The USGA and the LIV Debate
As the LIV Golf Series continues to light hairs on fire among the professional golf organizations, United States Golf Association, CEO, Mike Whan held a press conference at Brookline, Massachusetts.
I personally think, Mike Whan is probably the most competent CEO the USGA has had in a long time and almost got me convinced to rejoin such organization.
That was until I listened to his press conference.
I liked the fact that he defended the right of those players who qualified to participate in the tournament.
After all, the U.S. Open is an “open” championship, meaning anybody who qualifies, and meets the USGA requirements, earns the right to play in it, regardless of if they are a LIV, PGA, DP World Tour, or just an amateur player.
During his press conference and addressing LIV, he was quoted as saying, “at the end of the day we ran this championship by asking ourselves, did those people (LIV players) disqualify themselves from the 2022 Open? And we believed the answer was no, and that’s the decision we made.”
About moving forward and LIV players. “It would be a lot of hypotheticals for me to get what LIV is going to be by the time we’re talking about this next year, but as we would any year, we’re going to definitely reevaluate field criteria. We would any year.” “We will take a look at what the landscape looks like.”
When asked if LIV players could be banned from future U.S. Opens, his reply was telling, as much as it was disappointing, “Yes.”
Here Mike Whan is absolutely wrong, and he knows it.
The U.S. Open is that an “open” championship. Anybody who meets the USGA criteria, be a professional or an amateur golfer, has the opportunity to attempt to qualify, and if fortunate enough to qualify, on to the tournament.
The USGA also offers a plethora of exempted categories in which players do not have to qualify at local venues.
To suggest he would consider banning LIV players from participating in the U.S. Open regardless of if they earned the right via exemption or qualifier, is contrary to the concept of what the U.S. Open is all about.
Keeping the best players who have earned a right to play our national championship from playing the tournament does not grow the game. The USGA should know better and act accordingly.
If not, then might as well rename the tournament and called it the U.S. Open Invitational.
Resources:
https://www.usopen.com/qualifying/exemptions.html
https://sportsempire.org/the-rules-to-qualify-for-the-us-open-golf-tournament/