ESPN Golf

The Masters is for champions. The British Open is for historians. The PGA Championship is for the pros.

The U.S. Open? That's the major for dreamers.

There will be 156 players teeing it up at Torrey Pines next week, from world-class talents such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to club pros, mini-tour players and amateurs all chasing a dream, still channeling their inner Roy McAvoy.

Any player in the world with an official handicap of 1.4 or lower is eligible to enter the qualification process for the year's second major. Many will compete in the same field as some of the game's greatest all-time players, sharing a driving range, practice green and locker room. They might never reach the top of the leaderboard, but each has a background that has helped that dream of playing in a U.S. Open become a reality.

These are their stories.

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Joey Lamielle got the call at 9:30 p.m. on Monday. His two-round sectional qualifying total of 141 was good enough to reach a three-man playoff for one spot, beginning at 8 a.m. the next day.

So Lamielle, 25, called his caddie and told him to have breakfast ready, then went right to sleep; it seems 11 hours of golf supersede any battle of nerves that may be encroaching. In the playoff, the threesome dwindled to a twosome when Rod Perry bowed out after three holes, then Lamielle and Julian Suri remained deadlocked through five more. The gallery -- consisting of course employees and members -- dwindled, too, with each additional hole played.

"Some people left," Lamielle recalled. "They were like, 'Just let me know. This might be a while.'"

Finally, on the ninth extra hole, Lamielle sank a downhill 15-footer for birdie -- and a chance to compete in the U.S. Open.

"I knew I was going to win," he said with a laugh. "I just didn't know it was going to take nine freakin' holes!"

Currently the 11th-ranked player on the Hooters Tour money list -- he owns four finishes of eighth or better in six starts this season -- Lamielle couldn't be more excited for the trip to Torrey Pines.

"I'm ready to go right now, man. Get all the 'oohs and ahhs' out the first day and get right down to business," he said. "It's just another tournament, another golf course. Nothing has changed."

And if he finds himself on the range next week, hitting balls in between, say, Mickelson and Ernie Els? No problem. Lamielle knows just what to do. "I'd challenge them to a little shootout!"

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It was the morning of an 18-hole U.S. Open local qualifier in Cincinnati and Jimmy Henderson was already feeling the butterflies. The former Wright State player hadn't played in a competitive event since 2005 and just earned back his amateur status a few days earlier.

"I said, 'Well, maybe I should just try and play,'" Henderson recalls. "I said, 'What the heck, I'll sign up.' But going in, I was pretty nervous."

Rather than dreaming about a trip to Torrey Pines, the former mini-tour player was worried that a high score would leave him ineligible for other tournaments throughout the summer. But Henderson surprised himself with a 68, earning a trip to sectionals … where the nerves took control again. After an opening-round 71, he began his second 18 with a front-side 31 that included a hole-in-one on No. 9. His back-nine 34 helped him into a playoff for the final spot, but led to … another case of nerves.

"I hit it right off the tee and had to hit out of a creek," he said. "I had crap all over me."

Fortunately, his opponent was rattled with nervousness as well, as Henderson eventually lagged a putt to make bogey and punch his ticket to play against the world's best.

Nothing to be nervous about, right? Uh, wrong.

"I kind of get morning sickness right now when I get up in the morning," said Henderson, who works as a salesman for a company that produces Astroturf. "I have no idea how I'm going to handle it."

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You want to talk pressure? David Hearn stepped to the final tee at the 2004 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament -- Q-school for short -- needing a par to secure playing privileges in the big leagues for the first time. After hitting his second shot on the par-4 to the fringe, he snaked in what he called "a 35-, 40-foot bomb" for birdie.

Hello, PGA Tour.

Though Hearn finished 196th on the money list the next season and has since returned to the Nationwide circuit, the memory of playing for his dream job lives on. While competing in 18 holes of local qualifying and 36 more in sectionals would be enough to raise the sweat factor for most players, Hearn has more of a "been there, done that" type of attitude.

"It's certainly an event that you want to play. You want to be a part of it," said the 28-year-old from Ontario, Canada. "But there's not a ton of pressure getting there. It's a little bit of a bonus if you get through."

Hearn owns an advantage over many qualifiers in that he's competed at Torrey Pines before. He shot a respectable 70-73 to miss the cut at the Buick Invitational in 2005 and has also taken part in a previous U.S. Open. He missed the cut in 2005 after 77-79 at Pinehurst.

"It definitely won't be easier, but the experience that I gained at Pinehurst will help a lot," he said. "The U.S. Open is like no other tournament that I've ever played in my life."

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At 5-foot-3, 150 pounds and just 35 years old, Brian Kortan didn't exactly look like the type of guy who would be undergoing imminent health issues -- until one fateful day in August 2006.

"It wasn't just a little heart attack," said the former PGA Tour regular. "The term 'widow-maker' is the one they used for me."

Even with a family history of heart disease, the massive coronary was a shock to Kortan.

"I was 35 years old and pretty fit," he said. "I ate right, worked out and the whole bit, but no matter what you do, family genetics win those battles."

Kortan was laid up in the hospital for eight days and had a permanent implantable defibrillator placed in his chest. He survived and, eventually, got back to playing golf.

Though he has yet to make it back to a major tour -- he was a member of the PGA Tour in 2004 and Nationwide Tour in '05 -- Kortan is now plying his craft on the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series, based in Texas. In six starts this season, he's finished T-19 or better every time, earning a grand total of $15,558 so far.

No result could have felt better than shooting 70-68 to claim medalist honors at the U.S. Open sectional qualifying site in Littleton, Colo.

"It's like coming full circle the last few years," he said. "After going through what I went through, it's a nice feeling to do something now that I wasn't able to do when I considered myself healthy."

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Like the tales of so many college athletes who are deemed academically ineligible, there's more to Kevin Silva's story than meets the eye.

One credit shy of officially entering his senior season at the University of North Carolina, Silva enrolled in an online summer school class to make up the work and remain eligible for the golf team to stay on track to graduate the following spring. It never happened.

"I was playing so much [golf], I fell behind on my work," said Silva, now 24. "I didn't know it at the time, but if you don't complete 100 percent of your work on the Internet classes, you fail no matter how good your other assignments are. It was a shock to me. My GPA was fine. It was just that one class that rendered me ineligible."

As a result, the New Bedford, Mass., native lost his scholarship and subsequently turned pro, working at a course and waiting tables in a restaurant to help pay the bills. He's since left those jobs, focusing on playing the Hooters Tour, Tarheel Tour and soon-to-be-introduced Golfers Warehouse Tour. And yes, he's still taking classes to receive his diploma.

First, though, comes a little graduate field work at Torrey Pines.

"I'm going to try to get the awe factor out of the way early," Silva said. "It's going to be fun, but I'm still a professional golfer. I'm going out there for business."

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Things couldn't have worked out better for Garrett Chaussard. After advancing through local qualifying, he was able to play the sectional at Lake Merced GC in Daly City, Calif., just 15 miles outside of San Francisco.

Which just happens to be his home course.

"Considering the magnitude of the situation, because of where I was and because I'd played there so much, I was a lot more at ease than I would have been normally," said Chaussard, who played his college golf at the University of Illinois.

A member of the Canadian Tour in 2006, Chaussard "bounced around" last year and competed on the Gateway Spring Series earlier this season, then shot 68-73 at Lake Merced to earn a trip downstate to Torrey Pines, a course he's never seen in person.

"I expect it to be the hardest golf course I've ever played," he said, before adding that he wouldn't change a thing about it. "Growing up, it's the one you always see yourself playing in someday, making a putt to win or something clichéd like that."

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First things first: The name is Jay Choi, not to be confused with PGA Tour stalwart K.J. Choi.

"I get asked if I'm related to him a lot," the former said, "but I am not, as far as I understand."

That doesn't mean the two players don't have some commonalities. They were each born in Korea, live in the U.S. and will be competing in the 108th U.S. Open.

Of course, while K.J. was automatically exempt as one of the top-10 players on the Official World Golf Ranking, Jay needed something close to a miracle just to make it out of sectionals. Playing in Littleton, Colo., the University of New Mexico product finished his day birdie-birdie-birdie, but only reached a playoff after Dustin White concluded his round with a pair of bogeys. On the second extra hole, Choi sank a downhill left-to-right birdie putt for another birdie to qualify for the Open -- whether he knew it or not.

"I didn't realize I was going to the U.S. Open until I picked the ball out of the hole," Choi said. "I wanted to scream, but I really couldn't. I was super-excited to get into the U.S. Open because this is the biggest tournament in the world."

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Ask Bobby Collins which NFL team he roots for and he'll say with a chuckle, "Houston Texans!"

Forgive him for jumping on the bandwagon recently, but he has good reason. Earlier this season, the longtime journeyman pro was planning to retire from life on the mini-tours, but the sometimes-caddie at famed Seminole GC played in the club's pro-am with Texans owner Bob McNair, who was impressed with the pro's talent and offered to serve as his sponsor.

"I couldn't financially do it anymore," said Collins, 35, who has a wife and two young sons. "Without him helping me out, I'd never be going to the Open."

The tournament will be the first official PGA Tour-sanctioned event of Collins' 14-year professional career that has seen more twists and turns than a triple-breaker on a sloped green.

He attended Wake Forest on an Arnold Palmer scholarship, played the then-Nike Tour in 1995 and '96 ("I lost to Stuart Appleby one year," he proudly points out) and was a member of the European Tour in 1998, though he only qualified to play in three events.

In particular, Collins remembers getting a call seven days prior to the Portuguese Open informing him that he was first alternate. He hopped a plane overseas, stuck around the tournament site … and never made the field, as nobody withdrew.

Since then, Collins has been back and forth between the Gateway and Golden Bear tours. That retirement talk? Well, it's on hold now, thanks to McNair. And Collins plans to pay him back in loyal support to the franchise.

"They're a new favorite," he said. "I'm very familiar with their team right now."

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As an assistant pro at Shinnecock Hills, which hosted the U.S. Open three times (1986, 1995, 2004) in the modern era, Jeff Bors gets a little bit of a lesson in the major championship every single day he comes to work.

"The course tests you on every shot," Bors, 33, said. "It's as good a test as any in golf."

Of course, there's more to getting prepared for the tournament than just playing golf.

"Everything that I'm around every day helps," he said. "We've got all sorts of memorabilia up. The chefs, the locker room attendants, guys who have been around the last three times it was at Shinnecock, they tell you, 'Do this, do that' when you're out there. Every little bit helps."

So, too, does working for head professional Jack Druga, whom Bors credits for helping him reach his first Open field.

"He'll tell me, 'Hey, sun comes up at 5. Go get in an hour and a half [of golf] before work,'" Bors said. "He knows we're working 12-, 14-hour days, but you've got to work for this if you want it to happen."

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Bob Gaus has been around the block in the game of golf. He's played the Nationwide Tour, is a five-time Gateway PGA Section Player of the Year and next week will compete in the U.S. Open for the first time since 1990.

And yet, he keeps coming back to one place over and over: The Tower Tee Family Golf & Recreation Center in Affton, Mo., where he serves as a teaching professional.

"I love it," Gaus, 47, said. "It's my home away from home."

It's a home that features a driving range, two big putting greens, a short game area, a putt-putt course, batting cages and an 18-hole par-3 track, where Gaus often gets in much of his practice.

"We can play it about three or four times a day," Gaus said of the course with holes that measure from 65-120 yards. "It's just great wedge work."

You think Tiger Woods is a dominant player? Chew on this: Gaus' best score on the course's front side occurred when he made par on the first hole then birdied the next eight, and he's carded at least one hole-in-one on every hole on the course.

Sure, he knows Torrey Pines won't exactly resemble Tower Tee, but Gaus is going into the Open with, well, an open mind.

"I know what I'm up against," he said. "It's not like I'm unrealistic, but you never know what could happen."

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A quarterback on the gridiron and a star on the baseball diamond, Brian Bergstol didn't even take up golf until his sophomore year at Bangor H.S. in Mount Bethel, Pa. ("I was way better at baseball," he said.) When he did, though, it didn't take long for him to make up for lost time.

By the end of his rookie season on the golf team, Bergstol was the No. 1 player. He was shooting in the mid-70s the next year and low-70s as a senior, but didn't have too many scholarship offers rolling in.

"I got good pretty quick," he remembered, "so I didn't have a big résumé."

He landed at Moravian College, a Division III school with an enrollment of 1,700 students in Bethlehem, Pa., much to the delight of coach John Makuvek.

"I've been coaching here for 41 years," Makuvek said, "and he's the best I've ever had. And I've had some good ones."

At Torrey Pines, the best ever from Moravian will get a feel for life on the PGA Tour for one week, at least -- but it's not necessarily a long-term goal.

"I want to make the tour," Bergstol said, "but I don't know if I'd like being on the road all the time."

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Andrew Dresser shot 67-66 at U.S. Open sectionals to make the field at Torrey Pines, but he knew something was still missing from his arsenal. So he went shopping.

"I just bought Tiger Woods 04 [the video game] because I know Torrey is on there," said the 2006 Texas Tech grad. "I went to GameStop and bought it for 5 bucks."

His rationale for road-testing the course in a virtual setting?

"There's really nowhere you can go practice for a course like that," he figured, "but I thought I could get a general idea of the layout and some of the holes."

But don't dismiss Dresser as just a gamer with no game. Last year, he competed in five Nationwide events, making the cut in four and finishing 21st or better in three of them. This year, he already owns a T-11 in Louisiana while playing full-time on the mini-tours.

And while playing Torrey Pines via a controller might be fun, he knows nothing will top the real thing.

"It's kind of like a dream come true," Dresser said. "You always dream about playing in the U.S. Open and it's finally happening. My game feels good, so I'm looking forward to it."

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Even though he grew up an hour and a half from Torrey Pines in Long Beach, Calif., even though he played junior golf in the southern part of the state, even though he was an All-American at Cal-Berkeley, Peter Tomasulo has never stepped foot on the grounds at Torrey Pines.

"I never played in a tournament there and greens fees were like $200, so that was never going to happen," said Tomasulo, who is in his fourth full season on the Nationwide Tour. As for attending the Buick Invitational as a spectator, "I never grew up going to golf tournaments. When I was a junior in high school, me and a buddy ditched school and snuck into the L.A. Open one time, but that's about it."

Tomasulo qualified through a sectional in Columbus, Ohio, where he earned medalist honors by five strokes after posting scores of 63-65. And yes, medalists really do get a medal.

"It's actually kind of cool," he said. "I'm not going to hang it on my wall or anything, but it's kind of cool."

Playing in his first career U.S. Open not too far from home? Even cooler.

"This one has been circled on my calendar for a while," Tomasulo said. "I've never wanted to play in an Open as badly as this one."

Jason Sobel covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com.