USGA Hedging Bets on Whether LIV Golfers Will Be Allowed at Future U.S. Opens

With one word, United States Golf Association CEO Mike Whan sent reporters into a frenzy at a press conference this week at the U.S. Open.

Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA, on whether he can envision a scenario where it becomes more difficult for LIV Golf players to qualify for a U.S. Open in the future:

“Yes.”

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) June 15, 2022

Last week, the USGA announced that LIV Golf Invitational Series players would be eligible for the U.S. Open based on their qualifying rules despite golfers like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Kevin Na being indefinitely suspended from the PGA Tour.

But Whan was asked whether he could envision a day where that won’t be the case, and he answered, “Yes.”

He was asked to elaborate but didn’t provide many more details.

“The question was, ‘Could you envision a day where it would be harder for some folks doing different things to get into a US Open?’ I could. Will that be true? I don’t know but I can definitely foresee that day.”

“We’ve been doing this for 127 years… so we need to take a long-term view of this and see where these things go, so we’re not going to be a kneejerk reaction to what we do.”

He indicated that there were talks of disqualifying golfers for this year’s tournament, but with only a week to decide, they stuck to honoring the current qualification methods.

But if the USGA decides to change its policy for future events, it could have a domino effect on the other three majors. Each major is independent of the PGA Tour, but a decision by the USGA could influence the other sanctioning bodies.

Cover Image via Twitter