It takes all kinds for U.S. Open hopefuls

Just wondering: Is Colin Montgomerie cool with 12-year-old Rico Hoey entering the U.S. Open? And what about 79-year-old Harris Moore Jr.?

Montgomerie got a wee bit huffy before last month's Masters, mostly because he did not qualify and Augusta National extended special invitations to Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, Liang Wen-Chong of China and Jeev Milkha Singh of India. All three stood below Montgomerie in the world rankings, but Augusta sought to stir interest in those players' homeland television markets.

The U.S. Open, set for June 12-15 at Torrey Pines in San Diego, is an altogether different beast: Hoey and Moore are not officially in the 156-player field. They simply were among the 8,390 people who submitted entries by last week's deadline, and now they must navigate qualifying rounds to earn a tee time at Torrey.

It's an entirely democratic method -- much as the Masters aura partly revolves around its cozy lineup (94 players this year), the Open annually lives up to its name in creating its bloated field. Any professional player -- and any amateur with a handicap index no higher than 1.4 -- can fill out the form and give it a whirl.

That leads to plenty of entertaining nuggets. Among them this year:

-- Hoey, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is the youngest player in the field. Moore, a pro from Los Angeles, is the oldest.

-- Keith Stone, a 39-year-old amateur from Massachusetts, beat the entry deadline by 56 seconds.

-- The USGA received entries from all 50 states and 68 foreign countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and Guatemala.

Local qualifying begins Monday throughout the nation with sectional qualifying set to start on June 2.

Also, NBC announced it will stretch coverage of this year's Open into prime time in the East, with the third round running until 10 p.m. (Eastern) and the final round until 6 p.m. (Eastern)

-- OCHOA'S QUEST: Lorena Ochoa will try to win her fifth consecutive start, this weekend at the LPGA Tour event outside Tulsa, Okla. Ochoa could match the tour record shared by Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05). Ochoa played four consecutive weeks, and won all four times, before skipping last week's event in Florida.

-- SUN DEVILS CHAMPS: Arizona State defeated USC in a one-hole playoff to win the men's Pac-10 championship Wednesday at the Meadow Club in Fairfax, Calif. Arizona's Creighton Honeck defeated UCLA's Kevin Chappell in a playoff to take the individual title.

(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick@sfchronicle.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)