The USGA has decided to host the 120th United States Open at Winged Foot Golf Club from September 17-20, 2020.
Today, they announced their exemption categories with some interesting changes to include one that will qualify certain players who otherwise would have not qualified. Phil Mickelson comes to mind, who is currently #66 in the World Golf Rankings and is not qualified to play the tournament.
The USGA knows better, so they changed the exemption from the usual top 60 to 70. I believe this was done to bring back Phil Mickelson to Winged Foot where he lost the opportunity at the 2006 U.S. Open title to eventual winner Geoff Ogilvy.
Is this fair? Not by a long shot. This is typical USGA money grubbing market value garbage.
What makes the United States Open Championship an “Open” championship is that is supposed to be opened for qualification to anyone who wishes to qualify if they meet the minimum requirements. Otherwise is nothing more than a tournament full of professionals and elite amateur players.
This was the rationale given by the USGA, which is poppycock.
“The decision to cancel local and final qualifying for this year’s U.S. Open was deeply disappointing, but we are pleased to still provide the world’s best professional and amateur players the opportunity to compete for this historic and coveted championship,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director, Championships”.
“The exemption categories for this year’s championship at Winged Foot Golf Club were carefully developed to mirror a representative U.S. Open field, and we are excited that players will still have an opportunity to earn a place in the field through a variety of categories.”
“A representative U.S. Open field”; is he kidding? This is nothing more than a PGA Tour event on steroids. A U.S. Open without local qualifiers is not an “Open Championship”. This is garbage and should be called out for exactly that.
Let us go back to the Phil Mickelson conundrum. Mickelson is currently #66 in the official World Golf Rankings as of the cutoff date of March 15, 2020. The USGA did not have to change this exemption category, but they did, in my opinion, to accommodate a player who would not have qualified otherwise. Were they afraid Mickelson would not accept a special exemption invitation? What if he didn’t? He did not earn the spot, is that simple.
Therefore, I am not a member of the USGA and will never be. I refuse to give my money to an organization who claims to care about the game, but instead is all about the money.
The USGA should have done the right thing and cancel the tournament until that time in which “Joe Q. Public” could locally qualify for the tournament. This is the spirit of an “Open Championship”.
The Open Championship, a.k.a. The British Open, understood this and the Royal & Ancient made the right decision by cancelling the tournament.
Once again, the USGA has made a bogey when they could have made an Ace.
https://www.usopen.com/content/us-open/2020/articles/exemptions-for-2020-u-s–open.html