, who stands atop the Korn Ferry Tour Points List with a win at the Veritex Bank Championship and two runner-up finishes in 12 starts, and he punched his ticket to Oakmont via a 7-for-1 playoff at Dallas’ Final Qualifying site on May 19. Keefer finished atop last year’s PGA TOUR Americas season-long standings with a win and four runner-up finishes in just 10 starts, after he narrowly earned PGA TOUR Americas membership at No. 25 on the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking. Keefer ran through that window and has continued to do so – all the way to his second major of the season (he also received a special invitation for the PGA Championship via the top 100 on the Official World Golf Ranking).

“I played there (at Oakmont) in the 2021 U.S. Amateur and it was a really, really tough challenge then. I can only imagine what it’s going to be like for the U.S. Open,” Keefer said last week. “The U.S. Open is something that every golfer dreams of winning and competing in. It’s something that hopefully I get a few runs at, and I’m excited for the first one to be at Oakmont.”

Nine other Korn Ferry Tour pros will compete at the 125th U.S. Open: Zach Bauchou, Chandler Blanchet, Roberto Diaz, Emilio Gonzalez, Ryan McCormick, James Nicholas, Alvaro Ortiz, Trent Phillips and Preston Summerhays. Six PGA TOUR Americas members qualified for Oakmont as well.

This year’s U.S. Open is contested during a Korn Ferry Tour off-week, and as a result, Korn Ferry Tour members will not be credited with Korn Ferry Tour points for their U.S. Open results (as they did in the past two seasons). This week isn’t about points, though. It’s about competing at the game’s highest level and preparing for the eventual challenges of PGA TOUR membership – hopefully as soon as next year. Last year, Docherty was jarringly close to becoming #TOURBound for the first time, twice. He was one shot away from a card via the season-long standings after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, where he finished runner-up at French Lick Resort and needed just one of two players in the final group to miss a mid-range putt on the 72nd hole (they both made). Then he missed a card by one stroke at Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, entering the final round inside the number but closing in 3-over 73 at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course. It was a mind-bending conclusion to an otherwise breakthrough season, yet rather than letting the result deter him, it has fueled him.

Docherty has expressed a goal this year of finishing atop the Korn Ferry Tour Points List to earn his TOUR card; the top 20 on the season-long standings will earn 2026 TOUR membership. It’s a reduction from the 30 cards available a year ago, but Docherty has embraced the challenge. He currently ranks No. 36 on the standings, having fallen back with two straight missed cuts – but considering his severe health scare in Knoxville, it’s an understandable backpedal. His performance at U.S. Open Final Qualifying bodes well for his success into a busy summertime stretch, and a week at Oakmont with the world’s best players shouldn’t hurt either.

“There’s just no quit in me,” Docherty said at last week’s BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX, “and I knew what I wanted to achieve (at Final Qualifying), and just happy to be going to Oakmont next week.”

There’s precedent for Korn Ferry Tour members to show well at the U.S. Open – perhaps most famously in 2005, when Jason Gore played in the final group of Sunday’s final round at Pinehurst No. 2. Gore faded to a closing 84 and a tie for 49th, but the experience kick-started a torrid run of form; he won three straight Korn Ferry Tour starts that summer to secure a Three-Victory Promotion to the PGA TOUR, and he won the TOUR’s 84 Lumber Classic that fall.

The bright lights and big stage of the U.S. Open can fuel a player – and Docherty, Keefer and the rest intend to embrace Oakmont’s challenge. They know it will be hard and that bogeys are inevitable, which runs contrary to the Korn Ferry Tour’s typically generous scoring setups. The key: knowing that on the front end.

“Scores are probably not going to be as low as what I’m used to on the Korn Ferry Tour. Understand that golf is really hard, so why be too hard on yourself?” Keefer said last week.

“Hit it really long, hit it really straight, make a lot of putts, just like anywhere else – except on a more extreme scale.”