- If a player who earned a place at Final Qualifying through Local Qualifying withdraws, the 1st Alternate from that same Qualifying Site will be contacted by the USGA to replace the withdrawn player. If the 1st Alternate declines, the 2nd Alternate from the same location will be contacted. If both Alternates decline, the USGA will repeat the process using the next site on the Reallotment List.
- NOTE: Locally exempt players who withdraw or no-show will not be replaced by local qualifying alternates. This change was first implemented in 2022. As a result of this change, 30 additional spots were offered at local qualifying for a total of 530 spots (previously 500).
- Local qualifying alternates are permitted to be on-site at a Final Qualifier; however, they will only be allowed to replace a local qualifier who withdraws or does not show up. If a local qualifier withdraws or does not show up, we will attempt to contact the alternates from that same qualifying site (as outlined above). If neither are available, we will consult the Reallotment List for the next available player. As noted above, a locally exempt player who withdraws or does not show up will not be replaced by a local qualifying alternate.
- The Reallotment List defines the order of qualifying sites used in the processes described above. It is created based on the mathematical difficulty of qualifying (i.e. number of players attempting to qualify vs. number of qualifying spots available).