Lake Minnetonka Resident Set to Tee Off at U.S. Open

A Lake Minnetonka golfer will be among the first to hit the links when the 112th U.S. Open tees off this Thursday at the Olympic Club outside of San Francisco.

Tim Herron, a graduate of and current resident of , will join Jeff Ogilvie and Stephen Ames in the 10th grouping and start his round on the back nine. The trio has a 7:44 a.m. scheduled tee time.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson will be the grouping in front of Herron and company. Herron will again join Ogilvie and Ames for the second round of this week's major championship. The three are scheduled to tee off Friday at 1:29 p.m.

Television coverage of the first two rounds begins at 11 a.m. on ESPN.

This will be Herron's 10th U.S. Open since turning pro in 1993. In 1999 the Lake Minnetonka resident finished 6th at Pinehurst, seven strokes behind champion Payne Stewart. Four months later Stewart died in an airplane accident.

Herron's best U.S. Open round came in 2004 at Shinnecock Hills when he shot a 66 in the second round. He went on to finish tied for 14th place—two strokes better than Tiger Woods and good enough for a $119,000 payday.

Herron qualified for this year's U.S. Open by placing second with a -10 during qualifying earlier this month at the Village Links of Glen Ellyn outside of Chicago.

Herron, 42, has racked up more than $325,000 in winnings this season. He has earned more than $1 million six times in his career and has raked in nearly $18 million during his 20-year career. He is currently ranked No. 256 in the world and 112th in the 2012 FedEx Cup Race.

Herron attended the University of New Mexico and turned pro in 1993. He has four PGA Tour victories on his resume, the last coming in 2006, and finished in the top-five three times during the 2011 season to go along with 14 in-the-money finishes out of 28 tournament entries. Most recently he shot a 67 in the third round of this year's Byron Nelson Championship.

Both Herron's father (1963) and grandfather (1934) played in U.S. Opens during their professional careers.

Lake Minnetonka Patch will have regular updates on Herron's play during the U.S. Open's first two rounds. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter