Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are welcome to play in the US Open next week, according to a USGA decision announced Tuesday, which puts the championship open before the player’s decision to play in a Saudi-funded rival league.
Mickelson and Johnson are among a dozen players at the LIV Golf Invitational this week who were released from the US Open on June 16-19 at The Country Club near Boston. Both said they plan to play the third major of the year.
Other US Open players who have registered for the new league include Sergio Garcia, Luis Osthuisen and Kevin Na.
“As for the players who can choose to play in London this week, we just asked ourselves the question – should a player who has won his way to the US Open 2022 through our published criteria be withdrawn from the field as a result of his decision to play in another event? And in the end, we decided they didn’t have to, “said USGA.
Not surprisingly, the US Open chose not to decline. The second oldest golf championship is proud of the open nature of its field with 156 people. None of the other four majors has criteria that force approximately 50% of the field to go through 36-hole qualifications.
“It’s one of the things that sets our Open apart from everyone else. And if you don’t believe it, look at what happened yesterday,” said Mike One, CEO of USGA, in a telephone interview.
He was referring to the 36-hole qualifiers for 49 seats, which took place in eight American cities and one in Canada. Three others have previously taken place in Texas, Japan and England.
Criticism of the new league, led by Greg Norman, began with the main source of funding, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, a country with a terrible human rights record, most notably the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoghi.
“I realize that people have strong points of view and they think there might have to be a moral clause,” Wang said. “As I told our team last night, with more than 9,300 US Open participants, if we decide what’s on their sleeve or bag or what tour they’re going to play, what we think is good and no, I’m not sure this round will stop. .
“We do not track personal beliefs and who finances them,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t care.”
The USGA said in a statement that whoever plays next week at Brookline should not assume that the organization supports an alternative tour or the actions and comments of a player.
“Rather, it’s just a response to whether the USGA is looking to play in an alternate event without the consent of their home tour, a violation that should disqualify them for the US Open.”
Johnson won a 10-year release from winning the US Open in 2016. Mickelson has a five-year release from winning the PGA Championship last year. Others, such as Na and Talor Gooch, were among the top 60 in the world.
Johnson and Oosthuizen are among those who have given up their PGA Tour membership. Mickelson may face discipline from the tour because he did not allow the exemptions to play LIV Golf Invitational. Exemptions are required under the terms of the PGA Tour.
If players are removed from the PGA Tour, this does not affect their position in the US Open, which is managed exclusively by the USGA. Wang said that does not change the relationship he has with the biggest tour in the world.
“We value their position as the strongest and most influential tour in the world,” he said. “Look who’s entering the US Open. They (the PGA Tour players) are the strongest representation and they should be. This is not about the PGA Tour. We have no illusions about how strong they are and the criteria on the pitch reflect that.”
It remains to be seen whether the criteria will change for US Open 2023 and beyond. Wang said that the criteria for the release of the US Open are constantly being reviewed and it is unknown what the LIV Golf Invitational series will look like next year or beyond.
“What this thing is now is different from what it was four months ago and what it will be in eight months,” Wang said. “It’s a bit of a moving goal. It would be inconsistent on our part to decide now what the criteria for next year look like.”
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