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USGA CEO Mike Whan wants any golfer who's good enough to qualify to compete in the U.S. Open.
Yes, that includes everyone from LIV Golf.
Per U.S. Open tradition, players not exempt into the field must earn their spot through qualifying events. Anyone with a USGA Handicap Index of 0.4 or less can enter a local qualifier, advance to a 36-hole regional event and earn a spot. (Many top pros not already in the U.S. Open field are exempt from local qualifying and only need to advance via a 36-hole event.) Since 2004, the U.S. Open field has averaged 74.2 players who have advanced through one or both stages of qualifying.
Speaking with Sports Illustrated at Lancaster Country Club, host of the this year's U.S. Women’s Open from May 30–June 2, Whan said he’s proud of the USGA’s uninhibited embrace of LIV Tour players competing in the U.S. Open and continues to welcome them "with open arms."
“One of the advantages we have versus most other championships in golf is, a lot of other championships call themselves open but we are the most open, meaning half of the spots in the U.S. Open are not held and are going to be filled by qualifying players,” Whan said.
“There is a good chunk of LIV players and other major winners who are already in and have played since LIV started playing and we're proud of that. But there are a lot of great players on the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour, and the Asian Tours that aren't in either and they have to go play 36 holes and try to qualify.”
LIV players Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Martin Kaymer, Tyrrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk are exempt and expected to play in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort on June 13-16.
Former major champions and current LIV players Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell are among 35 players from LIV who will attempt to earn a spot in the field through final qualifying.
“We saw it last year, we had a pretty consequential amount of LIV players go to qualify,” Whan said. “We had players who went to qualify and got in and some went to qualify and didn't. The same will be true this year.”
One LIV player who isn’t attempting to qualify is Talor Gooch. He made waves ahead of the Masters by saying if Rory McIlroy were to have won the tournament to complete his career grand slam, “there’s just going to be an asterisk.” Gooch's reasoning was he and other LIV players weren’t in the field.
Gooch could have competed for a spot in the U.S. Open through qualifying. The USGA confirmed he did not enter and Gooch confirmed Thursday he will not attempt to qualify.
“When people talk about other majors, some of those majors are kind of full and the only way to get in is an invite,” Whan said. “In our case, half of our field is not only not full, it's wide open. If you're good enough to get in, we welcome you with open arms.”
If you don't have the patience to wait for all four rounds of a PGA Tour event to conclude to find out if you've won your bet, or if you just want to make watching the first round more exciting, than betting on who will be the first-round leader may be the move for you.
You can find my favorite full-tournament outright picks in my betting preview here, but in this article, we're going to focus on who's going to be leading after Thursday's opening round.
Collin Morikawa has been trending in the right direction lately, finishing T4 at the PGA Championship and then solo fourth at the Charles Schwab Challenge where he gained strokes in all four major areas. He struggled through February and March but now it seems like not only are his irons back in form, but his short game has been great as well. He has gained strokes on the greens in four of his last five starts in individual stroke play events.
Morikawa has also had plenty of success at Muirfield Village. He won the Workday Charity Open here in 2020 when the course hosted back-to-back events due to the COVID-19 schedule and then followed it up with a solo second finish here in 2021.
If we're going to bet on anyone to be the first-round leader, we need to look to see how they have scored in opening rounds this season and Morikawa passes that test with flying colors. Only Scottie Scheffler has a better Round 1 scoring average than Morikawa, who has an average opening round score of 68.08. That's by far his best average score amongst all four rounds.
He's averaging a score of 70.50 in Round 2, 69.70 in Round 3, and 71.00 in Round 4. That paints the clear picture that if you want to bet on the 27-year old, the time to do it is on Thursdays.
Pick: Collin Morikawa First Round Leader +1600
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
Last week: Jake Knapp won the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Notes: The tournament again leads off the Florida swing under a new name. Cognizant takes over as title sponsor of what previously was the Honda Classic. ... Rory McIlroy is playing to beef up his pre-Masters schedule. He last played the tournament in 2018. ... Six of the seven winners on the PGA Tour this year were outside the top 50 in the world ranking. The exception was Wyndham Clark, No. 10 when he won at Pebble Beach. ... This is the last tournament for the leading top 10 in the FedEx Cup and the leading five players in “swing category” to earn a spot in Bay Hill next week. ... Since turning pro after winning The American Express, U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap finished in last place at Pebble Beach and missed the cut at Riviera. He is in the field this week. ... NCAA champion Fred Biondi, who turned pro last year, received a sponsor exemption. ... The field features five of the top 25 in the world ranking.
Last week: Patty Tavatanakit won the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Notes: This is the second of three straight weeks in Asia. The HSBC Women’s World Championship dates to 2008 and typically gets a strong field. ... Jin Young Ko is going for her third straight title in Singapore. ... Lorena Ochoa set the course record of 268 in 2008, the inaugural year of the tournament. ... The field features eight of the top 10 in the women’s world ranking, missing only Nelly Korda and Charley Hull. ... Atthaya Thitikul, No. 11 in the world, has an injured left thumb and does not plan to return until the end of March. ... Former U.S. Women’s Open champion In Gee Chun is playing on a sponsor’s invitation. ... Minjee Lee is in the field, playing for the first time this year on the LPGA Tour. ... Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis has named Paula Creamer, Angela Stanford, Brittany Lincicome and Morgan Pressel as assistants for this year’s matches in Virginia.
Last tournament: Dustin Johnson won LIV Golf Las Vegas.
Notes: Brooks Koepka is going for his third straight LIV victory in Saudi Arabia. The tournament was played in the fall the last two seasons. ... Anthony Kim is expected to make his LIV debut as an individual. Kim has not competed anywhere since May 2012 at the Wells Fargo Championship. He is now 38. ... Dustin Johnson’s victory in Las Vegas makes him the first player to win in each of the three seasons of LIV Golf. Among those with a chance to match him this week are Koepka and Cameron Smith. ... Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Harold Varner III and Abraham Ancer have all won in Saudi Arabia outside the LIV Golf League. ... Jon Rahm’s new team is leading the standings after two events. ... Joaquin Niemann was the only LIV Golf player who received a special invitation to the Masters based on his European tour performances in the offseason. ... Patrick Reed is no longer among the top 100 in the world.
Last week: Darius van Driel won the Magical Kenya Open.
Notes: The tournament is co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour of South Africa. ... This is the second of three straight tournaments on the African continent. ... The field features only four players from the top 100 in the world. The highest-ranked player is Rikuya Hoshino, who is at No. 81. ... South Africa only has five players in the top 100 in the world. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who plays the PGA Tour, is the top-ranked South African at No. 59. ... Only two players from Nos. 126-200 in the FedEx Cup last year are in the field, Matthias Schwab and Jonas Blixt. Dylan Frittelli was in that category until winning earlier this year to get full European tour membership. ... Keita Nakajima, a former world No. 1 amateur, is in the field. He is eligible from winning the Japan Golf Tour money title last year. ... The tournament only became part of the European tour schedule last year.
Asian Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia: New Zealand Open, Millbrook GC (Coronet and Remarkables), Arrowtown, New Zealand. Defending champion: Brendan Jones. Online: https://asiantour.com/ and https://pga.org.au/.
