USGA will consider path for LIV Golf players into US Open
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USGA chief executive officer Mike Whan addresses the media during a press conference for the 2024 US Open.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PINEHURST – The United States Golf Association (USGA) will examine creating a path for LIV Golf players into the US Open in the next off-season, USGA chief Mike Whan said on June 12.
Saudi-backed LIV Golf, the upstart series that debuted in 2022 just ahead of that year’s US Open, has just 12 players in the field of 156 for this week’s US Open at Pinehurst Resort.
It would have been 13 but eighth-ranked Jon Rahm, a two-time Major winner, withdrew due to a left foot injury.
Whan was speaking on the sidelines of the tournament, where he addressed the issue of the world’s best golfers not being able to play against one another in the current situation.
Big-name players like Rahm, who departed the PGA Tour and joined LIV are suspended from PGA events, so they come together to compete only at Majors.
But LIV Golf events do not receive world-ranking points, so unless they are past Major winners, most LIV players – regardless of how good they are – have limited chances to play their way into Majors without special invitations.
“We’re going to talk about it this off-season, whether or not there needs to be a path for somebody performing really well on LIV who can get a chance to play in that way,” Whan said.
“I think we’re serious about that. Exactly what that looks like and how that’ll curtail... I’m not just being coy, we haven’t done that yet.”
The US Open already offers a place for the previous year’s developmental Korn Ferry Tour points leader and three spots for players from the previous DP World Tour Race to Dubai rankings.
“I think it’s feasible,” Whan added. “I don’t think it’s a huge pathway, but we do offer other pathways through DP or Korn Ferry, so we know that there’s an option to get there.”
LIV Golf’s financiers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and PGA Tour Enterprises, the tour’s new for-profit arm created in a deal with a consortium of US sports team owners, are making progress in merger talks that have dragged on for a year.
Tiger Woods, among negotiators at a meeting last week, said: “We all felt very positive. Both sides were looking at different ways to get to the endgame.”
The USGA is still waiting to see what comes out of those talks.
“Before we react – what’s LIV going to be? What’s the PGA Tour? We always felt like we’re just about to know that answer, so let’s figure that out,” Whan said. AFP, REUTERS
