In Bethesda, at the Congressional Country Club, there were numerous entries. For The United States Golf Association, it was difficult, but they managed to accept 8,300 entries.

The 111th US Open Champion which would be contested in June 16-19, have invited golfers from all 50 American states, 66 foreign countries and the District of Columbia. In contrast to this contest, the USGA received ample response. There are 752 shortlisted golfers, who have recorded their foreign address. With this massive number, the competition would be immense and most of the golfers would get a chance to prove their game, including the 65 fully exempted golfers, who got a chance to be a part of this list.

The 2010 champion, Graeme McDowell, including eight more golfers Tiger Woods, Geoff Ogilvy, Retief Goosen, Lucas Glover, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Michael Campbell and Angel Cabrera were completely exempted from qualifying process of the championship.

This time, the selection process was quite different than the traditional way. Online entries were accepted and amongst them, 135 entries were made at the last hour of deadline of 5 p.m. Herbie Aikens, from Kingston, Mass, was the first applicant to enter and Kevin Hayashi, from Hilo, Hawaii, was the last submitted entry.

The only criteria for a player to qualify was to be a professional golfer or have a USGA Handicap Index, which should not be higher than 1.4.

The first qualifying rounds would start from May 6, 2011, and would be played over 18 holes at 111 sites. The sectional qualification would be played over 18 holes.