Before Ducks, Martin takes Open shot.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

It figures to be yet another momentous week in the life of Casey Martin.

Monday, the Eugene golfer will begin a quest to reach the U.S. Open, in which he played in 1998.

By mid-week or thereabouts, he's expected to be named the men's golf coach at the University of Oregon, succeeding that distinguished gentleman, Steve Nosler.

Martin, 33, will be an inspired choice for Oregon, despite the fact that his coaching experience consists of serving as a volunteer assistant this past spring.

He'll bring national name recognition and credibility, as a former member of the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour. He'll bring a pro's understanding of the game.

He'll bring his legacy of courage and toughness and playing in pain; he's played professional golf despite a congenital circulatory disorder in his right leg that ultimately forced him to battle the PGA Tour all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to ride in a cart in PGA-sanctioned events.

And he'll bring a life-long love of the Ducks; the South Eugene grad has been one of Oregon's most ardent fans, even though he graduated from Stanford, where his teammates included Tiger Woods.

Martin's name, energy and poise will serve him well in recruiting and fund-raising, vital areas for any golf program, especially one where the sun doesn't shine every day.

And though Martin struggled in recent years on the Nationwide Tour, he's still a competitor at heart, and so Monday morning he'll tee it up at Waverley Country Club in Portland, in an 18-hole local qualifying round in which golfers will seek to advance to U.S. Open sectional qualifying.

The field will include some current and former Ducks, as well as Emerald Valley Golf Club general manager and head professional Todd O'Neal, and that's a story, too, because the Creswell course will be a sectional qualifying site - one of 16 nationally - on June 5.

It will be arguably the most significant event Emerald Valley has ever hosted, and it's a testament to the major improvements there - an amount close to the original $2.2 million purchase price - since former UO golfer Jim Pliska bought the course in June 2002.

"It's a huge feather in our cap," O'Neal said.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Golf Association, more than 7,000 golfers will attempt to reach the U.S. Open, which will be held June 15-18 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and is open to any pro and amateur with a USGA handicap index not exceeding 1.4.

Those golfers will be attempting to crack a field of 156 players, of which 70 positions have already been slotted through various exemptions, such as former U.S. Open champions and the top 30 money leaders on the PGA Tour last year, which is why former Oregon golfer Ben Crane is already qualified.

Minus the exemptions, the remaining 80-some berths in the U.S. Open will be filled by golfers who first survive local qualifying tournaments and then sectional qualifying. According to the USGA, more than 7,000 golfers will attempt to qualify in 18-hole tournaments at more than 100 local sites, including Waverley on Monday.

Nationally, about 550 golfers - including the top six at Waverley - will advance from local qualifying to sectional qualifying, where they'll join 200 golfers exempt from the local qualifying stage. In the sectional qualifying event at Emerald Valley, a field of 30 to 40 golfers, expected to include current and former PGA Tour pros, will play 36 holes that day to advance one golfer, or maybe two - depending on the ultimate size of the field - to the U.S. Open itself.

"You're getting guys trying to qualify for the biggest tournament in the world," O'Neal said. "It's not something you usually see going to a public course. ...

"The way our golf course is set up, you have to flat play good golf, and it will pull out the best player on that day."

It will be, as local golf stories go, a big deal and so, to put it mildly, will be the news in the week to come.