OAKMONT, Pa. — Sometimes at the U.S. Open, you get a local player or two who makes it through qualifying to get into the field, lives their brief dream and is gone by the weekend, having missed the cut by a mile.

No one knows what lies ahead Friday for Ryan McCormick and James Nicholas, two of the most decorated players from the New York Metropolitan Area who qualified into this week’s 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont.

But after Thursday’s opening round, damned if both of them aren’t in contention.

Nicholas — a 28-year-old native of Scarsdale, graduate of Yale, son of Dr. Stephen Nicholas, the longtime orthopedic surgeon for the Jets, and grandson of Dr. James Nicholas, who preceded Stephen with the Jets and happened to be Joe Namath’s orthopedist — is on the first page of the leaderboard.