Justin Hastings was the only amateur to make the cut at the US Open, but the Cayman Islands golfer won’t take home any prize money after a historic week at Oakmont

Justin Hastings missed out at the US Open despite making the cut(Image: Warren Little/Getty Images)

Justin Hastings has made history as the first golfer from the Cayman Islands to make the cut at the US Open. However, due to his amateur status in the sport, he left Oakmont Country Club without any financial gain.

Hastings was one of 15 amateur golfers who teed off at the major tournament this past weekend, and he was the only one to sneak past the 7-over cut line and compete in the final two rounds of the US Open.

The 21-year-old opened with three consecutive rounds of 73 in his first US Open start, and joined many other famous faces to struggle through the weather conditions at Oakmont over the weekend.

The tournament paused for a lengthy period on Sunday due to heavy rain, with golfers ordered off the fairways for a whopping one hour and 40 minutes. Following this, Hastings returned to the greens and ended up tied 55th overall after the final round.

The amateur finished the weekend at 15-over, above the likes of 2023 Open Championship winner Brian Harman, ex-Rookie of the Year Im Sung-Jae and Australian PGA star Cam Davis.

But while Hastings’ performance did earn him low amateur honours, he failed to cash in on his achievement.

Justin Hastings did receive low amateur honors, but no cash prize(Image: Warren Little/Getty Images)

US Open winner J.J. Spaun – who sank a 64-foot putt to claim his first major tournament win – collected 750 FedExCup points and a grand prize of £3.1million to add to his bank account.

But despite missing out on any potential financial gain, Hastings isn’t letting it dampen his spirits.

After impressing at the US Open, the young golfer said: “It was such a treat just to be able to play in the U.S. Open and then let alone have the success to be able to call yourself low amateur, it’s something I’ll hold onto for the rest of my life.

Justin Hastings had an impressive performance at the U.S. Open this weekend(Image: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

“I think I’ve said it coming off the course every day, there’s been a lot of good. There’s been a lot of good. Today I played a very similar round to the ones I did the first three days and just had no luck on the putting green.”

Discussing the biggest lesson learned at Oakmont, Hastings added: “I think it’s just a lot of reassuring things that I’ve known or thought about myself for a while, and that is that I can compete out here with my good golf game – when my golf game’s good is what I mean.

“Yeah, I think I was just reaffirmed that, when I have my golf game, I can kind of compete out here. That’s something I’m going to take with me in the future, and hopefully I’ll be out here sooner rather than later.”